In this episode of PAC & Forth, we’re joined by Dr. Lamia Gabal, board-certified urologist, founder of Prestige Medical Group, and PAC board member, for one of our most honest and human conversations yet.

Dr. Gabal shares:

• Her family’s immigrant journey and how it shaped her drive as a physician and entrepreneur
• Why she chose private practice and why so many doctors no longer can
• The hidden administrative and financial pressures squeezing independent physicians
• How insurance practices like downcoding and prior authorization delay care and raise costs
• Why autonomy in medicine is about doing what’s right for patients
• What it’s really like being a woman building a business in a male-dominated specialty
  This episode blends policy, practice, and personal experience, from the exam room to the Capitol, and makes clear what’s at stake if independent medicine disappears.

If you care about patient choice, physician leadership, and preserving a healthcare system that values relationships over volume, this is a must-listen.

Tune in to hear why independence still matters.

In this episode of PAC & Forth, we sit down with Assemblymember Damon Connolly, author of AB 2457, PAC-sponsored legislation that builds on last year’s credentialing reform by extending it to Medi-Cal managed care plans.

This conversation gets into:

• Why AB 2457 is the logical next step after AB 1041
• How credentialing delays create real barriers to care in rural and underserved communities
• Why physician shortages and reimbursement challenges hit Medi-Cal patients especially hard
• How Sacramento is thinking about health care access amid federal funding threats
• What lawmakers need to hear from physicians to move policy across the finish line
• Why fixing administrative bottlenecks can be one of the most practical ways to improve care

Tune in to hear a broader conversation about access, affordability, and whether California can keep moving forward on health care at a moment of real uncertainty.

In this episode of PAC & Forth, we break down AB 1041, PAC’s first sponsored legislation, and the real-world problem it was designed to solve: broken, slow, and inconsistent provider credentialing that delays patient access to care.

Joining us are Dr. Join Luh, radiation oncologist in Eureka, and Flo Di Benedetto, PAC’s General Counsel and former Chief Legal Officer at Sutter Health. Together, they unpack how credentialing delays were impacting independent physicians and why reform was long overdue.

This conversation explores:

• How credentialing delays of 6–12 months kept physicians from seeing patients
• Why independent doctors were disproportionately burdened
• What AB 1041 changes, including clear timelines and provisional approvals
• What physicians must do now to stay compliant and take full advantage of the reform

Learn about access to care, workforce shortages, and making sure red tape doesn’t stand between patients and treatment.