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DSHS Expands
Flu Shots
Physicians Must Report Vaccines
Stay on Top of Legislative News
Be a Lobbyist for a Day
Patient Safety Foundations Offer Grants
Help Improve Patient Health Literacy
Awakenings Author to Speak at TexMed
Protect Your Practice From Embezzlement
Where Does TMA Stand on Legislative Issues?
Who Won a Portable DVD Player?
TMA Seminars
- Medicare Update
- Patient Health Literacy
- Patient Service
- Physician Suicide
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TMA Report Outlines Healthy Vision of Texas Health Care
Texas' health care system is extremely ill, and Texas physicians have the prescription for returning the state to both physical and fiscal health, the Texas Medical Association said in a report presented to state legislators and the public on Jan. 31.
"Texas is being short-changed," said TMA President Bohn D. Allen, MD. "Texas physicians and our patients, Texas taxpayers, and Texas businesses aren't getting what we're paying for when it comes to vital health care services. It's time we get our money back or demand restitution."
Demographers note that Texas is growing older, sicker, poorer, and less educated. More Texans than anyone else in the country are uninsured. Dr. Allen said TMA calls on physicians, hospitals, other health care practitioners, patients, lawmakers, government agencies, and health plans to take large doses of accountability, effectiveness, and efficiency.
Elements of TMA's long-range cure include:
- An extensive investment in health care information technology, as President Bush has requested, and
- A commitment to abandon the cost shifting among health plans and physicians, among employers and employees, among doctors and hospitals, and among taxpayers at various levels.
Dr. Allen also outlined TMA's short-term prescription for Texas:
- More of the Texas health care dollar directed to patient care;
- A strong and accountable Texas State Board of Medical Examiners;
- No additional burdens on health care financing, including no new taxes on patient care;
- Fair reimbursement rates to stop the exodus of physicians from Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, and workers' compensation;
- Direct patient-physician payment options for business health care plans;
- A cost-benefit analysis for each model of Medicaid managed care to determine which yields the best outcomes with the least administrative costs;
- Incentives for government health care recipients and state employees who adopt or maintain lifestyles that can prevent costly and devastating diseases, and
- Maintenance of the 2003 medical liability reforms.
The full report, Texas Medical Association's Healthy Vision 2010, is on the TMA Web site and will be published in the March issue of Texas Medicine.
Health Department Expands Flu Immunizations
The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) is now recommending giving flu shots to anyone older than 6 months.
A national flu vaccine shortage in the fall prompted federal and state health officials to restrict flu shots to people in several priority groups.
"Demand for the flu vaccine from priority groups in Texas had been steady for several weeks. But it appears, overall, that those demands are being met. We're comfortable loosening the recommendations," said Health Commissioner Eduardo Sanchez, MD.
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DSHS Enforces New ImmTrac Law
As of Jan. 1, all physicians and other health care professionals must report all vaccines administered to children younger than 18 years to ImmTrac, the state's immunization registry, even if they do not know whether the parent has consented to have it reported. The new law puts the burden of proof for consent on the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS).
The provision is one of several included in a bill the legislature passed in 2003 and now being enforced by DSHS. The legislation was adopted to reduce physician confusion about parental consent requirements, increase physician and client participation in the registry, increase privacy and confidentiality protections for clients, and increase use the registry.
Other key requirements are:
- ImmTrac users can no longer directly add new clients online. You may generate a consent form from ImmTrac and fax it to DSHS for verification and creation of new client records. DSHS must maintain evidence of parental consent.
- ImmTrac users can edit and update existing client records.
- Registry information may now be released to the following authorized entities:
- A child’s parent, legal guardian, or managing conservator,
- Public health districts and local health departments,
- A child's physician or any health professional authorized to administer vaccines,
- A school or child care facility in which the child is enrolled,
- An insurance company, HMO, or other payer, and
- A state agency having legal custody of a child.
- Physicians may use registry data for sending reminder and recall notices to clients.
To register for ImmTrac, call ImmTrac Customer Support at (800) 348-9158. For more information about how ImmTrac can benefit physicians and help protect Texas children, call Adriana Rhames at (512) 458-7111, ext. 2924, or e-mail Adriana.Rhames@dshs.state,tx.us.
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Protect one of your most important assets – your income.
Learn about own-specialty, high-limit disability insurance from the Texas Medical Association Insurance Trust (TMAIT) and TMAIT Financial Services, Inc. (TFSI). TMA member discounts. All specialties included.
Click here for a free, no-obligation quote
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Legislative Hotline Has the Latest Info
TMA's Legislative Hotline will keep you updated on all the health care issues the Texas Legislature is debating this year. The bills lawmakers pass will affect you and your patients. Taxes, the sunset review of the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners, professional liability, workers' compensation reform, and Medicaid funding are just a few of them.
To sign up, click here.
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Tuesdays With the Legislature
You have three more chances to take part in the "First Tuesdays at the Capitol" program and help make medicine's voice heard by legislators in Austin.
"First Tuesdays at the Capitol" brings TMA and TMA Alliance members to Austin the first Tuesdays of each month of the legislative session. The three remaining dates are March 1, April 5, and May 3.
For more information, call (800) 880-1300, ext. 1361, or (512) 370-1361; or e-mail texpac@texmed.org. Be sure to check your inbox and the TMA Alliance Web page for more information coming soon.
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Patient Safety Foundation Grant Deadline Looms
March 1 is the deadline for submitting applications for grants to the Physicians Foundation for Health Systems Excellence (PFHSE). It is one of two foundations established by settlement of the Aetna and CIGNA portions of organized medicine's federal antiracketeering lawsuits against some of the nation's largest for-profit HMOs.
The PFHSE and the Physicians’ Foundation for Health Systems Innovations (PFHSI) are dedicated to improving practice management, quality of care, and patient safety to benefit physicians and patients. Aetna has committed $20 million to the PFHSE, and CIGNA HealthCare has promised at least $15 million for the PFHSI. In addition, about $90 million is available from physicians who have directed their settlements to the foundations. TMA Executive Vice President Louis J. Goodman, PhD, chairs the grants committees of both foundations.
Dr. Goodman envisions several types of grants. One will fund development of useful products and systems to enhance practice management, quality of care, and patient safety. One possibility is a model electronic medical records system. That could reduce physicians' administrative costs and promote patient safety by eliminating problems associated with illegible records.
Another category will be mini-grants to state medical associations to disseminate practice management ideas to physicians.
"We focus on the practicing physicians with the idea of helping improve their practices," Dr. Goodman said.
The PFHSE kicked off its first grant cycle in January by posting grant guidelines and application forms on its Web site.
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TMA Tries to Improve Patient Literacy
TMA is sponsoring workshops in four cities to give you and your staff tools to establish a patient-friendly environment that will maximize patient understanding, improve patient compliance, and enhance patient care.
The Patient Health Literacy seminars will be Feb. 22 in San Antonio, Feb. 23 in Dallas, Feb. 24 in Austin, and March 2 in Houston. They are based on the American Medical Association Foundation's Health Literacy Program. The featured speaker is Michael Speer, MD, a member of the TMA Board of Trustees and chair of the Texas Patient Safety Alliance.
TMA is granting 3 hours of continuing medical education credit, and Texas Medical Liability Trust policyholders who complete the course will earn a three-percent discount (not to exceed $1,000) that will be applied to their next eligible policy period.
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Hear the Mind-Bending Chronicles of Dr. Oliver Sacks At TexMed 2005
The physician whose work led to the book Awakenings and inspired an Academy Award-nominated movie of the same name with Robin Williams and Robert DeNiro will be the featured speaker at the Saturday General Session of TexMed 2005 on May 14 at the Gaylord Texas Resort and Convention Center in Grapevine. Oliver Sacks, MD, is also well known for his 1985 collection of case histories, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, in which he describes patients struggling to live with conditions ranging from Tourette’s syndrome to autism, parkinsonism, musical hallucination, phantom limb syndrome, schizophrenia, retardation, and Alzheimer’s disease.
In 1966, Dr. Sacks began working as a consulting neurologist in New York City, where he encountered an extraordinary group of patients who had spent decades in strange, frozen states, unable to initiate movement. He recognized them as survivors of the great pandemic of sleepy sickness that swept the world from 1916 to 1927, and treated them with a then-experimental drug, L-dopa, which enabled them to come back to life. They became the subjects of Awakenings, published in 1973.
The Saturday General Session begins at 8 am and is sponsored by the Texas Medical Foundation. Dr. Sacks will be available to sign copies of his books after his presentation.
Some 2,000 physicians are expected to attend TexMed 2005 May 12-14. The conference will offer more than 130 hours of free continuing medical education programming, an exhibit hall featuring more than 150 vendors, and opportunities to network with colleagues from across the state.
Physicians can register for TexMed 2005 online and purchase copies of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat on the TexMed registration form (see section 3).
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TMA Physician Services Can Help Reduce Embezzlement Risks
Embezzlement occurs in medical practices more often than one might think. If your practice lacks a system of internal controls, you could be a target for employee theft.
Medical practices are especially vulnerable to embezzlement, says TMA Physician Services Director Peggy Pringle, because they are essentially cash businesses, typically run by a close-knit staff that the physician tends to regard as “family.” The American Medical Association reports that nationwide, compared with other businesses such as retail or manufacturing, physician practices are much more likely to be victims of fraud and deceit.
You can protect your practice by establishing a formalized system of controls for monitoring money, including cash on hand. TMA Physician Services can help you establish this system with an internal controls assessment. A TMA consultant will review your current internal control mechanisms, identify potential weaknesses, and make specific recommendations for the safeguards, checks, and divisions of duty your practice needs to shield you against embezzlement. For example, as part of your internal controls, you should:
- Never give one employee complete control over the entire sequence of cash transactions, and give only key employees access to cash.
- Segregate financial transactions so that employees who keep accounting records do not handle receipts or perform cash disbursements, or, if this division of labor is impractical, arrange for a review of all work at least quarterly.
- Monitor accounts payable by making sure they are always paid on time and by check and that a vendor invoice is attached to each check you sign.
- Hire an outside accounting agency to perform periodic financial audits.
In addition, TMA recommends you perform reference and background checks before hiring an employee, and bond employees who handle money. Document your internal control policies, including consequences for violations, and make sure you have a paper trail for all transactions.
For more information, call TMA Physician Services at (800) 523-8776 or e-mail physician.services@texmed.org.
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What TMA Thinks
Want to know where TMA stands on major issues before the Texas Legislature, such as school finance, Medicaid, immunizations, and sunset review of the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners?
A series of one-page position papers on these and other important legislative issues is posted on the TMA Web site.
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Are You at Risk for Employee Theft?
Make sure your practice isn't vulnerable to
these embezzlement schemes.
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A practice management
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Membership Has Its Rewards
Chad D. Strange, MD, a family physician in Sweetwater, is the winner of a portable DVD player. Dr. Strange was selected in a random drawing of 7,812 physicians who had either renewed their membership or joined for the first time by the end of 2004. Dr. Strange joins 40,000 physicians and medical students who benefit from membership in TMA.
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TMA Seminars
Practice Management, Ext. 1421
Taste of Medicare
2/9 San Antonio
2/10 Corpus Christi
2/16 Dallas
2/17 Tyler
2/23 Abilene
2/24 Fort Worth
Patient Health Literacy
2/22 San Antonio
2/23 Dallas
2/24 Austin
3/2 Houston
Excellent Patient Service
3/29 McAllen
3/30 Houston
3/31 San Antonio
Physician Health and Rehabilitation, Ext. 1342
Breaking the Silence: Suicide Among Physicians
2/19 San Antonio
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