The CMA Board of Trustees on Friday approved the appointment of Deborah Winegard as CMA's new general counsel. Winegard, an attorney from Georgia with extensive health care experience, will assemble and lead a legal team at CMA's Sacramento headquarters.

We are very pleased to have someone of Deborah's high caliber and experience in health care advocating for the California Medical Association on behalf of patients and physicians, says CMA President Anmol S. Mahal, M.D. With her leadership, we will be able to continue the legal advocacy for which CMA is known, and we will undoubtedly achieve new heights.

Winegard began representing physicians in 1985 as an associate in the Atlanta office of the national law firm of King Spalding and has remained engaged in health policy issues on behalf of physicians for more than 20 years. She served three years as general counsel for the Medical Association of Georgia, where was also director of third-party payor advocacy. In her most recent position as the RICO settlement compliance dispute facilitator for Aetna and CIGNA, Winegard helped recover millions of dollars in compensation previously denied to physicians and effected payment and policy changes beneficial to physicians.

Winegard will begin her duties immediately. She is taking a job held for 21 years by Catherine Hanson, who is now vice president, Private Sector Advocacy and Advocacy Resource Center, at the American Medical Association in Chicago.

Contact: Sonja Oehler, 916/551-2022 or soehler@cmanet.org.