7


ROUNDS


CMS: Stop us before we do something stupid Getting preexisting coverage easier


Medicaid HMO expansion under way


HIEs necessary for meaningful use


TMA 2011 Fall Conference next month


contents


About the cover


Beaumont anesthesiologist Gerald Ray Callas, MD, credits the 2003 medical liability reforms for improving the quality of care in his part of Texas. Without those reforms, he says, Jefferson County would not have the specialists it now has and patients would still have to drive to Houston for care.


PHOTO BY MATT RAINWATERS


12 Tort reforms still paying off


The medical liability reforms TMA pushed through eight years ago are still paying off. Texas has more physicians, thereby increasing patients’ access to care; liability insurance premiums have been drastically cut; and there are fewer lawsuits. But TMA leaders say physicians must protect the reforms. BY CRYSTAL CONDE


September 2011 TEXAS MEDICINE 1

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