CAPITOL UPDATE: Senate makes committee appointments; TAFP needs your managed care stories

After a slow start, the 81st Texas Legislature is beginning to pick up speed. Last Friday, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst named the Senate standing committees. The House is expected to announce committee appointments as soon as the end of next week.

The Senate appointments contained few surprises, with the committees remaining mostly intact from the last Legislature. One notable exception is that Higher Education is now a full committee rather than a subcommittee. The four committees of importance to medicine are Health and Human Services, Finance, State Affairs and Higher Education, and the appointed members are:

• Health and Human Services Committee: Jane Nelson (R-Lewisville), chair; Robert Deuell, MD (R-Greenville), vice chair; Joan Huffman (R-Houston); Robert Nichols (R-Jacksonville); Dan Patrick (R-Houston); Eliot Shapleigh (D-El Paso); Carlos Uresti (D-San Antonio); Royce West (D-Dallas); and Judith Zaffirini (D-Laredo).
• Finance Committee: Steve Ogden (R-Bryan), chair; Juan Hinojosa (D-McAllen) vice chair; Kip Averitt (R-Waco); Robert Deuell, MD (R-Greenville); Robert Duncan (R-Lubbock), Kevin Eltife (R-Tyler); Chris Harris (R-Arlington); Eddie Lucio (D-Brownsville); Jane Nelson (R-Lewisville); Kel Seliger (R-Amarillo); Florence Shapiro (R-Plano); Royce West (D-Dallas); John Whitmire (D-Houston); Tommy Williams (R-The Woodlands); and Judith Zaffirini, (D-Laredo).
• State Affairs Committee: Robert Duncan (R-Lubbock), chair; Robert Deuell, MD (R-Greenville), vice chair; John Carona (R-Dallas); Rodney Ellis (D-Houston); Troy Fraser (R-Horseshoe Bay); Chris Harris (R-Arlington); Mike Jackson (R-La Porte); Eddie Lucio (D-Brownsville); and Leticia Van de Putte (D-San Antonio).
• Higher Education Committee (new, was a subcommittee): Judith Zaffirini (D-Laredo), chair; Dan Patrick (R-Houston), vice chair; Kip Averitt (R-Waco); Robert Duncan (R-Lubbock); and Royce West (D-Dallas).

TAFP needs to hear from you in advance of legislative effort

Your Academy plans to move aggressively to support legislation that would require health plans to provide instant verification of benefits at the point of care so physicians and their patients have the information they need to make appropriate health care decisions. Instant verification of benefits would include information on what services are covered under a patient’s plan, what the patient’s deductible is, how much of the deductible has yet to be met for the year, and what the patient’s financial responsibility will be for the treatment options under consideration.

To illustrate the urgency of this problem, TAFP needs to hear your stories. How has the lack of appropriate benefit and coverage information at the point of service affected your practice and your patients? What is the extent of the administrative burdens you face because you don’t have this information when you need it? What difficulty has this posed to your patients?

Send us your stories and help us make your voice heard. E-mail your examples to Jonathan Nelson, TAFP Director of Communications, at jnelson@tafp.org, or call Jonathan at (512) 329-8666.

TMA’s initial First Tuesday brings crowd of doctors to the Capitol

Nearly 200 TMA members and TMA Alliance members put on their white coats and stormed the State Capitol on Tuesday, Feb. 3, participating in the first of four “First Tuesday” events planned for the session. The physicians visited their elected representatives, advocating for their patients and their practices.

Check out this podcast about TMA’s Feb 3 First Tuesday and plan to attend the next on March 3. (If you have trouble playing this .mp3, try right-clicking on the link and choosing “save target as” to download the file to your computer to play it in the media player of your choice.)

Thanks to this week’s Physicians of the Day; volunteers still needed

Thanks to this week’s Physicians of the Day: Gregory Johnson, M.D., of Amarillo; Francisco Barrera, M.D., of San Antonio; Jerry Wood, M.D., of Livingston; and Jorge Duchicela, M.D., of Weimar.

The Physician of the Day program brings a family physician to the Capitol each day of the legislative session to provide health care to members of the Capitol community. TAFP still needs volunteers during the 81st Legislature, particularly Thursday, Feb. 12, as well as upcoming dates in March. View more information about the program, including the online calendar of available dates, on the Physician of the Day page of the TAFP Web site.