In 2019, the Texas Medical Association remained committed to Texas physicians and to the practice of medicine in the Lone Star State.
From legislative wins in Austin to protecting patients and ensuring that doctors are fairly compensated for their care, TMA looked out for your best interests every day of the year.
We look forward to building on those successes in 2020 and beyond.
It was no easy task to whittle down the list, but here are TMA’s top 10 accomplishments during 2019:
- Secured key victories during the 86th Texas Legislature, including raising the minimum age to buy tobacco to 21, improving care for postpartum women after they lose pregnancy-related Medicaid, and defeating numerous attempts by nurse practitioners, chiropractors, and optometrists, among others, to expand their scope of practice.
- Helped convince Texas voters to approve $3 billion in funding to the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), the state's cancer fighting agency.
- Led the push to pass laws that will require health plans’ directories to clearly identify in-network physicians and provide much-needed transparency on preauthorization requirements.
- Established the Women in Medicine Section to strengthen female physicians’ engagement and representation in organized medicine through the development of relevant policy, programming, and services.
- Successfully advocated for much-needed improvements in Medicare’s Quality Payment Program (QPP) and Merit-Based Incentive Payment System, saving the vast majority of Texas physicians from 2019 Medicare payment penalties.
- Filed friend-of-court briefs in cases to protect physicians from unnecessary fines and to stop unsafe expansion of other practitioners’ scope of practice.
- Increased membership to more than 53,000 members, keeping TMA the nation’s largest state medical association.
- Formed new task forces to evaluate the needs of employed physicians and to develop a comprehensive strategy to help physicians use telemedicine effectively.
- Continued to expand TMA’s three flagship community outreach programs – Walk With a Doc, Hard Hats for Little Heads, and Be Wise – Immunize℠, as Hard Hats celebrated its 25th anniversary of providing bike helmets to Texas children.
- Commemorated the retirement of TMA Executive Vice President and CEO Louis J. Goodman, and welcomed his successor Michael J. Darrouzet.
Last Updated On
February 13, 2020
Originally Published On
January 06, 2020