Family doctor to head TMA

Frederick L. Merian, M.D., of Victoria was sworn in as president of Texas Medical Association at TexMed 2002. Merian has been a TAFP member since 1972.

Merian received his B.A. in zoology from the University of Texas at Austin, attended the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, and served as a flight surgeon and commander in the Air Force. He later opened a private family practice in Yoakum, Texas. He practiced there until 1991, when he became a partner at American Regional Health Center in Victoria. He has served as president and managing partner there since 1997.

Merian has been actively involved in organized medicine for many years. He served on TMA’s Council on Socioeconomics and the Committee on Rural Health as well as the Ad Hoc Committee on Access to Health Care. He has been a delegate to the TMA House of Delegates since 1983. From 1994 until 2000, he chaired the Advisory Committee for TMA Physician Services.

In addition, Merian has contributed much to TAFP’s South Texas Chapter. The American Medical Association elected him a delegate in 1998, after he had served as an alternate delegate for five years. He became a fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians in 1978.

“This is a challenging time for doctors,” Merian says. “The government, health insurance companies, overzealous personal injury lawyers, and even some of our friends in the business community seem determined to erect obstacles to our ability to provide medical care to Texans.”

News from National Conference of Special Constituencies

The AAFP National Conference of Special Constituencies and the Annual Leadership Forum took place April 25-27 in Kansas City, Mo. Five groups discussed many topics important to their constituencies in hopes of drawing up policies to propose at the AAFP Congress of Delegates. 

According to FP Report, the constituency of international medical graduates, (IMG), defended a resolution they had previously passed and encouraged the academy to support the J-1 visa waiver program in a policy statement. Cancelled but reinstated after Sept. 11 and the heightened national security considerations that have followed, the J-1 visa waiver program allows sponsored foreign physicians to practice in underserved areas.

IMG constituents also wanted AAFP to support equitable licensing criteria for all medical graduates, regardless of where they were trained.

The women’s constituency discussed many resolutions, including obesity management, reimbursement issues, breastfeeding education, job sharing and education regarding cognitive behavioral therapy and manipulation medicine.

The women constituents recommended the creation of an AAFP subcommittee on maternity care issues. The subcommittee’s responsibilities would include liability, credentialing, training and the development of evidence-based standards, according to FP Report.

The women physicians also voted for the academy to ask health care plans to make it clear to their members that family physicians can provide services for women and children.

The women delegate seats in the AAFP Congress of Delegates will sunset as of the 2002 Congress this fall. The constituency will be honoring past and current women leaders in the academy at the AAFP Annual Meeting.

The new physicians caucus focused on malpractice and tort reform. They asked AAFP to develop a system physicians could use to demonstrate their competency in different areas of medicine.

The gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender constituency voted unanimously to try to achieve delegate status in the AAFP Congress of Delegates. They also adopted a resolution that states if one partner in a gay or lesbian relationship has adopted a child, the second partner should be able to gain legal parenthood, according to FP Report.

The GLBT constituency also voted to support domestic partner benefits.

The minority constituency focused on health care disparity. One resolution asks the academy to investigate factors causing these disparities, says FP Report. The minority constituency also called for increased participation of minority physicians in practice-based research.

Other issues tackled at the conference were fellowship training opportunities in family practice, recognition of strong obstetrical programs, hospitalists, pharmacist immunization privileges, immunization shortages, domestic partner benefits, DEA number confidentiality, and hate crimes legislation.

TAFP was well represented at NCSC and the Annual Leadership Forum. The official TAFP representatives present at the conference were Linda Siy, M.D., woman delegate; Mary Nguyen-Poole, M.D., new physician delegate; Rosalie Pena, M.D., minority delegate; and Kaparaboyna Ashok Kumar, M.D., international medical graduate delegate. Also attending NCSC was Leah Raye Mabry, M.D., TAFP delegate.

The Annual Leadership Forum is held in conjunction with NCSC. Texas members in attendance included Justin V. Bartos, M.D., TAFP president; Robert L. Hogue, M.D., TAFP president-elect; James C. Martin, M.D., AAFP president-elect; C. Tim Lambert, M.D., TAFP delegate; Lloyd Van Winkle, M.D., TAFP alternate delegate; and Dale Moquist, M.D.