PRESIDENT'S REPORT: Letter to Marin County Physicians

Jeffrey Stevenson, MD

To All Marin County Physicians:

Last fall, the Marin Medical Society joined with the California Medical Association and many other organizations throughout California in a coalition to defeat Proposition 46. The vote on November 4 was decisive: the proposition lost by 67% to 33%. MMS and CMA engaged in this campaign collectively, as one unified voice of medicine, representing the patients we so deeply care about.  

To ensure that California physicians continue to have a voice in the political process, our involvement in legislative advocacy is critical. MMS and CMA exert a powerful influence on health policy and public health issues at the local, state and national levels, and they invite all physicians to help identify needed changes. Please let us know if you have ideas for improving health care through legislation and policy, whether for increased reimbursements, broader coverage, reduced bureaucracy, improved work flow, or any other issue. If you are not a member, contact us anyway, and if you can, join us. MMS/CMA dues are just $91.25 per month. MMS and CMA have saved practices thousands of dollars a year in liability insurance premiums and additional thousands by defending reimbursements. You can submit the membership application form on page 32 or join MMS online at www.marinmedicalsociety.org.

For current members, have you renewed your membership for 2015? That renewal is well deserved. Thanks to your support, MMS and CMA can point to several significant accomplishments from the past year:

• Prop. 46 was defeated. CMA spent $8 million of its reserves and raised $52 million to protect MICRA.
• The GPCI inequity for Marin County was permanently resolved.
• A 10% Medi-Cal cut was held off for 3 years, ensuring the cut will not have to be repaid.
• Among many legislative victories, CMA advocacy kept optometrists from practicing ophthalmology.

In addition to legislative advocacy, MMS fosters collegiality by sponsoring seasonal dinners and informal receptions for local physicians. Also, the Society’s peer-reviewed quarterly magazine, Marin Medicine, focuses on relevant topics and features articles written by local physicians and other experts.

Call Rachel Pandolfi at 415-924-3891 if you need a copy of your dues invoice. She can answer your questions or handle payment over the phone.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey Stevenson, MD
MMS President