DON’T MISS FIRST TUESDAYS AT THE CAPITOL IN 2017
Your patients and your profession need you to be a lobbyist for a day. Mark your calendar now to join the Party of Medicine in Austin for First Tuesdays at the Capitol during the 85th Texas Legislature on Feb. 7, March 7, April 4, and/ or May 2, 2017. The March 7 event is designated the oficial TMA Alliance First Tuesday, as well as the young and newly licensed physician event. The April 4 event is dedicated to medical students and residents. TMA’s comprehensive 2017 legislative agenda advocates
what’s best for patients and their physicians, from preserving physicians’ right to bill for services to improving Medicaid payment rates and reducing red tape and hassles. (See more at
www.texmed.org/legislature.) For more information or to register, visit
www.texmed.org/ firsttuesdays, or call (800) 880-1300, ext. 1363.
available information to the licens- ee prior to informal meetings, espe- cially exculpatory evidence. TMA says this requirement “would en- sure that a licensee has all available information when preparing a case or when making the determination to agree to an agreed order” while ensuring the board considers all in- formation “when making a decision relating to the physician’s license to practice.”
• Ensure that the board does not provide any information directly or indirectly identifying the expert physician reviewer to the physician who is the subject of the review. TMA says revealing a reviewer’s identity could discourage physi- cian participation, which the board relies upon heavily.
• Provide express authorization for the board to file a complaint against a license holder who ma- liciously makes a complaint the license holder knows to be false. TMA says legislative authorization “will do more to remove the incen- tive to make malicious complaints and will reduce the likelihood that physicians and the board staff are hassled with baseless complaints.”
• Require the State Office of Admin- istrative Hearings to expedite cases involving a physician’s temporary suspension.
Attorneys and medicine alike have long been concerned about the evo- lution of TMB’s informal show com- pliance and settlement conferences (ISCs). Former TMB Executive Direc-
+
First Tuesdays at the Capitol:
www.texmed.org/firsttuesdays
22 TEXAS MEDICINE February 2017
tor Mari Robinson told Texas Medi- cine the hearings have “become more formal in nature.” In scathing written comments TMA submitted to TMB in July in response to the board’s pro- posed ISC rules, TMA said ISCs have become “more and more formal, pre- scriptive, and regulated,” without giv- ing physicians a fair forum to defend themselves. The proposed rules ap- peared to be a clarification of how the board already conducts ISCs. But af-
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