The Texas House of Representatives hit a critical juncture this week as legislative deadlines took effect, killing hundreds of bills. Thursday, May 10 marked the last day for House bills to be heard on second reading on the House floor, so lawmakers worked right up to the midnight hour, hearing more than 300 bills.

Two of the bills that made the cut are:

• HB 1066 by Rep. Dianne Delisi, R-Temple, which would help bring health information technology to Texas by establishing an entity called the Texas Health Services Authority to solicit funding for the adoption of new technology; and
• HB 2042 by Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, which would establish a Web-accessible database of Medicaid providers so patients and physicians can access up-to-date information on who is accepting new patients. The Senate Health and Human Services Committee took up the bill on Thursday. The Primary Care Coalition presented testimony in support of the bill.

House Bill 1096 by Rep. Rob Orr, R-Burleson, was among those bills that didn’t get in under the wire. The measure would have reduced physician supervision of physician assistants and nurse practitioners by expanding the number of PAs and NPs a physician could oversee and striking the requirement that a physician be on-site at least 10 percent of the time. TAFP opposed the bill. Another killed bill was HB 2329 by Rep. Todd Smith, R-Euless, which would require the Texas Department of Insurance to issue health plan “report cards” to consumers. TAFP supported the bill.

Conferees begin budget work

The budget conference committee began hammering out the differences between the House and Senate versions of the state budget. One of those differences is in how the two bodies fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program. The House budget includes funding to enhance CHIP through a set of reforms from House Bill 109 by Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston. The Senate budget does not include funding for those reforms.

On the Medicaid front, the Senate budget would give physicians a 25-percent raise in reimbursement for pediatric services as part of the settlement of the federal class action lawsuit, Frew v. Hawkins. The House passed its budget before the settlement, so it doesn’t include that increase. Both versions of the budget contain a 10-percent increase in reimbursement for adult Medicaid services.

One of TAFP’s major concerns with the proposed budget is that funding for family medicine graduate medical education was left virtually unchanged this session. In 2003, family medicine residency programs and the Texas Statewide Preceptorship Program withstood deep cuts in state funding when the Legislature faced a $10-billion budgetary shortfall. Since then, the number of family medicine residency positions in Texas has declined each year.

TAFP and its partners in the Primary Care Coalition sent letters to each of the budget conferees this week asking that they invest a little more than four million dollars to bring graduate medical education and preceptorship funding back to 2003 levels.

Senate votes to look into funding new residency positions

The Senate passed a bill that might lead to an increase in residency slots in Texas. Senate Bill 1095 by Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, calls for a study of the feasibility of using a portion of physician licensing fees to fund more residency positions. TAFP Past President Justin Bartos, M.D., of North Richland Hills spoke in favor of the bill before the Senate Health and Human Services committee.

“You’re already well aware of the shortage of primary care physicians, and this has now transitioned into a severe shortage of specialty physicians, particularly in the border areas and other parts of the state,” Bartos said. “If the trend we’re addressing here today continues, we’ll continue to have even greater shortages of specialty physicians in the future.”

The bill now goes to the House Public Health committee.

Thanks to this week’s Physicians of the Day

Thanks to the physicians who volunteered their time this week to serve at the Texas Capitol as Physician of the Day. This week’s physicians were Dale Ragle, M.D., of Dallas; Paul Berg, M.D., of Georgetown; David Pope, M.D., of Kerrville; and P.J. Mock, M.D., of La Porte. Chris Casso, M.D., a third-year resident in Corpus Christi Family Medicine Residency Program, participated as a Resident Physician of the Day on Friday.

The Physician of the Day calendar has been filled for the 80th Legislative Session. Make sure you are on the list for the 81st Legislative Session or any Special Sessions called between the end of the current session and the beginning of the next. Call or e-mail Kate McCann at TAFP to be placed on the Physician of the Day contact list or visit the Physician of the Day page of the TAFP Web site at any time for more information on the program and upcoming sessions.