have accomplished much in practice vi- ability and in advocacy. By representing all physicians in Texas, TMA is the voice for the specialists and for the primary care physicians. Our issues, no matter your area of practice, are astoundingly similar: We want better outcomes for our patients. We want to be treated as pro- fessionals, not as hourly workers on an assembly line. What have we, what has TMA, done for us lately? What have we done lately to advance that agenda? Let me remind you of several examples just over the past decade:
• In March 2001, we took the for-profit health insurance companies to court and won over $2 billion worth of changes in favor of physicians.
• In 2003: TORT REFORM! • If that were not enough, that same year we established new standards for prompt payment of claims by health plans.
• In 2005, we stopped legislation that would have imposed a health care tax on physicians’ practices.
• In 2006, we convinced lawmakers to exclude all revenues from Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, the Indigent Care Program, Workers’ Compensa- tion, and the Children’s Health Insur- ance Program from the new business tax. Additionally, we persuaded the state comptroller to allow you to deduct copayments and deductibles from taxable revenue.
• In 2011, just last year, TMA passed legislation that provided first-in-the- nation protections for clinical auton- omy and independent medical deci- sion making for physicians employed by hospitals and nonprofit health care corporations.
• We also passed reforms eliminating anonymous complaints at the Texas Medical Board and giving physicians better due process.
Currently, we are nearly 46,000 mem- bers strong. I want 50,000. That’s right —50,000.
But why should your colleagues join?
I have given you a lot of reasons. Let me focus on one.
Linda Adkins, of Houston, left, became president of the TMA Alliance at TexMed 2012. Outgoing President Bridget McKeever, right, swore her in.
July 2012 TEXAS MEDICINE 13
Michael Speer, MD, left, takes the oath of office from outgoing TMA President C. Bruce Malone, MD. Dr. Speer told the House of Delegates he wants to increase TMA membership to 50,000 in 2013.
Tort reform alone has decreased our medical liability premiums by one-third to one-half since its passage. This is true whether you are paying as a sole practi- tioner or you are in a very large group that is self-insured. If your policy cost you $15,000 a year per physician back in 2002, you currently save a minimum of $5,000 a year, every year!
TMA and county society dues are
a fraction of that number. Each of us knows of at least one nonmember physi- cian — probably a whole lot more than that. Therefore, I challenge you and ev- ery TMA physician to go out and mul- tiply. Personally, I am prepared to meet any and all non-TMA physicians — one-on-
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