This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
“If the medical board cannot discipline physicians, things will eventually end up in the courts, and we will lose the benefits of our tort reforms.”


When lawmakers adjourned at the end of May, TMA had won approval of those reforms. Three bills backed by TMA — two Senate bills authored by Sen. Jane Nelson (R-Flower Mound) and sponsored in the House by Rep. Susan King (R- Abilene) and a House bill authored by Rep. Charles Schwert- ner, MD, (R-Georgetown) — ended anonymous complaints, gave physicians more time to respond to complaint letters from TMB, and granted the board flexibility to deal with minor violations in a nonpunitive manner. “In time, I believe these reforms will go down in TMA his-


D


tory as comparable to the Patient Protection Act of 1997 and the liability reform and prompt pay bills of 2003,” said TMA President C. Bruce Malone, MD. At the same time it won passage of the reforms, TMA de- feated legislation by some of TMB’s harshest critics that TMA leaders say would have emasculated the board’s ability to dis- cipline physicians who commit serious offenses. That, in turn, could have threatened the 2003 medical liability reforms TMA fought so hard to achieve. “If the medical board cannot discipline physicians, things will eventually end up in the courts, and we will lose the ben- efits of our tort reforms,” said TMA’s Immediate Past Presi- dent Susan Rudd Bailey, MD. “There’s no question the medical board needed reform. Physicians deserved more due process, and the board needed more flexibility to appropriately deal


espite significant improvements to the Texas Medi- cal Board’s (TMB’s) disciplinary process over recent years, some physicians still complained about how the board treated them. The Texas Medical Associa- tion heard those complaints and took an aggressive agenda of TMB reforms to the 2011 session of the Texas Legislature.


with minor administrative infractions. We think the bills will help achieve a lot of those goals.” Beaumont orthopedic surgeon David Teuscher, MD, says TMA listened to its membership and advocated for reforms that were in the best interest of both physicians and patients. “We heard from our members, and we believe that the itch our members wanted scratched is contained in the bills,” said Dr. Teuscher, a member of the TMA Board of Trustees.


Fairness for all Despite opposition from physicians who have personal griev-


ances with TMB and from the Arizona-based Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), TMA secured pas- sage of legislation it believes will create a TMB complaint pro- cess that is much fairer for physicians but maintain a strong board able to carry out its mission of licensing physicians and protecting the public.


Rather than work with TMA to resolve issues of mutual con-


cern, AAPS took an adversarial position during the legislative session, attacking TMA, and joining forces with Houston-area physician Steven Hotze, MD. Dr. Hotze created an organiza- tion called Texans for Patients’ and Physicians’ Rights, head- quartered at his Katy office, to push his anti-TMB agenda. In addition to hiring his own team of lobbyists, Dr. Hotze lobbied lawmakers himself at the Capitol for most of the five-month legislative session. Dr. Hotze has generated controversy.


In 2005, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinolo-


gists (ACCE) complained in a letter to the producer of the CBS morning program “The Early Show” about what it called the “unchallenged and scientifically erroneous comments offered to your viewing audience” by Dr. Hotze, “and the effect that this information may have on the health of patients with thyroid disorders.” T he n - A CC E


C. Bruce Malone, MD


Susan Rudd Bailey, MD


20 TEXAS MEDICINE July 2011 David Teuscher, MD Lee Anderson, MD


A. Tomas Garcia, III, MD


President Bill Law, Jr. MD, wrote, “Many of Dr. Ho- tze’s claims about the incidence and development of an underactive thy-


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68