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Although our 2003 liability reforms have brought an influx of new physicians, the current supply won’t be able to keep up with the demand, especially if the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) withstands constitutional scrutiny. We need more physicians and other health care professionals working in all parts of the state, especially in rural and border Texas. We need to invest more in our medical schools and graduate medical education training programs. We should not fool ourselves into thinking that allied health professionals – who haven’t gone to medical school – can fill the gap as independent practitioners. Instead, we need to work on building physician-led
With more American adults qualifying as obese than ever before, doctors should be screening all adult patients for unhealthy weight, says a government panel. The obesity epidemic, and the ever-younger age groups that it strikes, threatens Texas’ physical and fiscal health. Texas’ continually expanding waistline correlates to our health care cost demands. Obesity is responsible for 27 percent of the growth in health care spending. Treating obese patients costs 37 percent more than treating normal-weight patients
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Doctors should check weight and height for all patients to determine if they're obese and refer them to intensive diet and exercise programs if necessary, according to new guidelines... Overweight and obesity contribute to diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, cancer, and stroke. Texas has an easy-to-see obesity crisis. Some 66 percent of Texas adults are obese; the United States average is 63 percent. During the past three decades, obesity rates in children have more than tripled in the country. Today, 32 percent of Texas children (ages 10-17) are obese.
Just half of U.S. adults received clinical preventive services, such as screenings and prescriptions, from 2007 to 2010, according to a CDC study.
"Our nation is in the midst of a public health crisis so profound that is it undermining our national well-being, our economic competitiveness and even our long-term national security." TMA's Healthy Vision 2020 recommendations: Increase funding for improving access to healthy foods; increase access to parks and recreational facilities; and promote worksite wellness policies. Improve the health of Texas students by increasing physical activity and reducing barriers to student participation in safe school sport activities.
Obese employees cost American companies a lot of money. This infographic breaks down how, and offers some prevention tips. The leading causes of death and disability in Texas and the United States today are preventable because they are closely associated with personal lifestyle decisions. Texans’ personal behaviors contribute to more than 60 percent of all deaths in our state every year The leading causes of death and disability in Texas and the United States today are preventable because they are closely associated with personal lifestyle decisions. Texans’ personal behaviors contribute to more than 60 percent of all deaths in our state every year
Population health encompasses the distribution of health outcomes within a population. Personal accountability plus team-based preventive care will keep us healthier -- and save us money.
While there were only 20 programs offering doctor of nursing practice degrees in 2006, the number grew to 184 last year. If they want to be doctors, they should go to medical school.
Growing numbers of physicians are earning reporting bonuses, but hundreds of thousands still have not participated in a program that turns punitive in 2013. Eliminate costs and hassles that don’t contribute to or add value to patient care New compliance requirements are bombarding physician practices seemingly every day.
The complexities that arise when programs overlap make it harder to control costs. It sure seems easier for Texas to control costs by just cutting the payments for dual-eligible patients. This cut must be reversed.
A patient-centered medical home, or PCMH, is a collaborative, team-based model of care led by a personal physician who ...
In recent years, numerous states have implemented PCMH initiatives that engage both private and public payers. While each program design was unique and each measured success differently, these initiatives showed improved outcomes and reduced costs.
Is it better for these issues to be handled by a fair and strong medical board than by a jackpot-justice-seeking trial lawyer?
Health, United States presents national trends in health statistics on such topics as birth and death rates, infant mortality, life expectancy, morbidity and health status, risk factors, use of ambulatory and inpatient care, health personnel and... Stats, stats, stats -- dig deep and enjoy
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Despite my exclusive use of an electronic medical record, I still receive dozens of medical communications on paper every day. Many times, government agencies and payers put demands on physicians that disrupt workflow. These demands come on top of the already extensive disruptions and intrusions physicians experience. As they decide or are required to move from a paper to an electronic health record, Texas must carefully consider the impact of any new regulatory burdens placed on the physician practice, especially when many of these burdens do nothing to improve care quality. For instance, to achieve the goals of “meaningful use,” the federal government requires that physicians have a system that tracks patients’ height, weight, and blood pressure as part of “structured data.” This is required even if the physician practices a specialty where height and weight play little or no role in the medical care they provide to patients. Do patients really want to be weighed at the ophthalmologist when updating their eyeglass prescription? According to the federal government, if a physician “believes that one or two of these vital signs are relevant to their scope of practice, then they must record all three vital signs in order to meet the measure of this objective and successfully demonstrate meaningful use.” Texas should not repeat the mistakes of the federal government.
The healthcare law makes primary-care workers even more vital.
TMA's View: The ICD-10 mandate will create significant burdens on the practice of medicine with no direct benefit to individual patient care. It is a huge weight to place on physicians when they face numerous other administrative hurdles, including implementing and achieving meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs), meeting quality measures under Medicare’s PQRS and other programs, the impending creation of accountable care organizations in Medicare, and more. The timing of the transition could not be worse, as many physicians already are spending significant time and resources implementing EHRs in their practices.
Patient centered medical homes will need a lot of experimentation in lots of locales to find the right formulae for success.
But private sector health leaders tell a Senate panel that new care delivery reforms could reduce defensive medicine. One more good reason why we must protect Texas’ existing medical liability reform laws, including caps on noneconomic damages and protections for emergency services
While the U.S.House Ways and Means Committee is seeking input from physician groups about ideas for the controversial sustainable growth rate formula... The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over in expectation of a different result. We've been calling on Congress to do away with the flawed Medicare payment formula for more than a decade. They always say they should. Then they run us up against a cliff and "kick the can down the road" again. This should have been taken care of in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Call us crazy -- we're pushing for SGR repeal, again.
Doctors’ advocates are asking Congress to scrap Medicare’s widely reviled sustainable growth rate payment scheme and replace it with fle... For decades, physicians have given away their services for free to patients who could not afford to pay. However, today’s health care market makes this very difficult. Medicare and Medicaid, which now cover 35 percent of health care in America, often pay physicians less than it costs them to provide their services. Commercial insurance companies’ payment rates, computed largely as a percentage of Medicare, have followed the government-run programs into the basement. The nation’s 50 million uninsured, including 6.2 million Texans, can rarely pay the costs of their health care. The squeeze leaves many physicians struggling to keep their practices open, let alone provide charity care. State and federal leaders must realize that cutting physicians’ payments is not an effective tool for controlling health care costs, and often exacerbates the cost of care. They also must realize that without physicians, no health care delivery system can be effective
Consider that the costliest 1 percent of patients in the United States account for more than 20 percent of what the nation spends on health care. They are older patients with cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and other serious chronic conditions. Many have multiple health problems, and their relatives might not be helping with their care. Most have private insurance and are white and female. TMA supports the use of the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) model in Medicare, Texas Medicaid, and commercial insurance plans. Public and private payers have, increasingly, been looking to this model as a way to reduce fragmented care, lower costs, avoid repetitive and costly procedures, and improve patient outcomes. Given the budget constraints that Texas faces and a growing population with unique health care needs, the PCMH offers the potential for Medicaid cost savings as well as improved patient outcomes and physician and provider satisfaction.
"Liability claims against U.S. doctors are often dismissed, and when they go to trial, the verdict is usually in the doctor's favor, according to a new study." Texas' 2003 health care liability reforms have worked. They’ve lived up to their promise. Sick and injured Texans have more physicians to deliver the care they need, particularly in high-risk specialties like emergency medicine, obstetrics, neurosurgery, and pediatric intensive care. Physicians also have benefited from much lower liability insurance rates and fewer non-meritorious lawsuit filings.
Can vaccines cause the disease they're supposed to prevent? Do they lead to autism? Every leading medical organization says no — and supports immunization — yet parents are growing increasingly skeptical. Every time one of these sham stories runs, more children lose out on important vaccinations. We're already seeing a whooping cough epidemic in Washington state.
We certainly can't endorse the idea of doing it by tatoo -- but it is very important that people of all ages share their end-of-life wishes with their loved ones during a time of relatively good health.
A Texas Legislative Committee met this week in Houston to discuss urgent health problems facing the state. Among them, the shortage of primary care doctors and the role nurses may play in filling the gap.
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