Gyn, Infertility & Natural Hormones
New Patient
Procedure Description:
New Patient
What To Expect:
Call
our office for a new patient appointment. We can Fax you the 3 pages to
fill out before you get to the office so that you don't have to take
time to do that when you get there. Also, you can, if you desire, make
a copy of your insurance card (front and back) and Fax it to us so that
we can take the time then to verify your insurance plan. We do not
accept HealthNet nor new MediCare.
RaeAnne - Office Manager
Ruth - Business Manager
Karla - Front Office
Lana - Back Office
Breast Cancer Team-2000
Our philosophy includes giving back to the community. We sponsor many events for schools, cities and causes. Our annual event, the day before Mother's Day, is the Revlon Run Walk for Women (Breast & Ovarian Cancer Research). Here is a recent picture including some of the patients who came! Goto the bottom of our homepage and click on the "Misc." category, "Revlon Run/Walk" for more details.
Breast Cancer Team-2001
Please come join our team of family, friends & patients! We are Team #28 - Dr. Ian Taras, Ob/Gyn (under "D" for "Dr."). Goto the bottom of our homepage and click on the "Misc." category, "Revlon Run/Walk" for more details.
Breast Cancer Team-2002
Our philosophy includes giving back to the community. We sponsor many events for schools, cities and causes. Our annual event, the day before Mother's Day, is the Revlon Run Walk for Women (Breast & Ovarian Cancer Research). Here is a recent picture including some of the patients who came! Goto the bottom of our homepage and click on the "Misc." category, "Revlon Run/Walk" for more details. You can donate to the cause or maybe next year you can join us... we are Team #28, "Dr. Ian Taras, Ob/Gyn" every year. This year we had 64 people and rented a bus!
Breast Cancer Team T-Shirt-2002
Maybe Tie-Dye next year?
Breast Cancer Team -2003
Breast Cancer Team -2004
Revlon Run/Walk-On The Bus 2004
Taras Quits OB as of 7/1/06
Dear Patients, Colleagues, Friends & Family: October, 2005
As of 7/1/06 I will no longer be delivering babies! I know that many, in this fast-paced world, prefer to know how the movie is going to end before they even begin watching it, and so for you, you may now delete this e-mail. For those of you who want more, please continue to read on.
That 1st sentence is going to be painful to some, but none more than me! I know that many have relied on me and that special patient-doctor bond has kept me going. I like helping and have spent my life trying to avert hurting so to know that something I am doing is causing you pain, pains me more. I believe I was darn good at my OB (obstetric) skills and it also pains me to know that a skill set that was passed down from my father as well as my mentors (you know who you are) will cease to bear fruit. This was a painful internal struggle, but ultimately it was the objective that won over the subjective.
Though there are many factors behind this decision including family, I could not start anywhere else but with medical malpractice liability insurance premiums; they are out of control! In the early & mid 1970s physicians went out on strike because of a similar crisis and in California they came up with a cap of $250,000 that could be awarded in a court case for pain and suffering, with as much as was needed being awarded for past, current and future medical and other needs. This was called M.I.C.R.A. It is M.I.C.R.A. that is somewhat protecting our current rates in this state, and is what is needed in other states. While just my medical malpractice annual premiums have gone from $40,000 to over $65,000 in the last few years, with no end in sight, my ?brothers and sisters? who practice OB in Nevada, New York, Florida and other 20 other states have premiums over $180,000 or sadly go without insurance or stop practicing OB altogether.
A national discussion is needed. President Bush?s legislative reform proposals, to address the medical liability crisis, are available online: http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/medicalliability. This is not meant to endorse or condemn President Bush, but rather to keep this above the political fray and realize that in order for tort and insurance reform to succeed it will need to be discussed at this high level with grass roots support. There is a new national organization, Common Good: Restoring Common Sense to American Law, www.CGood.org which is trying to tackle the issue. Americans today are afraid the law won't protect sensible decisions. Doctors practice defensively instead of using their professional judgment. Teachers cannot maintain order in their classrooms, or even put an arm around a crying child, and leaders from across the aisle are coming together to fight this head on. ACOG (American College of Ob/Gyns) have been fighting this battle with a campaign called, ?Who is going to deliver my baby?? A medical liability survey reaffirms that more Ob-Gyns are quitting obstetrics can be found at http://www.acog.org/from_home/publications/press_releases/nr07-16-04.cfm.
Though it is the malpractice premiums that put a dagger through my finances it was my family that put a dagger through my heart and actually got me thinking about this. A year ago, we went on a summer vacation down to San Diego. For a whole week I was away from my pager, though my wife will point out that I continued to check in with my office at least daily and was doing the same with my SECURE patient e-mails. There was the S.D. Padres baseball game, Sea World, S.D. Zoo, Legoland & S.D. Wild Animal Park amongst other things that were family fun activities. On the drive back home, I asked Ruth, Madelynn & Danny what was their favorite part. My nearly 6 year old son Danny (going on 26), said, ?Being with you, Dad!? That nearly caused me to swerve off the road as the tears muddled my vision of the road. Please, don?t get me wrong, everyone (I hope) wants to spend more time with their family, and I know that I do not have a unique situation. The never being able to commit to anything and always running late because you were a slave to that beeper which in an instant could cause you to drop everything and head (no pun intended but still appreciated) to the hospital, is why I always said, please do not take pity on me, but rather on my family.
So why did I choose 7/1/06 and why did I choose now to tell you? The recent Chatsworth fires got me again thinking about this issue, so I renewed my investigation and I just got word on Friday 10/21/05 afternoon that my insurance company approved the reduction in premiums with my reduction in activities. It is a rather involved process because you still need to have coverage for years to come in case someone sues you 18 years from now for a delivery you did yesterday. My insurance gets renewed every July 1st. That is why I waited and for the last few weeks, while I have been waiting, I have been looking at faces that I know want me to do deliver their 1st or next baby, and have not been able to say anything because of the uncertainty of whether or not this was going to be feasible. To them, I especially apologize!
As of this date, there is nobody I know who is pregnant who will have a due date that will preclude me from delivering them. If your last period started on or after 9/18/05, I will not be able to deliver your baby. There are many fine doctors who I will be able to refer you to depending on demographic, insurance and other needs, but some of them include in West Hills & Thousand Oaks: Dr. Adam Carlton(818-884-1700 & 805-497-9119) & in Tarzana: Dr. Fred Kohn (818-344-0960). I will continue to be able to see you for your 1st OB visit to confirm that you have a healthy pregnancy, do an ultrasound around 7-8 weeks from your last period, see you again about 3 weeks later and then make appropriate referrals. I will also be able to assist those who are trying to get pregnant in that pursuit. Fertility assistance will continue to be one of my areas of expertise, and I look forward to helping you in that endeavor as long as you can promise me that when you do ultimately deliver you e-mail or snail-mail me a picture of the baby/babies!
So how is this ultimately going to benefit the majority of my patients? As of 7/1/06, there will be less chance that I will be called in the middle of office hours to go to the hospital. Delivering babies is cause for most of the unscheduled hospital visits, but GYN (gynecologic) problems still may potentially (rarely) do the same. Hopefully that means a continued streamlining of my office hours. I have continued to schedule less than average amount of patients per hour so that I can spend more than average amount of time with each patient. I will still not abandon an office patient who needs continued time beyond that allotted in favor of keeping a tight schedule. One day that patient might be you and you will be glad that I am true to my TLC (Tradition of Listening & Caring) motto!
I believe that menopausal management has gotten the short end of the stick, losing out to the OBs, when it comes to Ob/Gyn emphasis to their patients; that is going to change! Those who are 44-55 years old are going through a change that must be demystified. I will continue to make strides in being on the forefront of menopausal management, whether it be in minimally invasive procedures or hormonal (both manufactured and bio-identical/natural) and non-hormonal replenishment. Too often physicians resort to one pill fits all or when in doubt, yank it out philosophy. There must be alternatives to hysterectomy, there must be alternatives to what we have been fed in the past, but we must not throw the baby out with the bath water!
In conclusion I will be there for you when you are an adolescent high-schooler and need a gentle GYN exam, I will be there for those routine annual Pap smears, I will be there when you go through menopause, I will be there for you when you go into Medicare, and I will continue to be there for you in person or online, but unfortunately, after 7/1/06, I will not be there for you when you deliver your baby. G-d bless you and keep you safe and healthy and thank you for reading my rant!
Sincerely,
Ian H. Taras, M.D., Ob/Gyn
Breast Cancer Team-2005
2005 Team Taras-160 People-$20,000 Rasied!
Breast Cancer Team-2006
160 Patients, friends & family ... $34,000 raised!
Breast Cancer Team-2007
Team Taras - 2007:
193 patients, family & friends!
Over $65,000.00 raised!!
5th most team funds raised out of over 800 teams!!!
Many have heard of the trials and tribulations that Team Taras went through
on
the morning of the Run/Walk. It was all worth it to see our team
balloon to nearly 200 people and raising nearly double that of last
year to over $65,000 (cumulative over last few years is over $200,000).
Briefly, we had been told the night before
the event NOT to park in the area we had always parked to catch the
double-decker buses in Sherman Oaks. While directing cars where to park, I
personally was told by the security guard, that indeed it was safe to park
where we had been told not to park. I even told the people who I had
redirected to further lots that they could bring their cars back to this
secure lot. The 1st bus left. The 2nd bus was held, because I was waiting
for a 3rd bus (not a double-decker, but from a different company that I had
contracted with the last days when I knew it was needed). I called the
controller and after a few calls found out that the bus driver had
over-slept! I begged the 2nd double-decker bus driver to allow us to pile
on the extra people & he agreed. Phew, glad that was over.
Then I got the call from the property manager where we had parked the
cars... There was an event in that parking lot & they were going to tow the
45 cars that were left in that lot! I promise you we did not just roll
over and play dead. We had poor-reception-cell-phone-negotiations with
them about the conversation I had 6 years ago with the (different, of
course) property manager that it was ok to have cars there as long as they
were cleared by 1 PM & the security guard's comments (which infuriated me
the most). Some members of our team (thanx Michelle) were on the phone
with their contacts in LA City Council (this is at 8 AM on a Saturday), but
found out that since it was private property their hands were tied. We had
other team members (thanx Anthony) who had contacts with Westfield, but to
no avail. Still others had media contacts and threatened with media
exposure, but they would not back down. One team member's husband is LAPD.
He even spoke with the property manager, but they knew he was powerless on
private property; he (thanx Randy) was able to find out who the towing
company was, knew the main driver, talked to him and asked him to buy us
some time!
As we parked the busses, we gathered the keys of the cars in question. A
B-I-G thank you goes out to Franchesca of
www.DoubleDeckerBusesCalifornia.com who had collected the keys from the 1st
bus & also acted as our taxi back to Westfield Fashion Square in Sherman
Oaks. She was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G under pressure. Then there was Dr. Brian
Greenberg (Pediatrics & Adult Allergy of Tarzana & Agoura) & Dr. Deny
Weintraub (www.StarSmile.org) who refused to leave my side & came back with
me to the parking lot. As we drove back to the mall, the next quandary
arose; where to park 45 cars, legally? I was on the phone with contacts @
Notre Dame Prep School, and we were looking at Google Maps remotely on our
cell phones. That is when the Property manager did find a piece of charity
in her hart and was able to arrange for us to park the cars on the complete
other side of the city block in their other parking lot; she also offered a
golf cart that would shuttle us back & forth. I thank Christianne for
that! We got there and took to task. As a side bar, Deny had been a Valet
to work himself through dental school and Brian was in the market for a new
car so was looking forward to a quick test drive that would certainly be
more efficient than going to all those dealerships! We dumped the keys in
a bucket, picked a key, tried to find the car, drove it to its new
destination and then we'd be shuttled back to do that again. 15 cars each,
45 cars in total & not one got towed!
Sincerely,
Ian H. Taras, M.D.
GYNecology ONLY
www.DrTaras.com
The Dr. Ian Taras OB/GYN donation page can be found at
https://www.revlonrunwalk.com/la/secure/TeamWebPage.cfm?pID=26227&eid=702265
Breast Cancer Team-2008
Team Taras 2008: 168 patients, family & friends!
Team Taras: Over $47,000.00 raised in 2008! Over $250,000.00 raised this decade!
One Individual Rasied over $17,000 this year which was the 5th highest of over 50,000 people!
