TAFP premiers new season of video newscast, Capitol Report

Check out the first installment in this session’s series of video newscasts, Capitol Report, and learn about TAFP’s efforts to fight independent practice for nurse practitioners and reform the way managed care companies handle transactions with physicians. Just click on the icon to the right and the video will open in a pop-up browser.

Filing deadline closes contentious week

Friday, March 13 marks the 60th day of the 81st Texas Legislature and it is the last day lawmakers can file bills and joint resolutions other than local bills, emergency appropriations and bills that the governor has declared an emergency. Well over 4,000 bills have been filed and your Academy is tracking hundreds of them.

Most of the attention this week focused on the contentious battle in the Senate over the voter ID bill, which kept senators in session around the clock from Wednesday to Thursday morning.

Meanwhile, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services continued working through Article II of the budget, which contains spending for health and human services.

The House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence heard testimony on H.B. 528 by Rep. Allen Vaught, D-Dallas, which would raise the required age for children to ride in booster seats from 5 to 8. TAFP is one of more than 40 organizations supporting this bill. It has been championed by the Academy’s partner in the Texas Primary Care Coalition, the Texas Pediatric Society.

Texas Public Health Coalition publishes list of filed bills

As a member of the Texas Public Health Coalition, TAFP joins more than 20 organizations working to advance public health legislation. The coalition has succeeded in getting several bills filed this session. Check out this list of coalition recommendations and corresponding legislation.

Austin pediatrician testifies on Medicaid spending

The federal stimulus package will contain about $5.45 billion to increase Medicaid spending in Texas over the next two years. Just how that money will be spent will be determined by the Legislature. Pediatrician Louis Appel, M.D., medical director of People's Community Clinic in Austin, testified today before the House Select Committee on Federal Economic Stabilization Funding, representing TAFP, the Texas Pediatric Society and the Texas Medical Association.

He told the committee that the most important goal of the physicians of Texas regarding the federal Medicaid funding is “that patients have access to effective, timely and affordable health care.”

According to his written testimony, Appel recommended the committee consider the following priorities.

• Reducing the number of uninsured children by extending 12-months' continuous coverage to children on Medicaid. Continuous coverage is not just good medicine but also good business. It is well known that uninterrupted health coverage improves the timely receipt of preventive health services, the hallmark of quality pediatric care. But the longer a child is covered, the less it costs to treat the child per month. Moreover, helping Medicaid children obtain timely preventive and primary care would help Texas comply with the Frew vs. Hawkins agreement, a lawsuit stemming from Medicaid children not getting the care they need. Additionally, 12-months coverage would mitigate ongoing issues with the state's eligibility system by reducing by half the volume of eligibility renewals state eligibility workers must process.
• Improving the availability of physician services in Medicaid and CHIP by enacting payment parity with Medicare. The rate increases enacted in 2007 have resulted in more physicians participating in Medicaid, but those gains are not as high as we would like and somewhat tenuous. If we are to maintain the momentum, rates must be further enhanced in the next biennium.
• Fixing the state's eligibility system by providing HHSC sufficient resources to hire, retain, and train needed eligibility workers as well as make needed technological enhancements to the Texas Integrated Eligibility Redesign System (TIERS).
• Modernize Health Information Technology. Lastly, the federal government allocated an additional $19 billion to help physicians and hospitals implement electronic medical records and E-prescribing. Funding is expected to begin in 2011. A portion of the funds are specifically directed towards helping high-volume Medicaid practices obtain this technology. The details on how funds will be allocated are still not clear, but our organizations are excited about the opportunity the new funding may provide and will work closely with the state and our members to help deploy HIT.

Thanks to the Physicians of the Day

Thank you to the physicians who volunteered as Physicians of the Day this week: Charles Calvert, D.O., of Coppell; Jimmy Clay Burns, M.D., of West Columbia; Mark Eidson, M.D., of Weatherford; and Ron McMurry, M.D., of Jasper.

Don’t miss your chance to volunteer as a Physician of the Day during the 81st Texas Legislative Session. One day remains in March that needs to be filled: Tuesday, March 24. There are limited spots available in April and May.

As a Physician of the Day, you’ll care for lawmakers and the staff and anyone else on the Capitol grounds in the Capitol Health Services clinic, and you’ll have the honor of being announced in both the Senate and the House. TAFP has been providing this service in the Capitol for legislative sessions since 1971. For more information including an online calendar of available dates, and to sign up, click here.