Related Stories

Coming Up Short: TMA Workforce Report Underscores Access Challenges, Advocacy Wins - 05/06/2024

While the study highlights positive growth facilitated by TMA’s ongoing advocacy, it shows shortages that mirror those across the health care professional workforce and that are particularly entrenched in rural areas; it also reveals challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and by other factors, economic or otherwise, that have complicated Texas' practice environment and impacted recruitment.

Residency Revival: Grassroots Advocacy Averts Residency Program Closure - 03/12/2024

Grassroots physician advocacy averts emergency medicine residency program closure.

Hospitals, Especially Rural Ones, Face Increased Risk of Closure as Pandemic Funds Dwindle - 01/29/2024

Now approaching the fourth year since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Texas hospitals are still reeling from its impact, facing elevated expenses, depressed patient volume, and tighter margins compared with prepandemic numbers. Rural hospitals, in particular, are at a significantly higher risk of closing.

Stable or Critical? Emergency Medicine Has Become Less Popular on Match Day. Why? - 07/10/2023

After four decades of steady demand on Match Days, emergency medicine has turned in lower-than-expected performances in the last two years. What has caused this change and what does it mean?

Applications Open for Physician Education Loan Repayment Program - 06/22/2023

After closing on and off for more than a year, Texas’ Physician Education Loan Repayment Program, which gives physicians a strong financial reason to practice in rural and underserved areas, is now taking applications.

Help Wanted: Texas’ physician growth strong, but recruitment, diversity still needed - 06/21/2023

Texas' physician workforce has enjoyed strong growth, but there still aren't enough doctors to go around and more diversity is needed.

Need Help With Residency Relocation Expenses? TMA Can Help - 04/05/2023

If you found out your residency destination during the recent Match Day but now find yourself scrambling to gather the funds to get there, the Texas Medical Association is here to help you finance the next leg

U.S. Main Residency Match Posts Another Year of Record-High Positions - 03/27/2023

If the 2023 Main Residency Match was a patient, you’d have to say that the vital signs were strong.

Lege Poised to Boost GME Funding; TMA Urges Rural Workforce Investment - 03/22/2023

With a record-high budget at its disposal, the Texas Legislature seems poised to increase funding for graduate medical education in the 2024-25 biennium, fulfilling one of the Texas Medical Association’s legislative priorities. But physicians say more must be done to address the state’s physician workforce shortage, especially in primary care and in rural and underserved areas.

Legislative Priority #1: Scope of Practice Encroachments, Graduate Medical Education Funding - 01/06/2023

Goal Protect independent medical diagnosing, treatment, and prescribing as the practice of medicine address workforce shortages in a way that ensures all patients have access to the same standard of care and keeps pace with Texas’ outsized population

Ready for Business: MBA programs broaden physicians' skills - 10/03/2022

A growing number of Texas physicians obtain MBA degrees to sharpen their business acumen, understand finance, and prepare for leadership roles.

TMA Urges Comprehensive Rural Health Care Reform Amid Workforce Shortages - 09/22/2022

Last December, Adrian Billings, MD – a family physician serving Alpine, Marfa, and Presidio – responded to a small plane crash on his way home from work. After he called 911, he saw the lone ambulance in Presidio pass by the crash, on its way to another call. He said the two plane passengers likely wouldn’t have survived had emergency medical services from nearby cities not intervened.

TMA Scholarships Help Ensure a More Diversified Physician Workforce - 08/22/2022

Shaige Werth, one of 15 first-year medical students who received a $10,000 scholarship from the Texas Medical Association to pursue their dream becoming a physician, said the TMA Minority Scholarship program is a major step toward a more diverse physician workforce.

New Med School Creates Residency Positions With Local Hospital - 11/09/2021

More than 110 new residency positions are on their way in the Fort Worth area by 2024, thanks to an expanded partnership between the TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine and the hospital chain Texas Health Resources.

Playing the Long Game: Adrian Billings, MD, Deepens the Rural Physician Bench - 10/02/2021

Although medicine wasn’t his initial choice, Dr. Billings’ passion for his work is palpable and extends far beyond the exam room, especially when he’s training future rural physicians.

Funding the Future: Texas Legislature Fully Commits to GME - 10/02/2021

The Texas Legislature’s investment in medical education includes a full commitment to GME.

Unfreezing GME: A Boost to Federal Funding for Residencies - 10/02/2021

U.S. lawmakers may be ready to boost federal funding for residencies.

Training Up: COVID-19 Changed the Way Students, Residents Learn Medicine - 10/01/2021

COVID-19 dramatically changed the way Texas’ students and residents learn medicine.

GME Momentum: Preserving Texas' Steady Progress in Building Residency Positions - 08/27/2021

TMA fights state budget cuts to preserve Texas’ steady progress in building residency positions.

Feds Distribute Grant to Boost Vaccine Confidence in Rural Texas - 07/28/2021

Texas rural health clinics are receiving more than $7 million out of nearly $100 million the Biden-Harris administration is distributing to rural clinics nationwide to support COVID-19 vaccination outreach.

Continue GME Expansion to Meet State’s Physician Workforce Needs, TMA Tells CMS - 07/02/2021

After more than two and a half decades, Congress has – by a modest amount – expanded the number of graduate medical education (GME) positions funded by Medicare. A recent Texas Medical Association letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) called on the agency to implement the change while keeping Texas and future GME expansion in mind.

Physician-Led Results: Lawmakers Invest in Texas’ Future Physicians - 06/29/2021

Going into the 2021 legislative session, Texas medical educators were understandably nervous. The economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic had thrown future growth of graduate medical education into doubt.

Wins on GME, Mental Health Funding Highlight Medicine’s Budget Year - 06/10/2021

When it comes to health care, as with so many aspects of life, money talks. And the Texas Legislature this year showed medicine’s advocates that it’s allocating the state’s money with Texas’ health needs in mind.

Another Great Match: Most Texas Medical Graduates Matched With Residency Positions - 04/01/2021

Texas medical students have enjoyed some highly successful Match Weeks in recent years, but 2020 was the best since the Texas Medical Association Council of Medical School Deans began tracking match data in 2014.

Protect and Revitalize Rural Texans’ Health Care - 03/30/2021

Prior to the arrival of the COVID-19 virus, Texas’ rural health care already faced unprecedented financial and demographic pressures. The pandemic now has amplified the crisis.