uation city” to house, treat, clothe, and feed 27,000 evacuees from New Orleans in only 18 hours. The award is named for Benjamin
Rush, an American Revolutionary from Pennsylvania, the only physician to sign the Declaration of Independence, and the surgeon general of the Continental Army. Dr. Rush is known as the “founder of American psychiatry.” Marshall Cothran, chief executive
officer of the Travis County Medical So- ciety and the Blood and Tissue Center of Central Texas, received the Medical Executive Meritorious Achievement Award. AMA gives this award to a medi- cal society executive who has provided exemplary and exceptional service that benefits and supports physicians in car- ing for their patients. This contribution “is exemplary beyond the normal scope of their duties or responsibilities.” AMA cited Mr. Cothran for “the finan- cial turnaround of the Blood and Tissue Center of Central Texas [that] has ben- efitted patient care in Travis County and preserved the center’s independence as a local physician-governed asset to the community.”
Medicine protests Medicare Advantage terminations
Physicians across the country are being kicked out of Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, undermining patients’ rights and denying them access to care, TMA, the American Medical Association, and nu- merous national specialty societies and state medical associations say in a letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). They asked CMS “to take immediate
action” to make sure Medicare beneficia- ries participating in MA plans “have ac- curate and reliable information to make health insurance elections during the 2014 Open Enrollment period …” The letter says hundreds of physi- cians have reported they were termi- nated from MA networks. “The termina- tions are ‘without cause’ and have been
timed in a manner that undermines the accuracy and reliability of the informa- tion Medicare beneficiaries are relying upon in order to make important health care decisions for 2014 health insurance coverage. The timing and process used to communicate the terminations and modifications to the networks are not consistent with CMS guidance and regu- lations,” the letter says.
They added the terminations “will disrupt long-established patient-physi- cian relationships, interfere with existing physician referral networks, and under- mine emergency department coverage in many hospitals. Both the continuity and coordination of care will be nega- tively affected and treatment for certain types of care commonly provided by a very limited number of sub-specialists
may no longer be available within the network.”
TMA and the other organizations
urged CMS to extend the MA open en- rollment period and require MA plan sponsors that have reduced their net- works to immediately:
• Provide and document that patients received actual and accurate notice of whether their current physicians will be in the 2014 network;
• Ensure that patients know they can retain their physician by choosing fee- for-service or by choosing a product with an out-of-network benefit if their plan provides one;
• Give physicians information needed to challenge network adequacy based on CMS regulations and extend the
Newsmakers
The Texas Medical Association Insurance Trust Board of Trust- ees unanimously approved the nominations of Kevin P. Magee, MD, Dallas, and Robert A. Light, MD, Houston, to serve as chair and secretary, respectively, for the 2013–14 term.
Oncologist John Minna, MD, received the 2013 Caine Halter Hope Now Award from Uniting Against Lung Cancer, one of the nation’s largest private funders of innovative lung cancer research, for his research efforts to develop treatments for lung cancer. Dr. Minna is the director of the Hamon Center for Thera- peutic Oncology Research at The University of Texas South- western Medical Center at Dallas.
Gov. Rick Perry appointed Ben Raimer, MD, of Galveston, chair of the Health and Human Services Council for a term to expire Feb. 1, 2015. The council helps develop policies and rules for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and makes rec- ommendations regarding the management and operation of the commission. Dr. Raimer, a board-certified pediatrician, is senior vice president and professor at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.
January 2014 TEXAS MEDICINE 11
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