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CMA Media Relations
Karen Nikos 916-551-2069
Ned Wigglesworth 916-444-5532

SACRAMENTO – A study released today by the Center for California Health Workforce Studies at University of California, San Francisco, reveals that minority physicians are underrepresented in California, particularly among Latinos and African Americans.

The study also found that these physicians are more likely to practice in underserved communities and to enter primary care practice, two critical needs facing California’s health care system.

These findings highlight the problems that underserved communities must face when trying to obtain health care, and point strongly to the need to strengthen the state’s safety net programs like Medi-Cal, according to the California Medical Association.

“Every Californian deserves access to a doctor, and this study shows that particularly in some communities, we have a ways to go,” said Richard Frankenstein, M.D., president of the California Medical Association. “As we look at 10% cuts in our state’s Medi-Cal program, we face even further erosion of access to care for our most vulnerable patients.”

Concerned about the lack of reliable data on Californians’ ability to have access to doctors, the CMA sponsored Assembly Bill 1586 (Negrete McLeod), legislation that would require the Medical Board of California to collect data on ethnicity, hours spent in patient care, languages spoken, specialty and location upon renewal of a physician’s license every two years. Since the bill was enacted in 2001, this is the first report to come out of the data, but the Center intends to continue analyzing data in several categories.

The data collected by the Medical Board and revealed in the report also show that although there are over 100,000 physicians licensed to practice in California, only 62,000 are active in full-time patient care, echoing CMA’s long-held concerns about an overall physician supply problem in the state.

The CMA also has advocated for two more medical schools in the UC system at Merced and Riverside to help augment an undersupply of medical students and physicians in the state, a goal echoed in the report.

The report also includes in its recommendations an increase in incentives for physicians to work in underserved communities, such as the Steven M. Thompson Physician Loan Repayment Program. Senate Bill 1379, by Senator Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego, and pending before the legislature, would secure permanent funding for the program, which has been dependent primarily on private funds in the past. The program, named for the late Thompson, who was the CMA vice president of government relations, provides up to $105,000 in loan repayment to new physicians who agree to serve in an underserved area for at least three years.

The CMA is also seeking federal legislation that would revamp the Medicare Physician Scarcity Area (PSA) and the Health Care Professional Shortage Area programs to improve access to physicians in rural areas, particularly in Northern California and the Central Valley. A new payment structure could help retain current physicians in the programs and lay the groundwork to attract new physicians.

**CMA**

The UCSF study referenced above and the full report link can be found here