Physician Advocacy

While TMA awaits action on its lawsuit over part of recent rulemaking for the federal surprise billing law, the association recently teamed with the American Medical Association and others to engage the Biden administration outside court.

Two physician members of Congress are echoing TMA's call for lawmakers to stop pending Medicare physician pay cuts totaling nearly 10%, writing a letter to House of Representatives leadership that had signatures from more than 200 other lawmakers.

TMA has sued federal authorities over rulemaking for the federal surprise billing law, saying it failed to follow clear direction from Congress about how to implement the dispute resolution process meant to determine fair payments for out-of-network care.

Federal legislation could move Texas toward one of the Texas Medical Association’s long-time goals for improving maternal health – extending Medicaid postpartum coverage from two months to a full year.

Texas physicians made the most of an extraordinary, scaled-back session of the Texas Legislature in 2021. They helped pass laws to curb prior authorization hassles; keep physicians from incurring new practice costs; install liability protections for future pandemics like COVID-19; extend postpartum Medicaid coverage for new mothers; and keep graduate medical education (GME) fully funded.