Stories from Texas Medicine, June 2021

Deal or No Deal: Negotiating Contracts - 11/28/2022

Maximize your leverage when negotiating a health plan contract.


MIPSperceptions: Study Confirms Doctors’ View of Medicare Program as Burdensome - 08/22/2022

Physicians’ perceptions of Medicare’s Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) have run along these and other unflattering lines since MIPS first launched in 2017. But a Physicians Foundation-funded study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine sought to better quantify how physician practice leaders perceive MIPS, one of the two participation tracks in Medicare’s Quality Payment Program. (The Texas Medical Association has representation on the Physicians Foundation’s board of directors.)


Ready To Boost Your Leadership Skills? Join TMA's Leadership College - 06/23/2021

Do you want to become more of a leader in organized medicine, your practice, or your community, but worry you don’t have the skills necessary to inspire a team? Apply now for the Texas Medical Association Leadership College, which since 2011 has helped more than 250 physicians develop a deeper understanding of their potential and strengths.


Livelihood on the Line: Surgeon Sues Hospital over Alleged Disparagement, Malicious Peer Review - 06/10/2021

San Antonio cardiothoracic surgeon sues hospital over alleged disparagement, malicious peer. In less than two years, San Antonio cardiothoracic surgeon J. Marvin Smith III, MD, says his distinguished surgical career spanning about five decades was effectively wiped out.


This Changes Everything: Practices Adapt to COVID-19 - 06/01/2021

COVID 19’s appearance in March 2020 triggered rapid changes for physician offices throughout Texas. For Sugar Land family physician Troy Fiesinger, MD, the full impact of those changes became clear almost a year later in February 2021 when unusually low


Talk to Patients About: Vaccines and Residual Materials - 05/31/2021

Vaccines are scientifically proven to be safe and effective, so anti-vaccination efforts tend to steer the public away from science and data and toward unfamiliar aspects of vaccines that may sound scary. One frequent distraction involves residual materials – small amounts of the ingredients used to make the vaccine.


Systematic Learning: Health Systems Science Shapes Med Ed - 05/31/2021

For decades, Texas medical schools – like those across the U.S. – taught students with a laser-like focus on two aspects of medicine: basic science and clinical science. But in recent years, schools have expanded medical students’ horizons to take in a bigger picture.


PEAQ Performance: Blues Program Shows Little Progress in Addressing Physicians’ Concerns - 05/31/2021

Blues performance recognition program shows little progress in addressing physicians’ concerns over such quality programs