Historic Events to Continue as We Head into 2015

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2014 Recap & Message from the President

Dear Members and Non-Members,

The last twelve months have been a landmark period for CUA.  From major legislative victories (SB1215) and strategic alliances protecting MICRA to the completion of the California Urology Alliance, our work on your behalf continues at many levels.  Hopefully you have kept up with prior newsletters and email alerts.

The annual meeting in Maui this past October launched the first ever CUA course focused on the issue of workplace violence, threat awareness, prevention, and response. Under the direction of past-president, Dr. Eugene Rhee, an expert panel featuring William Schiff, M.D. (Fresno) and Sheldon H. F. Marks, M.D. (Tucson) discussed recent acts of violence targeted at urologists and ways to mitigate risks for these events via appropriate de-escalation techniques, policies and procedures that meet compliance standards. With over 90 in attendance, the course received high marks on the evaluations. Request the course book here.

The Maui meeting completed our goal to create the California Urology Alliance. The purpose of this alliance is to set-up a low-cost chapter framework to facilitate a statewide network of local county-societies. This in turn will serve to increase our political clout, strengthen our advocacy efforts and rapid response resources. Joining the alliance so far are the Orange County, Los Angeles and San Diego County chapters. We hope to add other regions such as central and northern California and ask anyone wishing to form a chapter in those regions to contact the CUA admin office.

Also for those of you who attended the sessions (during the Western Section Maui meeting)  that provided X-Ray credits  for the state mandated 10 CEU, you should be receiving an email with your certificates very soon. Please contact the office with any questions via email at info@cuanet.org.

In case you missed it, here is the link to the results of the 2014 Health Policy Survey. I believe you will find the graphs and related comments very enlightening.

As we approach 2015, I reflect on the scope of accomplishments we have made this past year as a result of the support of our members, officers, volunteers, and staff. Together we have forged the CUA into a responsive and highly respected state specialty organization. At the CMA, we Urologists have among the highest membership representation among all specialties. We are increasingly the “go-to” organization for the media, state regulators, Sacramento politicians, and insurers when they need an authoritative opinion or voice from urology in California.

No matter what impacts us in 2015, your CUA leadership will remain vigilant in our watchdog role and deploy resources responsibly and judiciously. We will continue to fortify our ability to protect and advocate for our patients and the urology practice.

Lastly, we wish to congratulate CUA member, Dr. Peter N. Bretan, Jr. (Marin County), who recently received the American Medical Association’s “Benjamin Rush Award for Citizenship and Community Service”. The award recognizes physicians who have gone above and beyond their professional call of duty to make an outstanding public service contribution. Additionally, Dr. Bretan has officially placed his campaign card down for CMA’s President’s Elect Position to be voted on this coming October 2015 at the CMA’s HOD.  As many of you know, Peter is a huge advocate of urology and the CUA enthusiastically endorses his campaign.

On behalf of all the officers, Drs. Aaron Spitz, Mathew Cooperberg, Eugene Rhee and staff, we thank you for your continued support and we wish you and your loved ones a new year filled with good health,  prosperity and happiness.

As always, your feedback and/or suggestions are welcome. Please feel free to contact me at feedback@cuanet.org.

Sincerely,
David Benjamin, MD
President

If you are not yet a CUA member, I ask, not if, but when, will you decide it is time to join? The $150/year dues may be the cheapest form of practice insurance you can get.
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