As the Vice President for Health Care Access and Coverage at the California Medical Association, Janice Rocco says she’s primarily concerned with getting physician practices back up on their feet.
Many physician practices in the state continue to grapple with both staffing shortages and an increase in patient volume resulting from deferred care during the pandemic.
A simultaneous decrease in revenue and increase in cost for things like PPE and hiring staff are making it hard for these providers to stay afloat and keep up with demand, Rocco explains.
“We’ve done surveys of our membership, and we know that even at the end of 2021, we had the majority of physician practices had less staffing than they had pre-pandemic. And that’s at a time when they’re trying to help patients get their needed medical care that they may have forgone at some point earlier in the pandemic.”
Rocco discusses ways CMA has been trying to resolve this issue, including by working with the state to establish the CalVaxGrant program, which provides needed financial support to practices that provide the COVID-19 vaccine.