Modesto Bee Article
 Letter to the Editor

last updated: April 5, 2009

It was with disbelief that I learned of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service's intention to dissolve the Stanislaus Family Residency Medicine Program. This action is in direct conflict with the Obama administration's policy to improve health care access for all.

The program trains 27 resident physicians a year in primary care medicine and serves 70,000 Stanislaus County residents. Almost one-third of the program's graduates have stayed locally to care for our residents.

Please don't think that this situation doesn't involve you just because your doctor isn't a participant in the program. If the residency program is dismantled, as the CMS intends, those patients will seek care in our already overburdened emergency rooms. Please contact your federal representative to urge correction of this blight of bureaucracy.

ALAN YATES, M.D.

Stanislaus County Medical Society

Modesto