CPIL’s Administrative Director Bridget Gramme ’03 (JD), ’98 (BS) Quoted in San Diego Union Tribune
SAN DIEGO (June 25, 2021) – University of San Diego (USD) School of Law Center for Public Interest Law (CPIL), Administrative Director Bridget Gramme was quoted in an article in the San Diego Union-Tribune on the California Medical Association's (CMA) mobilization against the latest attempt to give the Medical Board of California (MBC) more money and power to investigate complaints against doctors.
CPIL has advocated for decades to reform the discipline system at MBC. Patient advocates and the legislature have attempted this year to give the board more money and power to investigate complaints of fraud, gross negligence, sexual misconduct, and other misbehavior. However, it is under attack from one of the most politically potent forces in California’s Capitol: doctors themselves.
According to the article, CMA is fighting the proposed hike on physicians’ licensing fees even though the board, which relies on those fees, is teetering on insolvency. It also beat back a proposal to put more non-physician members of the public on the board, which would have diminished the influence of the doctors who represent a majority. The article states, CMA is one of the most prolific campaign contributors in Sacramento and has given to Newsom and all but one of the 119 lawmakers currently serving in the state legislature.
Doctors “just don’t want to pay for it,” said Bridget Gramme, Administrative Director and Staff Attorney at CPIL at USD School of Law. “What is the money going for? It’s going for a stronger discipline system, which they don’t want.”
To read the full article by Samantha Young in the San Diego Union-Tribune, click here.
To read the story in Kaiser Health News, click here.
To read the article on Medscape, click here.
About Center for Public Interest Law
Founded in 1980, the University of San Diego School of Law’s Center for Public Interest Law (CPIL) serves as an academic center of research and advocacy in regulatory and public interest law. CPIL focuses its efforts on the study of an extremely powerful, yet often overlooked, level of government: state regulatory agencies. Under the supervision of experienced public interest attorneys and advocates, CPIL law student interns study California agencies that regulate business, professions, and trades.
CPIL publishes the California Regulatory Law Reporter, a unique legal journal that covers the activities and decisions of over 12 major California regulatory agencies.
In addition to its academic program, CPIL has an advocacy component. Center faculty, professional staff, and interns represent the interests of the unorganized and underrepresented in California’s legislature, courts, and regulatory agencies. CPIL attempts to make the regulatory functions of California government more efficient and visible by serving as a public monitor of state regulatory activity. The Center has been particularly active in reforming the state’s professional discipline systems for attorneys and physicians, and in advocating public interest reforms to the state’s open meetings and public records statutes.
About the University of San Diego School of Law
Each year, USD educates approximately 800 Juris Doctor and graduate law students from throughout the United States and around the world. The law school is best known for its offerings in the areas of business and corporate law, constitutional law, intellectual property, international and comparative law, public interest law and taxation.
USD School of Law is one of the 84 law schools elected to the Order of the Coif, a national honor society for law school graduates. The law school’s faculty is a strong group of outstanding scholars and teachers with national and international reputations and currently ranks 36th nationally among U.S. law faculties in scholarly impact and 22nd nationally in past-year faculty downloads on the Social Sciences Research Network (SSRN). The school is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. Founded in 1954, the law school is part of the University of San Diego, a private, independent, Roman Catholic university chartered in 1949.