Magazine Story

Budget Crunch: Uncertainty Besets Texas’ Public Health Infrastructure as Federal Funding Streams Dry Up - 12/24/2025

Federal budget cuts from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) and other federal actions could hinder public health initiatives in Texas in 2026.

Expanded Flexibility: Patients Can Now Pay for Direct Primary Care with HSAs – With Caveats - 12/24/2025

Patients can now pay for direct primary care with health savings accounts – with caveats.

Community Support: Texas Aims to Use Federal Funding to Address Rural Health Care Challenges - 12/24/2025

Texas aims to use federal funding to address rural health care challenges.

Disrupting the Marketplace: How the ACA Expiring Tax Credits Could Impact Health Care Costs - 12/24/2025

With the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace on the precipice of a massive change – expiration of the enhanced Advance Premium Tax Credits – physicians fear that might add additional confusion, higher costs, and even a loss of insurance for millions of Americans.

Lasting Impact: Leaders Look Back as Two TMA Sections Turn 50 - 12/24/2025

Five decades ago, medical students, residents, and fellows were given a formal voice within the Texas Medical Association via its Medical Student Section (MSS) and Resident and Fellow Section (RFS).

‘Caring for Myself and Medicine’: Julia Choi, MD, Attended TexMed to Complete Triathlon, Defend Medicine - 12/22/2025

Julia Choi, MD, attended TexMed 2025 with dual goals: to complete her third triathlon, and to defend the profession of medicine.

Texas Medicine Back Issues - 12/19/2025

Back Issues

2025 Legislative Wrap-Up: TMA Defeats Concerning Vaccine Bills For Second Session in a Row - 12/08/2025

Two bills that did survive will took effect Sept. 1, one of which imposes a specific informed consent form on physicians.

2025 Legislative Wrap-Up: Amid Bad Insurance Bills Defeated, Gold Card Law Refinements Close Gaps - 12/08/2025

House Bill 3812 addresses some of the shortfalls and inconsistencies among payers in the intended implementation of Texas’ landmark prior authorization exemption law. The law took effect Sept. 1 but additional rulemaking by the Texas Department of Insurance is likely.    

Touting Texas: David N. Henkes, MD, Championed the State’s Physicians in 25 Years on the AMA Delegation - 11/13/2025

David N. Henkes, MD, recalls his first American Medical Association meeting in San Francisco as a new member of the Texas Delegation to the AMA. The November 2001 conference was, in a word, “overwhelming.”

'The Canary in the Coal Mine': Wastewater Testing Advances Improve Readiness for Outbreaks - 11/13/2025

Houston is home to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Wastewater Surveillance System of Excellence.

The Essence of Outreach: TMA Health Beat Broadens Its Audience to Advocate More Effectively - 11/13/2025

Louise Bethea, MD, sometimes encounters resistance in persuading her patients with asthma to adhere to their daily medication regimen. It’s a problem she attributes, in part, to low health care literacy.

Read and Review: TMA Offers Insight into Common Physician Contracts - 11/13/2025

TMA offers tips, insight into common types of contracts physicians encounter across their careers.

Now Is the Time: Texas Delegates to AMA Make a Strong Push for Fixing What Ails Medicare - 11/13/2025

Texas Medical Association members made their voices heard at the American Medical Association’s three-day National Advocacy Conference (NAC), Feb. 10-12, 2025, calling for a long-term Medicare payment fix.

2025 Legislative Wrap-Up: Inside the Capitol – Lessons from the 89th Legislative Session - 11/13/2025

TMA Council on Legislation Chair Zeke Silva, MD, offers an inside look at what it was like to operate at the Capitol behind the scenes and on the stage during this year’s session.

Tailored Programming: Upcoming TMA Conferences Meet Physicians Where They Practice - 11/13/2025

Texas Medical Association offers two upcoming conferences that members can attend - Business of Medicine Conference in El Paso in September and Local Medicine Matters in Tyler in October.

2025 Legislative Wrap-Up: Erosions to Medical Liability Reforms Fail - 11/13/2025

Medicine’s work this session to preserve Texas’ landmark medical liability reforms started and ended like legislative sessions past with a perennial attempt to index the landmark 2003 noneconomic damages cap to inflation. But that story had a twist this session in that the vehicle to do so, House Bill 4036, was pushed by a pair of Republicans alongside its typical Democrat contingency.  

Contaminant Containment: Foodborne Illness Outbreaks Takes Physician Awareness - 11/13/2025

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates each year some 48 million people get sick from a foodborne illness, more than 127,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die.

Alternate Paths: Will Limited Licenses Help Alleviate Texas’ Workforce Shortages? - 11/10/2025

House Bill 2038, known as the "Doctor Act," allows Texas to establish "limited" and "provisional" licenses for unmatched medical graduates and international medical graduates. 

Pivoting Toward the Future: Progress in the Physician Workforce Grows Apace With the State’s Population - 11/07/2025

TMA’s physician workforce keeps apace the Texas population growth, and progress is happening to build the workforce through licensure, new state programs, and other initiatives.

Reaching for the Stars: For Bernard A. Harris Jr., MD, NASA Was the Start of a Childhood Dream Fulfilled - 11/07/2025

Bernard A. Harris Jr., MD, an astronaut and physician who has done two spacewalks, will be the featured speaker at the opening general session of TexMed, the Texas Medical Association’s annual conference, convening April 16-18, 2026. He’s titled his speech “An Astronaut’s Perspective: The Future of Medicine and Beyond.”

Covering Distances: Physicians, Lawmakers, Med Schools Look to Improve Rural Patient Access to Care - 11/07/2025

Texas legislators are taking notice of the dearth of physician care in rural counties with solutions, medical schools are gaining ground with successful rural-specific training tracks, with TMA all the while pushing for further steps to assuage rural health care shortages in Texas.

Medicaid Mindfulness: New Texas Law Raises Certain Violations to Same Level as Intentional Fraud - 11/07/2025

Senate Bill 1038 provides a key state agency with a new array of penalties, signaling the state’s focus on safeguarding Medicaid spending. In the process, however, it has elevated potential penalties for unknowingly violating Medicaid program rules to the same level as those for intentional fraud. 

Texas Medicine Magazine - 11/02/2025

Texas Medicine Magazine

Enjoying Employment: Texas Physicians Trend Away from Independent Practice - 10/14/2025

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