A former disability insurance salesman shares some knowledge about protecting insurance benefits, gained by working with thousands of doctors.

Fascinating, fun and feel-good stuff from life in medicine.

Give back to your medical school by participating in the alumni association.

Wally Ghurabi, MD * Richard Haskell, MD * Steven Ross, MD * Richard Frankenstein, MD * John Patrick Johnson, MD

LACMA and CMA decry the damaging cuts to physician reimbursement. Top exec defends the rates.

South Los Angeles' Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital lost $200 million in annual federal funding in mid-August after it failed an inspection by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The hospital will close all inpatient services as soon as possible.

A bill that would halt Medicare's planned 10 percent reduction in reimbursement to doctors and extend the State Children's Health Insurance Program passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Aug. 1 and awaits a Senate vote. President George Bush has promised a veto. The bill would also compel the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to re-evaluate region-based reimbursement adjustments related to the program's geographic practice cost index.

Recommended vaccines for 11- and 12-year-olds can prevent diseases including HPV.

Researcher Asks: Do Childbearing, Surgical Residency Mix? * AMA Stands Up to HMO Giant

Female doctors have made progress lately in increasing their leadership, influence and sheer numbers in medicine. But more can be done to harness and highlight the unique contributions that women make in the field. As one female physician says, "Women are humanizing medicine just as it's becoming more technologically advanced and fragmented."

This is the second article in a two-part series examining key medical group contracts. The first article, which appeared in the August 2007 edition, focused on medical group buy-sell agreements.

A well-prepared employment agreement ensures that physicians and their groups understand what each expects of the other. Here are 10 key considerations.

Three professionals in the business deliver six nuggets of billing wisdom.

Where does the patient's personal responsibility end and physician babysitting begin? When do patients and families take responsibility and when do we stop blaming physicians for everything that goes awry in healthcare?

Aiming to influence how members of the U.S. Congress will vote on legislation affecting Medicare payments to physicians, Los Angeles County Medical Association members met with a congressman and staff members from three other legislators' offices as part of an effort led by the California Medical Association.

In July, the Los Angeles County Medical Association joined a new project designed to raise high school graduation rates by making education more relevant and more interesting to students. Led by ConnectEd: The California Center for College and Career, the initiative has participation from the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, the Alliance for a Better Community, Apple Inc. and 10 other groups.

The Los Angeles County Medical Association's summer election has given the group a new secretary, George Ma, MD. Dr. Ma is clear about his aims: easing the financial strain on primary care physicians and increasing membership among minority and younger doctors.

Physicians are constantly exposed to various types of stress. The definition of stress is the sequence of events that occur when perceived threats chemically activate the body's fight or flight response.

In November 2004, Proposition 63, the Mental Health Services Act, passed, putting a 1 percent tax on millionaires in California to fund the mental healthcare promised to communities when deinstitutionalization began more than 30 years ago.

As a handicapper, golfer and practicing physician, I take variables very seriously. They are the enticing emissions of possibility that spring from every difficult, soluble problem. Effective management of variables requires freedom, judgment, intuition and courage.

As an orthopedic surgeon and more-than-casual baseball fan, a June article in the American Journal of Orthopedics by Frank Jobe, MD, and Marilyn Pink, PhD, PT, titled "The Process of Progress in Medicine, Sports Medicine and Baseball Medicine," attracted my attention. Aside from detailing the specifics of orthopedic procedures, the article highlighted the increase in overuse injuries in our younger population. This ought to be of interest to physicians in general, especially primary care doctors and pediatricians, who often see these injuries initially.

Purnima Sharma, MD, of Hemet, an internist and chief of the Department of Medicine at Menifee Valley Medical Center, died June 27 of injuries suffered the same day in a head-on crash outside Jaipur, a northern India city of about 2.7 million.

Watch the mail for your invitation to the Riverside County Medical Association Fall Association Meeting and Annual Awards Presentation. The guest speaker is Joe Dunn, CEO and executive vice president of the California Medical Association.

Healthcare providers are advised to suspend administration of fluoride supplements.

I am thankful for and humbled by what women have taught me about personal and professional relationships. This includes cultivating an ability to remain objective in a crisis while still connecting personally to add meaning to the healthcare experience, regardless of the outcome.

In honor of Women in Medicine Month, the San Bernardino County Medical Society presents this historical view of female physicians, based on American Medical Association materials.

A class of students enrolled in the medical assistants program at Everest College in San Bernardino toured the Southern California Medical Museum on July 13. Pictured in the center rear is Thomas Gibson, MD, a member of the Historical Committee, who regularly serves as a docent for tours.

The only thing that may change the course of our future is our resistance to unsatisfactory contracts. The Borg from Star Trek said, "Resistance is futile." But I don't believe it is. Our strength comes from the fact that we are still the oil that makes the engine of healthcare go.

All Ventura County physicians are invited to attend the Ventura County Medical Association General Membership Dinner Meeting at the beautiful and historic Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Tuesday, Sept. 25.
Featured at the event is a president of another sort--Anmol Mahal, MD, president of the California Medical Association. Dr. Mahal will discuss the organization's latest advocacy efforts on behalf of physicians.

Doctors, lace up your track shoes and join the fun at the Relay for Life, a unique 24-hour event that increases cancer awareness while raising funds for American Cancer Society programs and services.

Robert Pugach, MD, advocates for physicians through organized medicine and for urology patients by cultivating innovative therapies.