CMA ON-CALL: CMA's Inormation-On-Demand Service
[Posted 03/03/05]

CMA ON-CALL is the California Medical Association's 24-hour information-on-demand for physicians. All CMA ON-CALL documents are available free to members ($2 per page for non-members). CMA members may access CMA ON-CALL documents on the web as follows:

1) Go to CMA's members-only website.

2) Enter your username and password. If you are a first-time visitor, you will need to register by clicking on the link inside the "Sign In" box. Fill in the three blank fields with:

• Your California medical license number. Make sure to leave out the zeroes in your license number (e.g., if your license number is "A00012345," enter "A12345")
• Your six-digit CMA ID number
• Your last name

Click "register." Next follow the prompts to personalize your username and password, and record this information for future use. Be sure to give us your preferred e-mail address when registering so that we can send you your username and password via e-mail should you misplace them.

3) Once in the Members' Section, click on CMA ON-CALL, in the main link menu on the left of your screen. To view the documents, you will need the Adobe Acrobat program. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat on your computer, you may download the program at the Adobe website.

4) You can search CMA ON-CALL in three ways:

• By document number: If you know the specific document you are searching for, enter the document number into the CMA ON-CALL search box. The search result will list that document as well as other pertinent documents. Click on the document title and number and follow the prompts to download the document.
• By keyword search: In the CMA ON-CALL search box, type a keyword search into the search box. When searching for two or more words, use "and" or "or" (e.g., needles or syringes, point and of and service). Do not use "and/or".
• By topic heading: To search by general topic headings, click on the CMA ON-CALL box. Topic headings, in most part, parallel the chapters included in CMA's California Physician's Legal Handbook. These include topics like "Managed Care," "Medical Board," and other familiar medical-legal terms. To see a list of documents by topic, simply select that topic.

Non-members may purchase CMA ON-CALL documents by visiting the CMA Bookstore.

If you have questions about CMA ON-CALL or how to access documents, please call CMA's Legal Information Line at 415-882-5144 or e-mail legalinfo@cmanet.org.