By Stuart A. Bussey, MD, JD, UAPD President
 

We can all agree that 2017 was a memorable year-both outside and inside of our union. Donald Trump was sworn in as our 45th president and has used an executive style from his TV show “The Apprentice”. This year global warming became all too real.   Drought, fire and hurricanes spread around the world. Senseless mass shootings continued. Sexual harassment cases abounded.  But…there were also bright spots in 2017.  Unemployment reached an all time low and our economy is booming. Scientific and technology breakthroughs surprise us daily.  A high school senior in Texas bought his special needs classmates new shoes.   A customer in Washington left a $3000 tip for his $39 dinner.  A 5 year old from Mississippi called 911 to arrest the Grinch.  An ophthalmologist in Michigan carried his elderly patient through the snow to his office. The human spirit continues to amaze.

2017 also saw lots of changes and successes at UAPD. In February, after 35 bargaining sessions, UAPD reached an agreement with the State of California and ratified a new MOU.  While the general salary increases were moderate, we scored significant pensionable salary adjustments for hundreds of our members.  This was due in no small part to the strike ratification vote we took in January.  There were many other developments in the state sector which UAPD met with skill and tenacity—“lift and shift” of our DSH psychiatrists to CDCR, telehealth policy changes, ensuring laptops are optional on call, creating research to support the legal case for higher physician salaries, protecting Medical Consultant scope of practice, fighting timekeeping and retaliation issues, and, of course, member grievances.  We also fought against gender discrimination at CSU, contracting out and bullying at our UC clinics.

Read more …

By Stuart A. Bussey, MD, JD, UAPD President

Two seemingly unconnected events last Thursday remind us that we live in a progressive, independent-minded state. First, the California Senate passed SB 562 (Lara/D), the Healthy California single-payer bill. This bill purports to solve our state’s health care access problem, which has been partially relieved by the ACA and is now threatened by the new AHCA bill. The California Assembly is preparing for the weighty debate on how exactly to pay for SB 562’s universal coverage. Cost estimates range from $330 billion/year (UMass study) to $400 billion/year (legislative analysis). These figures are comparable to the 2016 estimate of California’s health care cost of $370 billion. Much of this money would be available as repurposed Medicare and Medi-Cal money — and the Feds would have to agree. The State, under Healthy California, would take on the role of single insurer. The plan would be governed by a nine member board of experts who would authorize payments to hospitals, doctors, ancillaries and pharmaceutical firms in a hybridized and collectively bargained fee-for-service paradigm. The collective bargaining part of the bill could elevate UAPD as a preeminent representative of many of California’s providers. Physicians probably would be working at discounted rates of reimbursements, but they would at least be paid promptly and by one entity (the State). They would not have to play tiresome reimbursement and authorization games with dozens of profit-motivated insurance companies. Doctors should spend less time billing and more time with their patients.
Read more …