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New TMA Policies Strive to Bolster Physician Workforce - 05/21/2025

Attempting to fix Texas’ maternal care deserts and other physician workforce deficits, the House of Delegates voted in support of expanded physician training opportunities and statewide initiatives, particularly focused on rural areas.

Record Licensure Numbers Show Steady Workforce Progress - 04/23/2025

Texas continues to expand the physician workforce at a faster rate than the state’s population, continuing a 15-year streak, but gaps remain. To drive in-state growth, TMA continues to advocate for bolstering the state’s residency and fellowship programs.

Advancing Primary Care: Medicare Rolls Out New Payment Codes for Treating Chronic Conditions - 03/04/2025

Though the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has introduced another acronym into the Medicare mix, some physicians express optimism this particular one could help practices stay viable.   For Greg Fuller,

Straight Shooter: Incoming TMA President Ray Callas, MD, Aims for Practice Protections, Membership Gains - 02/27/2025

Incoming Texas Medical Association President Ray Callas, MD, an anesthesiologist from Beaumont, cites as his top priorities preventing scope-of-practice creep, defending physician autonomy, and bolstering the TMA's membership.

Border Health Conference Highlights Need for Funding, Residency Programs - 10/17/2024

Physicians, lawmakers, city leaders, and others came together at the Texas Medical Association’s Border Health Conference in Laredo to find solutions to the most pressing issues affecting physicians and patients on the Texas-Mexico border.

Enjoying Employment: Texas Physicians Trend Away from Independent Practice - 08/14/2024

As the share of Texas physicians trend away from independent practice, TMA members spell out the benefits of employment.

Committee on Independent Physician Practice Announces Members - 06/21/2024

After recognizing the dire needs of private practice physicians, Texas Medical Association leaders have appointed the members of its inaugural Committee on Independent Physician Practice with broad representation.

Record Number of Doctors Arriving to Care for Texas Patients - 06/20/2024

For every Texan seeking medical care, a record – and increasing – number of physicians is available to respond. Texas’ physician workforce is growing at a record pace, according to new data. For the first time in three decades, the ratio of patient-care physicians for every 100,000 people has increased for 10 straight years (2009-2019).

TMA Presses Congress to Preserve Independent Practice Viability - 06/13/2024

Administrative hassle, cyberattacks, and other threats to physician practice viability have caught the attention of federal lawmakers, with the Texas Medical Association weighing in heavily on the attendant impacts on physician practices following a May 23 hearing, “The Collapse of Private Practice: Examining the Challenges Facing Independent Medicine.”

The Waco Way: How This Addiction Medicine Specialist Targets Primary Care Challenges - 05/29/2024

How one addiction medicine specialist turned passion into practicality to target behavioral health challenges in primary care.

New TMA Policies Aim to Strengthen Physician Workforce Pipeline - 05/14/2024

Among others, top new policies direct TMA to study ways to assist unmatched medical graduates and to advocate for increased per-resident funding to offset medical schools’ teaching costs – a rate that has not budged since 2008. Read more.

TMA House Prioritizes Noncompetes, Physician Payment Reform - 05/13/2024

The TMA House of Delegates adopted several policies intended to alleviate economic pressure on physician practices. Those include directing the association to advocate for more statutory limitations on noncompete agreements in employment contracts and protections from health plans’ problematic payment policies. Read more.

Innovation for Every Age: Texas Primary Care Physicians Improve Access for Older Patients - 05/06/2024

Texas' population is aging, highlighting the importance of access to high-quality, coordinated primary care that bridges complex systems, various clinicians, and concurrent chronic conditions.

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.

TMA Moment in Time: SGR Repeal - 04/09/2024

The historic victory has roots in TMA advocacy and may provide a playbook for future Medicare reform.

TMA Scholarship Cultivates a Diverse Workforce; Apply by May 31 - 03/25/2024

Are you sharing in the excitement of someone who's just been accepted to medical school?

Fix Medicare Now: 2024 Fee Schedule Solidifies Cut, Heightens Calls for Reform - 03/05/2024

This latest cut stems from the 2024 Medicare physician fee schedule and Congressional inaction, both of which further erode physician payment, practice viability, and patient access to care.

Medicine’s MIPS Win: 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Stabilizes Program - 03/05/2024

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services yielded to the Texas Medical Association’s concerns about its proposal and the impact of constant changes to MIPS on its participants.

“We Can Compete:” Direct Payment Models Present Opportunity for Independent Practices - 10/13/2023

Rising health care costs. Declining outcomes. Restricted patient access to care. Rampant consolidation. Incessant physician payment cuts. Excessive prior authorization. Creeping scope-of-practice attacks.

AMA Launches National Study of Physician Practice Expenses - 10/11/2023

With the backing of the Texas Medical Association and 172 other health care organizations, the American Medical Association recently launched a survey of U.S. physicians to better understand practice expenses and to support its advocacy for physician payment reform.

TMA Border Health Conference Tackles Medicine’s Most Pressing Issues - 08/28/2023

As physician advocates, policymakers, and community leaders gathered in Harlingen for the Texas Medical Association’s annual Border Health Conference, the wide-ranging agenda included many of medicine’s priority issues along the Texas-Mexico border.

TMA Fights Another “Devastating” Medicare Physician Pay Cut Threat - 08/04/2023

Despite medicine’s calls for comprehensive reform, the recently proposed 2024 Medicare physician fee schedule would continue the worrying trends of deepening physician pay cuts and increased risk associated with the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System.

Congress Weighs Medicare Payment Reform During Health Care Consolidation Hearings - 07/25/2023

Federal lawmakers in both chambers recently took up the issue of increasing consolidation – and, with it, decreasing competition – in the health care industry. Surfaced as possible solutions were several of the Texas Medical Association’s legislative priorities, including Medicare physician payment reform.

Furthering Medical Education in Texas - 07/17/2023

Medical education in Texas is moving in the right direction. The Texas Medical Association has been a major partner in advancing medical education initiatives. This special symposium issue on medical education examines residency training costs, the Next Accreditation System, graduate medical education in rural Texas, Texas' physician workforce needs, the current state of education reform, and efforts to retain medical graduates in Texas.

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?