by Delbert Chumley, MD
BCMS President 2007
Your medical society was well represented at the TMA House of Delegates meeting held in conjunction with the annual program in Dallas April 19-22. I’d like to share with you some of my observations and thoughts about what transpired at that meeting.
TMA outgoing president, Ladon Homer MD, and incoming president, Bill Hinchey MD, both eloquently reminded us that the honored profession of medicine is on the verge of being dismantled by such outside forces as governmental agencies, insurance companies and hospitals. They reinforced the principle that only physicians should manage the delivery of healthcare and govern and regulate the profession of medicine. Dr. Homer challenged us to “take back our profession” by continuing to work as a unified voice through organized medicine.
During the ensuing two days, I witnessed the response to that challenge take form through the action of the House of Medicine. It was a very satisfying feeling to see my colleagues from throughout the state work together on issues that involved all aspects of medicine and not just their own specialties. Furthermore, I was impressed that so many important and relevant resolutions were acted upon. Here are but a few of the ones I felt were of particular interest:
1) Make physician antitrust relief a top federal legislative priority;
2) Lobby the TMB to issue a license within 90 days for an applicant with “clean” documentation, and that adequate funding to the TMB be provided without increasing existing physician fees;
3) Voted to support parity in the number of years required for international medical graduates and U.S. graduates to obtain licensure;
4) Request the AMA exercise its full influence to protect physicians from undue burden and expense in the recertification process;
5) Enacted a definition of surgery and who can provide surgical services to be used in future efforts pertain-ing to scope of practice legislation;
6) Work to end the use of “disruptive physicians” policies which are ex-tended to non-patient care issues; to assure that accused physicians are granted reasonable rights and due process for peer review and quality assessment efforts; and to educate physicians about potential misuse of peer review (sham peer review);
7) Adopt policy permitting physicians required to cover hospital ER services to receive compensation from hospitals for such services or share in the compensation (from federal, state and local resources) for services provided in the ER and/or subsequent in-hospital care;
8) Request the AMA make meaningful Medicare reform its top priority and address the inequities of the Medi-care system, including but not limited to studying the joining of Medi-care A and B, eliminating the SGR and tying physician fees to the Medicare Economic Index
9) Called on TMA to work with other groups to develop reasonable standards for compliance with the new rule that requires hospital medical records to be completed within 30 days of discharge.
This is only a small representation of all the issues discussed and addressed by the TMA House of Delegates. As you can clearly see, your Society was busy at work for you and your patients. Next time you see a colleague who serves as a delegate or alternate delegate to the TMA, be sure to thank him or her for a job well done.
