REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON MATERNAL AND PERINATAL HEALTH
CM-MPH Report 2-A-07
Subject: Legislative Directives Affecting the Physician-Patient Relationship
Presented by: Robert M. Wheeler, MD, Chair
Referred to: Reference Committee on Public Health
The Committee on Maternal and Perinatal Health has serious concerns with legislative mandates to hand out specific brochures or information sheets to patients.
While the committee applauds state efforts in developing medically accurate, informative brochures for physicians to share with patients, legislative directives to hand out the information can interfere with the patient-physician relationship and fail to take into account individual patient circumstances.
These directives do not give physicians the discretion to change or omit the information in the mandated brochure, even when a patient's circumstances make it medically irresponsible not to do so.
Patients rely on their physicians to present unbiased, noncoercive medical information and to offer sound medical advice based on their particular medical situation. Mandated brochures can impede patients from obtaining that advice by substituting a government-drafted brochure for individualized dialogue, and in doing so raises serious medical and legal concerns.
For example, at least one state-developed brochure some physicians currently are required to give patients contains medically inaccurate information. The impetus behind this brochure appears to be political rather than medical.
The committee believes any information on a medical topic compelling enough to warrant mandated dissemination to particular patient groups should be developed and endorsed by the appropriate professional medical organization(s) prior to its being made mandatory.
Recommendation: That the Texas Medical Association oppose state mandates dictating specific patient-physician communication without endorsement of the appropriate professional medical organization(s).
TMA House of Delegates: TexMed 2007
Last Updated On
July 07, 2010
Originally Published On
March 23, 2010