doc
Summer 2015 • Kentucky
This caused him to develop cold feet for
politics for a period, until he was asked to
run for the Senate in 2010. He and his wife
looked for counsel within their faith, and he
decided to run. He won the primary, but in
the general election, he ran out of T.V. advertising money. He lost that election to R.J.
Palmer, a Democrat. He was asked to run
again in 2012.
for physicians. He now feels himself fully
prepped for the next term in the Senate. He
has learned how his leadership operates,
and he feels that his experience was very
much like his first year of residency, which
was about learning how the processes in
the hospital worked in order to improve the
efficiency of his educational experience and
care of patients.
focus for his next Kentucky Senate term,
he told me it would be the Maintenance
of Certification Bill that he hopes to bring
forth, as he sees physicians being at risk of
having their Kentucky medical licensure
tied to whether or not they are completing
maintenance of certification. His goal is to
forestall this nexus through the legislative
process.
His greatest challenge came prior to winning
his first election. His wife was diagnosed
with breast cancer, and she underwent
reconstructive surgery and chemotherapy.
They both met the challenge, and he also
won his current position in the Kentucky
Senate.
I asked this physician citizen legislator how
he maintains balance in his life. Ralph is so
imbued with energy and passion that it begs
the question of whether he can balance as
many plates as he appears to be doing. He
has become very supportive of his wife and
her advocacy for all cancer, and particularly breast cancer, in women. He has great
physician partners in his medical practice
(one is a Republican, and the other is a
Democrat). When he is in the legislative session, his partners cover for him,
and then he covers their nursing home
patients on weekends when he returns
from Frankfort. He also has found
ways to assist himself financially that
do not require the continuous call
demands and structure of medical
practice. For instance, he is the state
medical director of the new Medicare
Advantage plans. He is still practicing
three clinic days weekly, and he makes
hospital rounds at St. Joseph East. He
attends rounds in the nursing home he
covers on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Overall, Dr. Alvarado presents a remarkable
picture of a family man of faith, as a passionate physician providing the best of pediatric
and internal medical care to his patients,
while improving the political health of physicians in Kentucky through his efforts in
our state legislature.
As a freshman senator, he has distinguished
himself as the first Hispanic person to serve
in either House of the Kentucky legislature.
Evidence of his political skills occurred
when he attended a caucus where Medicaid
insurance representatives were the speakers.
He publically debated with these persons,
and the room exploded in applause for his
skilled arguments. As a result, he was asked
to be the point on Senate Bill-6. He also
spoke in favor of Senate Bill-4 (the Informed
Consent Bill). Dr. Alvarado has become the
go-to-guy in the Senate on medical issues.
One of his future political goals is to
develop a plan wherein the governor will be
required to choose nominees presented by
the Kentucky Medical Association, to sit on
the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure.
(Currently, the governor can select entirely
physicians not selected by the Kentucky
medical profession to serve on the board
for the KBML if he chooses.) He also plans
to push for SB-83, which will require peer
review protection of physicians practicing
in hospitals. In addition, he will be working
on SB-87, which is the Fair Contracting Bill
Dr. Alvarado has become
the go-to-guy in the
Senate on medical issues.
He has had to reduce time demands
somewhat. For instance, when he was
elected to the Senate, he had to resign
himself from the Kentucky
Medical Association Board
of Trustees. When I
asked him what he
intended to have
as his major
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