TMA Advocacy at TexMed: More Work Ahead
By Jennifer Perkins

Like the 2021 legislative session, TexMed’s inaugural Fireside Chat on the Texas Medical Association’s advocacy efforts had many issues to cover in a short amount of time.

TMA Vice President of Advocacy Dan Finch; Immediate Past President Diana Fite, MD; and 2020-21 Council on Legislation Chair Debra Patt, MD, led the discussion, acknowledging the unprecedented nature of the legislative session as one driven primarily by technology versus in-person negotiations. The precedented part, however, was perhaps most important: The topics medicine fights each session remain intractably the same, they said.

As the 2021 legislative session winds down, “TMA applauds our grassroots advocates and asks for your continued vigilance and involvement until the regular session adjourns for the year,” Dr. Fite urged Texas physicians.

Always a top priority, the TMA leaders pointed out that the state’s biennial budget remains a work in progress in these last days of the legislative session, with a focus on ensuring adequate funding for graduate medical education and public health infrastructure.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, for instance, “we must have better, more accurate data to inform better health policy,” Mr. Finch said. “Our public health infrastructure needs investment today to prepare for the inevitable next natural disaster.”

In another biennial game of whack-a-mole, scope of practice expansion proposals again popped up from advanced practice registered nurses, optometrists, psychologists, and chiropractors, Dr. Patt noted, pointing to the importance of a “unified message” within organized medicine. “Nonphysician practitioners remain a vital part of the health care team in the role most appropriate for their education, training, and skills, and we are thankful for their dedication to patient care,” she said.

In the face of perennial administrative abuses of prior authorization, Dr. Fite said informed and determined advocacy by TMA members is helping educate lawmakers about the negative and costly effects of second-guessing a physician’s best medical judgment, especially if the recommended treatment or medication is routinely prescribed. The Houston-area emergency physician identified prior authorization reform as one of her presidential priorities, and testified in support of many prior auth reform bills earlier in the legislative session.

Already looking ahead, she said, “More work on reining in the egregious overreach of prior authorization will be needed next session, including protecting the prudent layperson standard, which is particularly important to emergency medicine.

“Prohibiting prior authorization for state-mandated coverage benefits, and preventing health plan retaliation against physicians who log complaints against health plan abuses are commonsense reforms and must happen if Texas is to remain an attractive state in which to practice medicine,” Dr. Fite said.

The TMA leaders remained hopeful that bipartisan support still could result in some progress this year to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage, streamline income verification for Children’s Health Insurance Program families, or increase pediatric payment rates to incent more physician participation.

But also looking ahead, they said extending coverage to Texas’ working poor will require more work in the 2023 legislative session.

Last Updated On

May 24, 2021

Originally Published On

May 21, 2021

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