Advocacy Articles

• Medicaid

  TMA Urges Bold Medicaid Fee HikeLegislators should take "bold action to fix a major problem" in the Medicaid program and "increase Medicaid payments to Medicare parity for all physicians and services," Texas Medical Association President Michael E. Speer, MD, urged in a letter to House and Senate members writing the 2014-15 state budget.
• Legal

  Feds Now Require Antifraud Compliance PlanThe U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) used to encourage physicians in Medicare and Medicaid to adopt voluntary compliance programs. But now it's the law.  
• Texas Medicine

  Buried in PaperworkThe litany of regulations can be staggering. Reviewing and cosigning at least 10 percent of charts every 10 days for patients cared for by physician-supervised midlevel practitioners. Keeping track of which advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) or physician assistant (PA) has the delegated authority to prescribe medications, which physician oversees each practitioner, and whether the doctor is on site. Spending at least 10 percent of practice time alongside midlevel practitioners at alternate sites, often miles apart in rural areas, and calculating the mileage allowed between locations.  
• Texas Legislature

  Budget, TMA-backed Bills on the MoveWith roughly six weeks to go in the Texas Legislature's 2013 session, lawmakers are near the finish line in drafting a state budget for the next two years. The process has been rather smooth sailing compared to last session as medicine marches closer to accomplishing its goals of reversing the drastic cuts from 2011.
• Medicaid

  Medicaid Congress Recommends Reform, ExpansionFinding a way for Texas to expand Medicaid coverage is among more than 100 different recommendations the Medicaid Congress researched and developed with input from diverse physician specialties and geographic regions across Texas.  
• Health Care Delivery

  Physicians Call for End to Sneaky Silent PPOsA North Texas doctor was shocked last year to discover a health plan was using a discounted rate he had agreed to 20 years ago, in spite of the fact that he had canceled all of his insurance contracts since then.
• Medicare

  AMA: U.S. House Addressing Medicare Payment ReformIn recent weeks, proposals have been unveiled on Capitol Hill that would eliminate Medicare’s sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula.  Generally, these proposals reflect many of the principles that the American Medical Association,  state medical societies, and national specialty societies shared with Congress this past October.  The fact that the committees began this process so early in the year and CBO’s recently lowered estimated cost for repealing SGR by more than $100 billion (to $138 billion) also are very positive signs.
• Medicaid

  Medicaid Makeover: 1115 Waiver Has Its FlawsTransformation. Accountability. Coordination. Local solutions. These are just a few terms used to describe the lofty goals of the Medicaid 1115 waiver the state is undertaking to reform health care delivery for Medicaid patients and the uninsured.