by Tim Gieseke, MD, CMD

On May 31, the California Department of Public Health released the above study.  This report follows the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) May 2011 report on Medicare Atypical Antipsychotic Drug Claims for Elderly Nursing Home Residents.  In that report, potentially inappropriate use of antipsychotics was defined as off-label use (FDA approval only for Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder) or use despite a black box warning (e.g.  Not indicated for Dementia).  Their review of prescribing from January 1 through June 30, 2007 found:

Kamal Kejriwal M.D. FAAFP, CMD
Geriatric Fellowship Associate Program Director at Kaiser Permanente, Fontana, CA

Please provide a brief background of your training and practice setting and years in practice.
I completed my Geriatric Fellowship from the University of Hawaii, Honolulu after completing my Family Practice residency from Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, Colton, CA. I am Board certified in Family Medicine. I have CAQ in Geriatric and Palliative Medicine. I am a certified medical director for last 8 years. This year I was also nominated as American Geriatrics Society Fellow for 2013. I am a SCPMG Geriatrician practicing for the last 10 years.

Please provide a brief background of your training and practice setting and years in practice.
I have had a practice in Internal Medicine, Geriatrics and Hospice, and Palliative Care for over 25 years. For over 20 years my clinical practice encompassed hospital work, clinic, nursing home and home settings. In addition to clinical training, I completed an MPH in quality improvement, a fellowship in ethics, a fellowship in healthcare leadership and I completed my Certified Medical Director (CMD) training. For the past 5 years I have worked with United Healthcare and Optum as a regional medical director for Medicare programs and national medical director for Hospice and Palliative Care.

by Mira Cantrell, MD

First of all, I would like to thank all two hundred CALTCM members who took time out of their busy schedules to attend the 38th Annual CALTCM conference held May 11 and 12 at the Omni Hotel in Los Angeles. I greatly appreciate your attendance, interest, active participation and your feedback that made the conference a success and will help us plan our future conferences. It also gives me a great pleasure to thank all members of the CALTCM Education Committee and our administrative staff for their hard work, enthusiasm and resourcefulness in organizing and executing this year’s conference.

By all accounts, the conference was very successful. The attendees appreciated the presentation of the most up-to-date topics, the format and the pace of the conference, and, most importantly, they told us that the topics had great relevance for their daily practice.  The poster session was received with great interest as well and it was a wonderful forum for the exchange of thoughts and ideas.