Po-Yin Samuel Huang, MD
President
Dear family medicine friends: Hope your summer is going well so far. As we face wave after wave of pandemic and newer threats on the horizon, it can feel overwhelming and never ending. It is important to take a step back and remember our original motivation to pursue family medicine. May those thoughts bring the energy you need to carry on facing new challenges in our profession. Let me share two of the major challenges we face here in Los Angeles.
In addition to the unrelenting COVID-19 virus, we are faced with the spread of another troublesome pathogen: the monkeypox, which is recently declared a public health emergency here in the United States. Hundreds of cases have been diagnosed in LA County, especially among our LGBTQ patients. While not as deadly as the infamous smallpox, this disease can still bring significant suffering to those affected. Fortunately, vaccine is available and is already being administered for those most vulnerable. Our AAFP has a dedicated webpage with trustworthy, user friendly information to help us face this new challenge: https://www.aafp.org/family-physician/patient-care/current-hot-topics/recent-outbreaks/monkeypox.html. Please share this information with your colleagues and friends, we can all be better prepared to deal with this new threat. Please also refer to our local LA County Public Health website for the most up to date local information: http://ph.lacounty.gov/media/Monkeypox/data/index.htm.
On the policy front, we are also faced with a new challenge here locally in the form of a new minimum wage for some healthcare workers in Los Angeles. A new ordinance recently approved by the LA City Council and signed by the mayor raised the minimum wage of some healthcare workers to $25 per hour to take effect on August 13, 2022. Here is the full text of the ordinance: https://wagesla.lacity.org/sites/g/files/wph1941/files/2022-07/Healthcare%20Workers%20Minimum%20Wage%20Ordinance.pdf. This ordinance defines healthcare workers very broadly to include everyone working in a healthcare facility including janitors and clerical workers and many more. However, there are also notable exclusions for workers at county hospitals, Planned Parenthood, FQHC’s, and UC hospitals, who will not be required to be paid this minimum wage. This may lead to significant inequities and cause some talents to shift away from those areas exempt from this raise, which often serves the most vulnerable of our population. At the same time, this increased minimum wage will inevitably cause increased burden to many physician practices that have to now scramble to come up with resources to pay their employees a much higher wage than budgeted. There is an active campaign against this and many other similar ordinances here in Southern California sponsored by the California Association of Hospitals and Health Systems. Please refer to this website for more information: https://la.nounequalpay.com/
Hope you find these updates helpful. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns. Wishing you a great rest of the summer and hope to see many of you at our upcoming annual meeting!
