The Alameda-Contra Costa Medical Association (ACCMA) is a professional association of physicians who are committed to addressing health issues of concern to patients and doctors in the East Bay. Throughout its history the ACCMA has sought to improve public health, the quality of the practice of medicine and patients' access to care. ACCMA continues its tradition of leadership today by focusing on its core mission: empowering and organizing physicians to lead and improve the practice of medicine in order to better patients' lives and the community's health.
Members of the ACCMA are extremely proud of the Association's long and distinguished record of accomplishment. Here are just some of the major accomplishments that the ACCMA has achieved on behalf of doctors and their patients. 1860 Medical Association Formed On August 18, 1860, seven physicians met in the Alameda County Courthouse in San Leandro. Desiring to differentiate formally trained physicians from others of less training who also held themselves out to be physicians, they agreed to form a medical association comprised exclusively of physicians who had had graduated from “regular medical schools in the United States and Europe.” A week later, August 25th, the group met again and adopted a Constitution and Bylaws for “The Alameda County Medical Society.” Technically, the Association ceased to function during the Civil War years and met again in October, 1869, at which time it renewed organizational activities under the name the “Oakland Medical Association.” The following year it changed its name back to the Alameda County Medical Association (ACMA), and in 1871 the Association filed formal Articles of Incorporation. 1895 First Female President Sarah I. Shuey, M.D. served as the first female president of the ACCMA and, as near as can be determined from a nationwide survey of medical societies, she was the first president of any medical society in the nation. The second female president was Pauline Nusbaumer, who served in 1923 after serving in several leadership positions previously. 1932 ACMA "Part Pay" Plan After Alameda County restricted use of its facilities to only patients who met the strict definition of indigency, thereby leaving many low-income patients, with no source of medical care, the then ACMA created its first formal access to care program. Under the plan, members treated patients for reduced fees based on the patient's ability to pay. Read how this plan provided needed access to care for many Alameda County residents here. 1936 Created Health Plan, Becomes Blue Cross of California Striving to make medical care more affordable and increase access to care, the ACCMA led efforts with local hospitals to form the first medical-society created non-profit insurance company. It later became Blue Cross of California. Read about how the ACCMA overcame many difficulties to create this plan here.
1945 Created Blood Bank Recognizing the vital need to maintain an adequate supply of blood and blood products in the East Bay, the ACCMA assumed ownership and management of the fledgling Alta Bates Blood Bank and recreated it as the Blood Bank of the Alameda-Contra Costa Medical Association. An innovative blood credit system was created to encourage blood donations and ensure that an adequate supply of all blood types was available. The Blood Bank leadership also played a key role in establishing a reciprocal blood credit system throughout California and the nation to ensure access to blood for all patients. 1945 Guaranteed Medical Care for All Alameda County Citizens The ACCMA created three related programs, all nationwide firsts, to guarantee medical care to all patients:
For more information on these programs, click here and here.
1946 Created First Professional Liability Group Insurance Program The ACCMA created a medical society-sponsored group professional liability insurance plan that became the model for doctor-owned malpractice carriers. Underwritten by a commercial insurer, the plan established: an experience-based, transparent rate-setting process that aligned the interests of both the insurer and the insured physician; empowered medical society committees to review professional liability claims to ensure that non-meritorious claims were properly defended while also ensuring that patients who were victims of malpractice were compensated; utilized medical society committees to make underwriting decisions and apply the knowledge gained from reviewing claims to prevent malpractice cases; and created a robust loss-prevention program that effectively reduced exposure to malpractice litigation. Other local medical societies throughout Northern California joined this group plan.
1947 Issued Formal Recommendations for an Emergency Medical Care System Recognizing the need for a high quality and community-wide emergency medical care system, the Alameda County Medical Association issued recommendations to make that a reality. The recommendations included a definition of emergency care as being “…the application of the medical and surgical procedures necessary to save life or prevent serious complications from accident or disease…” They also called for standardized training of emergency transport personnel and development of geographically centralized facilities having a full complement of medical staff capable of handling any emergency medical condition. Most notably, the recommendations called for regionalized management and oversight of emergency care through a county-operated agency that would oversee the overlapping local authorities delivering emergency transport services. County officials at that time were not prepared to establish such an agency, but discussions about emergency care delivery started soon afterward between medical association leaders and medical leaders of Alameda County’s health system.
1954 Established Median Physician Fee List The ACCMA created the "Median Fee Plan," a statistical study of doctors' fees identifying the median fee in the community for individual physician services. The study helped health insurance companies in establishing more reasonable reimbursement policies, as well as project their costs. It also provided a guide for patients regarding the reasonableness of physicians' fees. The survey was updated annually, and the California Medical Association (CMA) encouraged all its component medical societies to adopt similar plans. It served as a precursor to CMA's development of the Relative Value Scale (RVS) in 1956, which established a statewide physician fee list. Insurance companies, self-insured groups, and patients applauded the program, as demonstrated in a February 10, 1955 editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle commended the ACCMA as follows:
"We congratulate the hardy originators of this new, frank approach to the improvement of the doctor-patient relationship and wish them ultimate victory for their plan in every county in the country."
Click here to see more details on this plan and the public praise it received.
1955 Formal Training for Emergency Care Personnel Responding to recommendations issued by the ACCMA that called for formalized training of emergency care personnel in the field, the Alameda County Health Officer contracted with the ACCMA to develop a training course for emergency personnel. The training program grew to include personnel from throughout the Western United States and the ACCMA conducted the program through 1982. For more details, click here.
1956 Disaster Planning Leader The ACCMA created "Disaster Planning for Medical Services," the first coordinated plan for mobilization of medical resources in natural and civil disasters, coordinated with civil defense officials, local government officials, law enforcement and emergency agencies, Red Cross, local health care facilities and many other agencies. As part of this plan, the ACCMA organized the first multi-casualty airport disaster drill, conducted at Oakland International Airport in 1971. Read more here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
1968 Formed First Physician Well-Being Committee The ACCMA established the first committee in the country to confidentially assist physicians impaired by alcoholism or other dependencies or problems.
1972 Created Retirement/Investment Plan The ACCMA created the first medical society-sponsored program to offer members economies of scale and security in their retirement- investment planning through a choice of portfolios tailored to achieve a broad spectrum of investment goals that were developed and managed by recognized stock market investment managers.
1975 Created Medical Insurance Exchange of California Drawing on its extensive experience from the group professional liability program started in 1946, the ACCMA responded to the "malpractice crisis" by establishing the first doctor-owned professional liability insurance company in California: Medical Insurance Exchange of California (MIEC). MIEC is considered one of the most stable and best run doctor-owned companies in the country. To learn more about how the ACCMA led the establishment of MIEC with other county medical societies, read “How MIEC Began in the Medical Liability Crisis of 1975.”
1983 Created East Bay Professional Review Organization Seeking to ensure that utilization review services are offered in accordance with medical standards in the community and are under physician direction, the ACCMA formed the East Bay Professional Review Organization (EBPRO). The EBPRO was governed jointly by a board of hospital representatives and physicians, and effectively marketed its services to major health plans throughout the state.
1984 Formed Foundation for Medical Care Responding to changes in state law permitting third party payers to contract directly with physicians, the ACCMA created the Foundation for Medical Care of the Alameda-Contra Costa Medical Association, a PPO-type organization formed to contract with insurance companies, self-insured groups and other health plans. Contrary to the philosophy expressed by many managed care programs at that time, The Foundation did not limit access to physicians and hospitals, yet it still remained competitive, and ensured appropriate physician input into medical policy and utilization review mechanisms.
1985 First African American President of the California Medical Association ACCMA member and Past President Clarence Avery, MD, was elected as the first African American President of the California Medical Association (CMA).
1989 Formed Medical Review Committee for County Jail Health Services When Alameda County voted to contract with an outside agency to provide medical services to inmates in the County jail system, as a public service the ACCMA created a committee to review the quality of medical care rendered by that agency. The Alameda County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution commending the ACCMA for this voluntary effort.
1989 Created ACCPAC The ACCMA formed ACCPAC as its local political action committee to support candidates and issues who share the values of the ACCMA and its members in improving the quality of health care.
1995 Created Claremont Medical Group Concern about the managed care industry prompted the ACCMA to create an Independent Practice Association (IPA) to be a competitive, physician-directed managed care organization which is responsive to the needs of patients and physicians.
1996 Formed Litigation Stress Program The ACCMA established the Litigation Stress Program, offering physicians and spouses confidential assistance to relieve the stress associated with malpractice litigation and other investigative proceedings where a physician's competence and/or conduct is being questioned. The program was established in recognition of the tremendous adverse impact such proceedings have on the health and welfare of physicians and their families.
1995 First African-American President of the AMA ACCMA member Lonnie Bristow, M.D. served as the first African-American president of the AMA. 1996 Created Credentials Verification Service The ACCMA created Credentials Verification Service (CVS) to relieve physicians and medical organizations from the onerous burdens of the credentials verification process. The goal was to centralize the process by creating one source for reliable and affordable credentials verification.
1998 Created Investment Advisory Service ACCMA Investment Advisors, Inc. was formed to provide investment services in a group program which offered economies of scale and reduced investment fees to assist members in reaching investment goals and planning for a comfortable retirement. 2002 Bay Area Preferred Physicians (BAPP) Along with eight other Bay Area Medical Societies the ACCMA helped form BAPP, a "Super Messenger Model" organization to assist members in contracting with PPOs. Prior to implementing BAPP, we were successful in getting an opinion letter from the FTC which was favorable regarding BAPP's business plan.
2004 First President of the ACCMA of Indian Origin Vin Sawhney, M.D. was the first physician of Indian Origin to be elceted president of the ACCMA.
2006 First President of the CMA of Indian Origin ACCMA member Anmol Mahal, M.D. was the first physician of Indian Origin to be elected president of the CMA.
2009 Helped Over 230 Members Recover More Than $12.4 Million When Medicare Stopped Paying Them When Medicare bungled the implementation of the National Provider Identifier (NPI), the ACCMA worked diligently to ensure that Medicare expeditiously resumed payments to physicians, getting millions in payments to East Bay physicians. The ACCMA met with top officials at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to bring this problem to quick resolution and has become a national leader on this issue.
2009 Organized Community to Promote Advance Care Planning Formed the Alameda-Contra Costa POLST Coalition, a coalition of community advocates for advance care planning and adoption of Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST) to ensure that patients' end-of-life care wishes are honored. In 2013 the ACCMA sponsored the formation of the East Bay Conversation Project, a broad coalition of community organizations promoting discussions and understanding of advance care planning.
2013 Created ACCMA Community Health Foundation Established 501c3 subsidiary charitable organization to facilitate ACCMA's involvement in community programs, including medical student scholarships, programs that promote and facilitate advanced care planning, and public health-related programs such as the Frank E. Staggers Sr., MD, Hypertension Project.
2015 Launched the East Bay Safe Prescribing Coalition The East Bay Safe Prescribing Coalition is a collaborative effort of the local medical community to promote the provision of appropriate pain management and reduce opioid misuse in the East Bay. The Coalition is co-sponsored by organizations that represent the local medical community: the ACCMA, the Hospital Council of Northern and Central California, the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency, Contra Costa Health Services and the Alameda Health Consortium. These organizations serve as the steering committee for the Coalition.
2017 Launched the Berkeley Physician Leadership Program The Berkeley Physician Leadership program is a joint effort between the ACCMA and the University of California at Berkeley to promote a physician-driven, physician-centered leadership skills development program that can help physicians better navigate the emerging health care landscape.
2019 Created the East Bay Clinician Wellness Consortium Collaborated with East Bay Health Workforce Partnership to bring together health systems, medical groups, hospitals, clinics and others to address clinician wellness, professional satisfaction, and burnout prevention.
2020 Helped Members Respond to Global COVID-19 Pandemic Launched numerous programs and services to help physicians, including distributing millions of dollars of PPE equipment to hundreds of independent private practices, developing webinars on telemedicine and reopening/sustaining medical practice, providing daily and weekly updates, accelerating our physician wellness programs, offering leadership during crisis training, advocating for science and public health and against the politicization of the pandemic, and coordinating regularly with local and state elected officials. The ACCMA also supported projects focused on providing infection control guidance and support to SNFs and other congregate care settings and advancing data-driven strategies to address racial and ethnic disparities.