Newsmakers
Former President Barack Obama appointed Laredo family physician Luis M. Benavides, MD, to be a member of the U.S. Section of the United States- Mexico Border Health Commission. Dr. Benavides, cofounder and president of Laredo Premier Healthcare, is a longtime leader of the TMA Border Health Caucus and is a past member of the TMA Council on Legislation.
Matthew Edwards has been reappointed to the TMA Foundation (TMAF) Board of Trustees for a second one-year term as the TMA Medical Student Section representative. Mr. Edwards is in his fourth year of the MD Honors Research Program at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galves- ton. Jessica Best, MD, and Shannon Hancher-Hodges, MD, are new appointees to the TMAF board. Dr. Best will serve a one-year term as the TMA Resident and Fellow Section representative. She is an international emergency medicine fellow at Baylor College of Medicine and practices emergency medicine. Dr. Hancher-Hodges will serve a two-year term as the TMA Young Physician Section representative. She is an assistant pro- fessor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
Lisa Hollier, MD, of Baylor College of Medicine, is 2017–18 president-elect of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). Dr. Hollier has served as ACOG national assistant secretary and is a member of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission’s Perinatal Advisory Council. She’s also chair of the Texas Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Task Force.
The Texas Academy of Family Physicians (TAFP) named Kaparaboyna Ashok Kumar, MD, Physician of the Year and Norman Chenven, MD, Physician Emeritus at the organization’s 2016 Annual Session Primary Care Summit in Dallas. Originally from India, Dr. Kumar is a distinguished teach- ing professor of family and community medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center School of Medicine in San Antonio. Dr. Chenven is the chief executive oficer of Austin Regional Clinic.
The Texas Pediatric Society announced these 2016–17 board oficers at its annual meeting in Austin: Joyce ElizabethMauk,MD, of Fort Worth, president; Dennis Conrad, MD, of San Antonio, president-elect; William H. Dirksen,MD, of Corpus Christi, immediate past president; Kimberly Avila Edwards,MD, of Austin, chapter chair; Mark A.Ward,MD, of Houston, alternate chapter chair; Tammy Camp,MD, of Lubbock, sec- retary-treasurer; Ben G. Raimer,MD, of Galveston, TMA delegate; Ryan Van Ramshorst,MD, of San Antonio, alternate TMA delegate; Seth Ka- plan,MD, of Dallas, North Region chair; SusanWootton,MD, of Houston, East Region chair; Alison Ziari,MD, of Austin, South Central Region chair; Lara Johnson,MD, of Lubbock, West Region chair; Laura Ferguson,MD, of Austin, and Lori Anderson, MD, of Port Aransas, members-at-large; ThomasMayes,MD, of San Antonio, member-at-large department/resi- dent head; Eric Baggerman,MD, of Corpus Christi, early career physi- cian representative; Miranda Loh,MD, of Austin, resident representative; Flora Nunez-Gallegos, MD, of Houston, alternate resident representative; Natalia Philpott, of San Antonio, medical student representative; Nancy Shenoi, of Houston, alternate medical student representative.
26 TEXAS MEDICINE February 2017
Robert Pitman lifted the stay in the case on Oct. 25 and ordered the par- ties to submit a revised scheduling order by Nov. 8. But Teladoc and the medical board asked the court to re- consider.” The court granted the stay on Nov. 4. The Nov. 2 report of the Texas Sun- set Commission on TMB does not ad- dress in any way the antitrust TMB exposure that Teladoc asserted in the lawsuit. It also does not mention the Federal Trade Commission’s staff position that state licensing bodies that have a majority of the licensees it regulates in control of the board are not protected from federal antitrust actions. For more information about Te-
ladoc’s antitrust claims against TMB, read “Seeking Invalidation” in the April 2016 issue of Texas Medicine, pages 51–57, or visit
www.texmed.org/ SeekingInvalidation. Other states are attempting to ad-
dress the antitrust issue, and some have passed remedial legislation to bolster their state action exemption argument to protect their licensure boards. The Texas Legislature may do the same this year. In addition to TMB, all of the state’s professional li- censing agencies are up for sunset re- view in this legislative session.
Feds cut meaningful use reporting period to 90 days
THE CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & Med- icaid Services (CMS) reduced the meaningful use electronic health record (EHR) incentive program re- porting period from a full year to 90 days in 2016. This year, physicians participating in the Merit-Based In- centive Payment System (MIPS) will have several
reporting options, in-
cluding reporting on one patient to prevent a penalty, 90 days for a poten-
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