Ask Not What You Can Do for SMCMA, 

Ask What SMCMA Can Do for You

By Barry B. Sheppard, M.D.

Greetings to both members and nonmembers of the San Mateo County Medical Association. Every year we send one edition of the Bulletin to the entire roster of physicians who we have listed in the county, instead of just to the Association’s member physicians. This,  of course, is done in the hope that our monthly publication might stimulate an interest among some of our wayward brethren to join the fold.

I thought it apropos that this issue provide insight into the activities and services that SMCMA and CMA busy themselves with, to give at least a partial answer to the ubiquitous question that arises at the time of the annual membership drive: “Boy this is a lot of money . . . what does the Medical Association do for me?”

For starters, there is the defense of MICRA. Unlike the rest of the country, California physicians are not reeling from the financial impact of maintaining adequate malpractice insurance (see article, Page 12). MICRA has proven to be an effective reform measure that modulates insurance rates and protects access to medical care for Californians. Bills arise in the Legislature and propositions qualify for the ballot on virtually an annual basis aimed at weakening or destroying MICRA, frequently camouflaged as innocuous measures and always with the full backing of the trial lawyers. CMA and SMCMA aggressively fend off these attacks thereby saving the average California physician tens of thousands of dollars annually.

The ongoing RICO lawsuit in Miami was in part initiated by and is currently being co-litigated by CMA and has already resulted in two major settlements. Although the individual physician reimbursements are by no measure a windfall, the settlements additionally set up foundations that will likely have a significant role in offsetting the daunting financial impact of modernization faced by solo and small-group physician practices. In a separate action, CMA on its own filed a class-action lawsuit against Blue Cross, which also has resulted in a favorable settlement for physicians.

It was only through the tireless advocacy by county and state medical associations in concert with the AMA that the cut in Medicare reimbursement that was mandated by law to occur this year was changed to an increase. Also this past year SMCMA and seven other Bay Area county medical associations birthed the Bay Area Preferred Physician organization, a messenger model PPO contracting program aimed at easing the burden of maintaining and obtaining PPO contracts with third-party payers.

Our Medical Association provides a means of nonpartisan physician review of difficult malpractice cases for NORCAL, providing invaluable information concerning the defensibility of problematic cases and serving as an educational tool for participating physicians.

The Medical Association is the voice for physician and patient advocacy at the local, state, and national level. It provides opportunities for social interaction in a time of diminishing professional camaraderie. It serves as an information and referral source to the public regarding member physicians.

Our publications include the Bulletin, which allows those of us who are curmudgeon-prone a means to vent; the News, which is a fact-filled monthly newsletter very ably written by our executive director for the membership; and the Directory, which provides not only telephone and E-mail addresses but also provides faces for the names, helpful even if the picture was taken the first year the member opened a practice in San Mateo County.