Prakash Narain, MD * Rodney Borger, MD * Lucille Fostvedt, MD

The program that supplied bilingual physicians to the U.S. for 35 years is ending.

Patient safety organizations take on quality issues.

As part of its investigation into the health insurance industry's rescission practices, the Los Angeles City Attorney's office requested that Blue Cross substantiate claims in a press release that it had improved its rescission policies.

Unless California's budget deficit improves, Medi-Cal Cuts will likely go through.

You can get your share of fame in the media, but only if you learn to take a realistic approach.

Use these six tips to help maintain quality care and plan your business moves.

When we ask Los Angeles County Medical Association members and non-
members what they consider to be the most important activities that LACMA should engage in, we are consistently told that economic and legislative advocacy are the two highest priorities.

On Leap Day, the South Los Angeles Collaborative for Specialty Care Access met for the first time, deciding how to proceed in using a recently awarded $150,000 grant from Kaiser Permanente.

Our annual Legislative Leadership (Lobby) Day is right around the corner! If you haven't signed up to attend on Tuesday, April 15, please consider doing so right away. This is the annual trip to Sacramento to meet with our local legislators and this year is more important than ever.

The May OCMA General Membership meeting will feature keynote speaker Ardis D. Hoven, MD, who is an American Medical Association Trustee and Chair of the House of Delegates Specialty Allocation TAC, for AMA.

The nationally acclaimed conference Health Politics and Policies in an Election Year gathered thought leaders together to stimulate the audience about the business of healthcare and its political implications for the future. I share with you a few glimpses of the presentations and my interpretation of their messages.

The Network of Ethnic Physician Organizations is designed to identify strategies for building the capacity of ethnic physician organizations to reduce healthcare disparities.

The rational basis for all insurance is to spread the cost of services as widely as possible. This is especially true in healthcare, where the service needed is often not one which the individual can delay or do without. Thus, as a social obligation, everyone needs to be part of the system and share in the cost.

On Wednesday, February 27, Attorney Gregory Abrams addressed over 30 medical staff leaders, physicians and administrators from hospitals in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties.

CMA has a long-standing benefit for physicians and their family members or colleagues who may be having problems related to alcoholism, chemical dependency, mental illness or behavior.

The 20th Annual Western States Regional Conference on Physicians' Well-Being will be held on Wednesday, May 21 from 8 am to 5 pm at the University of California Riverside Extension Center.

In response to the old adage "work smarter, not harder, Tom Whitley writes in NetworkWorldFusion: "Trying to 'work smart, not hard' is extremely dangerous. Change the 'not' to 'and,' and you have a priceless gem of truth."

Join us at the Southern California Medical Museum Annual Open House, at 2 pm on Sunday, April 27, for a trip to the past.

Physicians and representatives from San Bernardino County hospitals attended the quarterly Medical Staff Forum on February 27, 2008 at the Inland Empire Conference Room in Riverside.

The Medical Leadership Council on Cultural Proficiency, including the San Bernardino County Medical Society, works to improve language access in healthcare and to increase the diversity and cultural proficiency of the state's healthcare workforce.

It's a no-brainer: Who wants to pay for non-performance?
But wait. Who's to say what's performance? Therein lies the rub.

James Slater, MD, followed a long path to get his Proton Research Center running.

More than one-third of all U.S. adults are obese--that's 72 million of us. With those types of numbers, it's an issue every physician should learn to handle.