Gov. Rick Perry has created a workgroup of health care industry and consumer representatives to re-examine Medicaid from all angles. The 17-member workgroup includes several hospital representatives, three physicians, a consumer advocate, and other professionals. The governor asked the group to identify policy initiatives for the 2005 legislative session and suggest potential changes in federal law and policy.
The Ad Hoc Committee on Medicaid developed the TMA recommendations. That panel originally was appointed to provide input to the legislature in the Medicaid reform and budget debate in 2003. The panel since has been reappointed to monitor reforms enacted last year, including creation of a Medicaid preferred drug list, and to provide input to the governor’s workgroup. The Ad Hoc Committee has drafted a set of guiding principles to govern physician review of any Medicaid reform proposals that may come forward. The committee sent those principles, plus eight preliminary recommendations, to the governor for his consideration.
TMA's specific recommendations for consideration
To view TMA's Medicaid Workgroup Policy Proposals
January 16, 2004
The Honorable Rick Perry
c/o Victoria Ford, Health Policy Director
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428
Dear Governor Perry:
In my term as President of the Texas Medical Association, I have spent considerable time travelling the state and talking with physicians. Two themes are pervasive throughout these meetings: first, excitement and a sense of accomplishment resulting from passage of liability reform legislation and Proposition 12, and second, the need to transform the state’s Medicaid program.
Texas physicians deeply appreciate your leadership on liability reform, and we equally welcome your initiative to review the Medicaid program. Medicaid is inordinately complex. This complexity often drives policymakers to undertake reform at the margins. Physicians welcome your in-depth review of this program not only because it is long overdue but also because we believe it must be transformed. A wholesale overhaul will allow Texas to escape the ranks of states that engage in perennial, painful deliberations about how to “reform” the program without achieving lasting progress.
Medicaid transformation is important to all of our members. Physicians understand that changes to Medicaid impact the entire health care delivery system. Medicaid is the single largest health care delivery system in Texas. The appointment of your Medicaid Workgroup is timely, highly appropriate, and we commend it.
To assist the state’s efforts, I have appointed a special committee of physicians to study the program and to make recommendations. These physicians are highly qualified for the assignment. They represent the geographical, cultural, and specialty mix of our organization and of Texas. These physicians routinely treat the diverse Medicaid population – from healthy babies to nursing home patients. They work on the front line of patient care and believe in the Medicaid program. To a person, they see the months ahead as a great opportunity.
The committee believes that any systemic transformation must be driven by a framework of principles that can be used to evaluate specific proposals that emerge over time. I am submitting our principles as well as a first installment of specific recommendations for consideration.
Please know that you have our utmost cooperation and support in this important endeavor. Thank you for providing leadership again on an issue of fundamental interest to Texas physicians and our patients.
Sincerely,
Charles W. Bailey Jr., MD, President
Texas Medical Association
cc: Bohn Allen, MD, President-Elect
Go to Principles for Medicaid Transformation and Proposals
Last Published: 4/7/2005
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