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TMA attorneys have told two state regulatory boards that the people they regulate should go to medical school if they want to practice medicine. At issue is an attempt by chemical dependency counselors and marriage and family counselors to expand their scope of practice and thus infringe on the legal requirement that physicians make a diagnosis.
In letters to the Licensed Chemical Dependency Program and the Texas State Board of Social Work Examiners under the state health department, TMA Vice President and General Counsel Donald P. Wilcox, JD, and Senior Counsel C.J. Francisco III, JD, asked the regulators to remove the term "diagnosis" from proposed new rules.
State law says only physicians may diagnose medical conditions, they said in the letter to the social workers, adding that, "TMA has long been concerned with the use of rule making to permit professionals not licensed as physicians to practice medicine in Texas without first having been licensed as a physician by the Texas Medical Board."
In the letter to the chemical dependency counselors, Mr. Wilcox and Mr. Francisco noted that Texas law defines the practice of medicine as "the diagnosis, treatment, or offer to treat a mental or physical disease or disorder … by any system or method. … By contrast, the practice of Chemical Dependency Counseling is defined, in pertinent part, to develop understanding, define goals, and plan action. Chemical dependency counseling uses the means of the profession to carry out the understanding, goal setting and plans of action. It does not include the diagnosis."
Action, May 6, 2008
Last Published: 5/5/2008 Print this page
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