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Enhancing the Office Experience for Your Patients - 08/30/2023

Enhancing the Office Experience for Your Patients

Help Patients Make Wise Choices About Treatment Options - 07/20/2023

Tools are emerging to help physicians overcome the time constraints that can preempt discussions with patients.

Quality Improvement: Practice Awards and Free Webinars - 07/20/2023

TMA, the Texas Osteopathic Medical Association (TOMA), and the TMF Health Quality Institute are collaborating again to provide the Physician Practice Quality Improvement Award program. The award formally recognizes physician practices for their dedication and commitment to providing high-quality patient care and improving outcomes.

Driving the Quality Train: TMA Physicians Lead the Way, From Measures to Standardization - 07/10/2023

In a proactive effort to resolve physician complaints, TMA and its members are deeply involved in quality issues, from participating in the development of new measures to pushing payers for standardized quality programs and supporting physicians who are curious about value-based care.

Texas Physicians Push to Improve Health Care for LGBTQ Patients - 06/28/2023

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer/questioning (LGBTQ) patients face unique barriers that put them at greater risk for mental and physical health problems. Often, their health disparities result from a lack of family support, public prejudice, and fear of the health care system. Texas physicians have launched a new workgroup and are adapting their practices to treat this underserved population.

TMF Offers Resources to Navigate CMS Requirements - 05/16/2023

TMF has launched three physician-focused networks designed to save time, improve patient care, and reduce costs associated with meeting these requirements. These programs, focused on immunizations, behavioral health and value-based improvements, are designed to help physicians benefit from—and not be penalized by—these mandates.

Do Appointments Establish a Patient-Physician Relationship? - 10/07/2022

When a new patient makes an appointment with my office, does that establish a patient-physician relationship between the patient and me?

Avoid Prescribing Pitfalls - 10/07/2022

Signing a prescription means you have a patient-physician relationship and all that goes with it. Follow these tips to avoid being taken in by a drug-seeking patient.

Notice to Patients on the Departure of a Physician - 10/07/2022

When a physician departs a group, the practice should consider the issue of continuity of care for patients. The Texas Medical Board (TMB), in an attempt to address this, adopted regulations that must be followed whenever a physician leaves a group. This applies to physicians who are partners, members, or employees of the group.

Biden Administration to Launch Specialty Payment Model - 07/27/2022

A new, voluntary Medicare payment model option focused on cancer care opens the value-based care door wider for specialists at a time when such models have been limited.

Patient Notification During Practice Transition - 10/28/2021

Patient Notification During Practice Transition

Ten Tips for Effective Voice-Mail Messages - 09/23/2021

Voice mail is a great tool, but it can waste time and cause frustration if you don’t use it wisely. Follow these tips for leaving effective voice-mail messages every time.

How to Handle Patient Complaints - 09/23/2021

When a patient raises a complaint, the staff’s best course of action is a coherent, concise response that preserves patient confidence and satisfaction.

Maintain an Attitude of Respect and Helpfulness Toward Patients - 09/23/2021

Maintain an Attitude of Respect and Helpfulness Toward Patients

Leading Innovation: Physician Entrepreneur Develops App to Engage Patients - 02/27/2021

In 2015, Austin cardiologist Manish Chauhan, MD, decided to finally act on an idea he’d been knocking around for a while – something to fill a void he’d witnessed when it came to engaging patients in their care.

The Customer Is Always Right? Patient-Reported Outcome Measures Have Fans and Detractors - 01/26/2021

For too long, some doctors say measures of a physician’s quality of care have been about process: the average length of a patient stay, for example, or a patient’s readmission rate. The bottom line is results, and that’s why a shift to patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures is necessary. However, even proponents of PRO measures note that collecting the information from patients for those metrics places burdens on physicians, and some remain skeptical of bonuses and penalties tied to a measure that derives from a subjective factor: what patients think.

Troubling Trend: Texas’ 2018 QPP Data Contains More Bad Signs - 01/05/2021

As the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services continues to churn out glowing data annually on its Quality Payment Program (QPP), a full picture of the program’s impact eludes the agency’s reporting. According to the Texas Medical Association’s analysis of state-level data in the 2018 QPP Experience Report, it’s clear that small practices continue to feel most of the program’s punitive pressures.

TMA Calls Governor’s Plan “Prudent and Careful” - 04/27/2020

Statement by Texas Medical Association (TMA) President David C. Fleeger, MD, in response to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s announcement that Texas hospitals now need to reserve only 15% of their capacity for COVID-19 patients.

Help Medicaid Patients Keep Appointments With Free Rides - 12/11/2019

If your Medicaid patient has trouble keeping his or her appointments with your office due to lack of transportation or gas money, be sure the patient knows how to seek help from Medicaid.

Are You Ready to E-Mail Your Patients? - 10/30/2019

Are You Ready to E-Mail Your Patients?

Are Your Patients Satisfied? Ask Them. - 10/29/2019

Are Your Ppatients Satisfied? Ask Them.

Quality Care Pilot Takes Flight - 09/03/2019

How one children's clinic uses a targeted program to dramatically improve care, lower costs.

Faulty Guidelines - 06/03/2019

Former Texas Medical Association President Josie Williams, MD, was tenacious in advocating that organized medicine pay zealous attention to two topics: data and guidelines. In this, she was both sage and prescient. We have done well in following her recommendations on data, but we continue to fall far short of where we need to be on guidelines.

Ten Rules for E-Mail Etiquette - 05/30/2019

Ten Rules for E-Mail Etiquette

Tips on How to Report Data on Quality Measures for MACRA - 04/19/2018

Tips from TMA to help you determine which reporting mechanism will best fit your practice for the first Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) performance period in 2017.