With just 17 days until sine die, the Texas House of Representatives’ deadlines yesterday and today mean death to lots of legislation, good and bad. In this week’s TMA Legislative Hotline video, TMA Council on Legislation Chair Jason Terk, MD, explains how the life-and-death bill status can be bad or good for medicine.
We also provide a rapid-fire summary of recent days’ movement on several TMA priority bills. A hint: They include extending Medicaid coverage for new mothers, continuing funding for cancer prevention, improving utilization review, adding protections for doctors responding in disasters, and behavioral health support.
Lawmakers also are tweaking an element of Texas’ medical liability reforms, the “willful and wanton” protection for physicians and providers caring for emergency patients in a hospital. Hard-won compromise language improved the bill, and the House passed it, sending it to a Senate committee.
That plus news of a record for TMA grassroots advocacy, all in this week’s brief TMA Legislative News Hotline video.
Last Updated On
May 10, 2019
Originally Published On
May 10, 2019
Brent Annear
Director, Media and Public Relations
(512) 370-1381
brent.annear[at]texmed[dot]org
Brent Annear is TMA’s director of media relations and PR. He joined TMA in 2001 after working two decades in television news. Brent and his team share TMA’s mission and vision with the world through news releases, blog and social media posts, and videos. He is a University of Texas graduate who hails from Minnesota. Brent is married and has two stepsons. He enjoys photography, golf, travel, volunteering and woodworking projects, and he is a private pilot.