Strong Medicine: Family Medicine's Fix for California's Fractured Health Care System
The absence of a health care system that supports cost-effective, coordinated, high-quality primary medical care for patients affects everyone in California. 

Strategies for Coding, Billing and Getting Paid Appropriately - 2nd Edition
CAFP recently produced the second edition of our popular coding monograph to assist family physicians with an essential component of your day-to-day existence: coding and billing for the services you provide. Coding appropriately and accurately is essential regardless of practice setting or size. All new codes and updated information for 2008 is available in this edition.

Understanding the Vital Link: Depression and Chronic Illness
CAFP's latest monograph: Understanding the Vital Link: Depression and Chronic Illness focuses on the co-morbidities seen with chronic illnesses, such as heart disease, pain, diabetes and depression. This EB-CME monograph is sponsored for 3 Prescribed credits.

Urine Drug Testing in Clinical Practice
This monograph is one of CAFP’s most frequently requested publications. It has been developed to assist primary care physicians in understanding and implementing urine drug testing programs in their offices. Download the monograph, read and review, then send in the evaluation and post-test for your CME credit.

• Urine Drug Testing Reference Card
  This handy reference card that accompanies the UDT monograph puts answers right at hand.

Medical Jargon and Clear Communications
Health literacy has been defined by the Partnership for Clear Health Communication as "the ability to read, understand, and act upon health information." While health literacy continues to receive significant attention these days, it is important to recognize that oral communication between doctors and patients can greatly contribute to a patient’s understanding of health information. Presented by Molina HealthCare and California Academy of Family Physicians.

Recognition and Management of Depression
Depression is commonly encountered in primary care settings, where the majority of patients seek help for depression. It was the principal reason for more than 10 million office visits in the United States during 2000 (up from 9.7 million in the previous 2 years), ahead of headache, nasal congestion, chest pain, and fever. It is often not recognized, however.

Diagnosing and Treating Medical Errors
Much has been written about medical errors since late 1999 when the Institute of Medicine published its watershed report, To Err is Human: Building a Better Health System. The well-publicized results of this study faulted America's health system for causing between 44,000 and 98,000 error-related deaths annually and called for improvements in the reporting and handling of medical errors.

Making the Most of Physician-Patient Email
Email is an important communications technology that about 30% of family physicians are using currently. It is a commonly accepted form of communication, and patients are increasingly expecting to have email access to their physicians.

FPs and Inpatient Care in the Era of Hospitalists
As market based health care reform progresses in the United States, family physicians are affected in new ways. One significant evolution is the use of inpatient admitting teams, commonly referred to as “hospitalists,” to care for hospitalized patients. The use of hospitalists is by no means a new phenomenon.

Family Physicians: The Logical Resource for our Evolving Health Care System
California’s health care system has undergone tremendous change. Rising health care costs during the ’70s and ’80s concerned public and private health care purchasers alike, and led to the emergence of a variety of practices known collectively as managed care.