• 2011 Texas Legislature

    A Report Card to be Proud Of

    Our top priority during the 2011 legislative session was to protect the patient-physician relationship in every aspect of the health care system. With an enormous budget deficit and special interest groups from hospitals to midlevel practitioners lining up to take on medicine, it felt like everyone wanted a piece of our profession. Many of our adversaries wanted control of physicians, our practices, and our patients. Others wanted to weaken the Texas Medical Board (TMB), jeopardizing Texas’ hard-fought liability reforms, and Texans’ access to care. Some believed physicians were the cost drivers and needed restraint.

    However, when the session ended, physicians crossed the finish line with the reins still in hand. Even better, major steps were taken to protect and strengthen the patient-physician relationship from future outside interference. 

    Read More

    A Report Card to be Proud of (PDF)

    Texas Medical Association’s 2011 Legislative Agenda

  • TMA's Political Prognosis

    It was a tough legislative session from the outset. With an enormous budget deficit and special interest groups from hospitals to midlevel practitioners to those who wanted to emasculate the Texas Medical Board (TMB) lining up to take on organized medicine, it seemed the Texas Medical Association's agenda for the 2011 Texas Legislature faced tough sledding. But when the session ended on May 30, TMA scored some dramatic victories for physicians and your patients.

    Important Legislative Resources

  • NEW: 2011 Legislative Wrap Up

    This video describes the top health care-related issue in the 2011 Texas legislative session,
    the budget, and how the legislators' final budget affects patients and health care.

  • Latest Legislative News

    • Sign Up 18-Year-Olds for ImmTrac
      Unless children fill out an ImmTrac Adult Consent Form when they turn 18, the state will purge their immunization records from the ImmTrac immunization registry one year later. Legislation passed in 2009 authorizes the inclusion of adult immunization records in ImmTrac, but patients whose parents registered them for ImmTrac as children must sign the adult consent form when they turn 18 for the state to continue keeping their records in the registry.
    • Sonogram Law Enforcement Begins
      State health officials began enforcing the state's sonogram law Feb. 6 after a federal judge in Austin reluctantly dismissed a lawsuit challenging it. Texas Health Commissioner David Lakey, MD, notified physicians that the Department of State Health Services will review physicians' documentation to make sure they comply with the law.
    • Payment for Patients Dually-Eligible for Medicare and Medicaid
      To help close a $27 billion budget deficit, the 82nd Texas legislature directed the Health and Human Services Commission to implement a multitude of new initiatives aimed at trimming Medicaid expenditures by nearly $3 billion over the next two years, including reducing benefits and services for patients and applying payment reductions for physicians and providers.
    • TMB Starts Remedial Plan System
      The Texas Medical Board (TMB) has implemented fairness provisions of a new state law – backed by TMA – that allows physicians named in complaints to resolve their cases with a "remedial plan" rather than a formal disciplinary action.