President's Page: Looking Back & Moving Forward December 5, 2023 From the President By Albert L. Brooks, MD ACCMA President It is my honor to serve as the next president of the ACCMA, following in the footsteps of a long line of outstanding physician leaders dating back over 154 years. Throughout the next year, I am excited to help lead ACCMA’s advocacy efforts, chief among them gaining voter momentum to ratify the Managed Care Organization (MCO) Tax. In 2023, CMA helped secure billions in new federal funding in Medi-Cal which, in turn, will substantially raise reimbursement rates for Medi-Cal providers. In 2024, CMA, ACCMA and others will be leading the charge to make the MCO tax permanent. In the coming year, there will continue to be many opportunities for members to get involved. From the 7th cohort of the Physician Leadership Program to social events in the community, to policymaking through ACCMA committees or the CMA House of Delegates, to accessing high-quality CME courses, I am excited about the year ahead. Leadership has always been an important theme in my career. After growing up in the Bronx and attending medical school and residency at Albert Einstein, I moved to California for a job at Kaiser Oakland and later went into private practice. I served as the Chairman of OB, and later as President of Alta Bates Medical Staff and on the Alta Bates Board of Directors. In 2004, I helped start the first OB Hospitalist program on the West Coast at Washington Hospital. While there, I served as Chief of Medical Services, President of Washington Township Medical Group, and CMO of Washington Township Medical Foundation. As a staunch advocate for increasing the number of African Americans and underrepresented minorities in medicine, I helped found Physicians Medical Forum, a 501 C3 nonprofit. Through our Doctors On Board program, we have assisted thousands of students in their journeys to become physicians over the past 13 years. I would like to extend a note of gratitude to our past leaders and my family, both of which I would not be in this position without. Thank you, Dr. Edmon Soliman, for your service and leadership as our ACCMA President over the past year; and thank you to my wife, Doti, and my two brilliant daughters, Nayo and Zenzile, for your ongoing love and support.