TMA Practice e-tips
Silent PPOs/Unregulated Rental Networks
When physicians contract to join a health plan network, they agree to accept a discounted rate in return for steerage of patients to their practice through a listing in the health plan’s directory. This arrangement worked fine until the early 1990s when “silent” preferred provider organizations (PPOs) began inappropriately accessing physicians’ contract rates began through..
read more →More Workers’ Comp Improvements Needed
House Bill 7, passed in 2005, offered Texas the tools we needed to make drastic improvements to the workers’ compensation system. Transferring regulation of the program to the Texas Department of Insurance and creating a Department of Worker’s Compensation (DWC) has had a positive impact. Even though the fee schedule was improved, many physicians don’t..
read more →Health Information Technology
Health information technology (HIT) has tremendous potential to improve the quality of care, prevent medical errors, and streamline health care delivery systems. Government and employers are pushing physicians and other providers to adopt HIT quickly so they can better determine the value received for their health care dollar. State and federal lawmakers have taken steps..
read more →Immunization
Vaccines are the safest and most cost-effective way of protecting young children and adults in Texas from preventable and potentially fatal diseases. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), proper childhood vaccinations can prevent more than 14 million cases of disease and 33,500 deaths in the United States and save $43 billion..
read more →Mental Health Funding
More than 4.3 million Texans, including 1.2 million children, live with some form of mental health disorder. Of these, 1.5 million cannot function at work, school, or in the community due to their illness. Over the past decade, insufficient state funding eroded Texas’ ability to care for patients with mental disorders. As the availability of..
read more →Obesity Prevention
Obesity threatens Texas’ physical and fiscal health. More than 5 million Texans are obese. And this number is expected to double over the next 20 years, which means by 2040, three out of every four Texans will be overweight. This has stunning implications for the state’s health care system. This year, Texas will spend $15.6..
read more →Health Plan Prescription Drug Formularies
Only physicians have the authority to write prescriptions for their patients. Often, a physician determines over time that a patient responds best to a specific drug. The physician and patient have learned that neither the generic version of that drug nor a medication in another therapeutic class works best for the patient. Rather than allow..
read more →Tobacco Prevention
Smoking and secondhand smoke cost lives and money. More than 24,000 Texas adults die each year of a smoking-related illness. That is more than the number of deaths from AIDS, heroin, cocaine, alcohol, car accidents, fire, and murder combined. Tobacco use is the single greatest preventable cause of premature death and disease in Texas. Texas..
read more →Cancer Detection and Prevention
Texans has chosen to fight cancer head on. In 2007, Texas voters spoke loudly by passing a constitutional amendment to create the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute (CPRIT). It authorized up to $3 billion over 10 years to fund cancer research. In its first fiscal year, CPRIT has invested in Texans’ quality of life by..
read more →Texas Medical Board Legislative Issues
The Texas Medical Board (TMB) is charged with licensing physicians and enforcing the Texas Medical Practices Act. Amid the 2003 medical liability reform battle, the board underwent significant legislative examination. Tort reform opponents wanted greater scrutiny of physicians. The Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 104, with strong support from TMA. The bill enhanced the board’s..
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