California congressmen introduce bills to address physician shortage Two important bills have been introduced in Congress to address our state’s serious physician shortage and improve access to care in California. The first bill, the Training the Next Generation of Primary Care Doctors Act of 2017 (HR 3394), would reauthorize for an additional three years the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education (GME) program that was established by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Teaching Health Center program is a community-based primary care physician training program that has been extremely successful in expanding the physician workforce in underserved areas. ... August 9, 2017 General Federal Legislation, Federal Legislative Advocacy , Graduate Medical Education, Physician Workforce, Primary Care, Rural Health, Underserved Communities 0 0 Comment Read More »
AMA introduces tool that allows physicians to pinpoint underserved patient care areas The American Medical Association (AMA) announced today that it was introducing a mapping tool that lets physicians see the distribution of physicians and nonphysician clinicians by specialty, state, county or metropolitan area. Called the Health Workforce Mapper, AMA believes the tool will be useful to physicians so they can identify the best locations to establish or expand a medical practice based on regional needs for access to care and the existing health care workforce. The tool can identify and prioritize underserved areas; create and display ratios of physicians and nonphysician clinicians to ... November 5, 2014 General American Medical Association, Rural Health, Underserved Communities, AMA 0 0 Comment Read More »
Medical board gives priority licensing review to physicians practicing in underserved areas The Medical Board of California will give priority review and processing of license applications to any physician who has received or accepted an offer of employment to work in an area of California designated as underserved. In order to be considered for this process, applicants need to submit the initial application forms, fingerprint cards (out-of-state applicants) or Live Scan (California applicants), application fees, primary source documents and supporting documents. Physicians also need to supply the additional documentation: An original signed and dated letter from the applicant to ... September 4, 2014 General Medical Board of California, Rural Health, Licensure 0 0 Comment Read More »
Congress passes California Medicare GPCI fix After 10 long years of lobbying efforts by the California Medical Association (CMA), Congress has finally passed a bill to update California's outdated Medicare localities. The long overdue fix will update California’s Medicare physician payment regions to the same Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) used to pay hospitals and raise payment levels for urban counties misclassified as rural, while holding remaining rural counties harmless from cuts. The MSAs used to determine payment rates for hospitals are continuously updated, so that reimbursement accurately reflects local costs to deliver care. The physician payment ... April 4, 2014 Medicare Rural Health, Geographic Practice Cost Index, GPCI, Medicare 0 0 Comment Read More »
Governor signs bill for Steve M. Thompson loan repayment program Governor Jerry Brown has signed a California Medical Association (CMA)-sponsored bill that will refine the eligibility criteria for a successful physician retention program, the Steven M. Thompson Physician Corps Loan Repayment Program. The program provides grants of up to $105,000 to physicians who agree to practice in medically-underserved areas of the state for at least three years. The program was created in 2002 under a bill sponsored by CMA. Since its inception, the program has awarded more than $17 million to over 220 individuals. Unfortunately, high demand for this program ... October 1, 2013 General Advocacy, Medical School Loans, Rural Health, Underserved Communities, Steven M. Thompson Loan Program, Young Physician 0 0 Comment Read More »
DHCS selects health plans for rural expansion of Medi-Cal managed care The Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) announced last week that it has selected four health plans to provide managed care services to approximately 410,000 Medi-Cal beneficiaries in 28 rural counties. The selections are contingent upon each plan meeting stringent readiness criteria. The California Legislature authorized, as part of last year's budget, the expansion of Medi-Cal managed care into rural fee-for-service counties, expanding Medi-Cal managed care program into all of California’s 58 counties. This expansion is part of the governor's plan to reduce costs in the Medi-Cal program. Under the expansion ... March 5, 2013 Medi-Cal California State Budget, Department of Health Care Services, Managed Care, Rural Health, Medi-Cal 0 0 Comment Read More »
