About TMA

It is with great sadness that the Texas Medical Association announces that Louis Joel Goodman, PhD, passed away on Friday, July 31. He was 71.

As we told you earlier this month, the Texas Medical Association Disaster Board voted to conduct a virtual meeting of the TMA House of Delegates that will culminate in a live virtual session on Saturday, Sept. 12.

To help community physicians during these challenging times, the Texas Medical Association Foundation (TMAF) has established the TMAF Caring for Physician Healers: Mental Health and Wellness Resources During COVID-19 Fund.

Upcoming deadlines and extensions in effect during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As more reports come in on the spread of coronavirus COVID-19, TMA has convened a task force of public health experts to help Texas physicians prepare for the next phase. We’ve started by compiling all the news and information you need right now on our online resource center. Bookmark that page as we will update it continually.

COVID-19 Resource Center  

Americans should not be surprised that it took the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, under the knee of a white police officer to take the COVID-19 pandemic off the lead of every newscast, off the top of every mind, and off the tip of every tongue. Our great country was born with a big problem with racism. Today – 155 years after the end of the Civil War, 65 years after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus, 28 years after Rodney King implored us to “all get along” – our great country still has a big problem with racism.

Susan Rudd Bailey, MD, is American physicians’ new leader in the battles against COVID-19 and outside interference in patient care. The Fort Worth allergist took the oath of office as president of the American Medical Association on Sunday, becoming the sixth Texas physician to lead the organization.

Like most independent medical practice physicians struggling to stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic, Austin pediatrician Brian Temple, MD, had to make a critical choice: reduce salaries and work hours, or lose the staff and pediatric practice he and his partner had built over six years.

The Texas Medical Association (TMA) installed Houston emergency physician Diana L, MD, as its 155th president. She took office in a ceremony before a live and online gathering of the organization’s Board of Trustees and outgoing president David C. Fleeger, MD. The TMA House of Delegates policymaking body elected Dr. Fite last year to serve as president-elect for one year before assuming the presidency today. She will lead America’s largest state medical society for one year.

In 2019, the Texas Medical Association remained committed to Texas physicians and to the practice of medicine in the Lone Star State.

TMA presented its inaugural Laurance N. Nickey, MD, Lifetime Achievement Award to Robert W. Haley, MD, director of the Division of Epidemiology at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and a TMA physician leader. Doctors presented the award Saturday at the 2020 TMA Winter Conference in Austin.

Photo: TMA/Matthew Lemke

A panel of medicine’s representatives in the Texas Legislature said Saturday that 2019 was a good year for medicine in Austin, but unfinished business remains for the next session in 2021.

Physicians checked off major accomplishments during the 2019 session of the Texas Legislature, including finally convincing lawmakers that raising the age to purchase tobacco to 21 was the right thing for the state's present and future. Medicine also scored improvements on the insurance front and vital funding increases.

The 2019 Texas Legislature is now in session — and TMA is ready to fight for medicine. See our plan to help Texas physicians put the health back into health care. 

According to a nationwide survey of health care professionals conducted last year, several specialties have burnout rates of 50 percent or more. Hospitalists led the survey, with 66 percent of respondents feeling burnt out.

TMA Physician Health and Wellness provides educational resources regarding well-being, dimensions of meaning in work, burnout, stress, work-life integrations, fatigue, mental/emotional quality of life, and physical quality of life.

MIPS and HIPAA require practices to conduct a security risk analysis at least once a year. Many physicians find out through these reports that their practices have a lot of work to do to keep patient records safe.

Thanks to a generous grant from Texas Medical Association Insurance Trust, dozens of CME courses in the TMA Education Center are now FREE for members.

You can keep up with federal and state requirements that affect your practice by regularly checking TMA's Deadlines for Doctors.