April 30, 2007
 

 
TOA President's Update
  

By David Teuscher, MD
President, Texas Orthopaedic Association

 
The Texas Medical Association Annual Meeting took place last week in Dallas, and TOA leaders were there in numbers continuing to assist TMA. The dedication of those colleagues’ means that the issues unique to our orthopaedic practice and patients are heard when we decide what the voice of medicine is going to say in Austin and Washington.

Our own Bruce Malone of Austin serves as Chairman of the TMA Board of Trustees, and Steve Brotherton of Ft. Worth is Vice-Speaker of the TMA House of Delegates (the primary policy making body for TMA).  These two orthopaedists, Drs. Malone and Brotherton, as well as, John Gill of Dallas and I serve as members of the Texas Delegation to the AMA. Dick McKay of Amarillo serves as the AMA Delegate from AAOS, and John Early of Dallas is the AMA Delegate from AOFAS. Countless other colleagues are serving on important TMA Boards, Committees, and Councils. All these TOA members are doing a fabulous job representing you. Please take the time to thank them for their sacrifice.

If you are inclined to become a more active participant, get elected as a Delegate or Alternate to TMA from your county medical society, or let us know what volunteer position interests you and we can nominate you for on a TMA Committee or Council. You can get more information on the volunteer opportunities online by clicking here.

This week, I will have the honor of leading more than fifteen Texas Orthopaedists to the National Orthopaedic Leadership Conference (NOLC) and the AAOS State Societies Strategy Meeting in Washington, D.C. This annual event is where Team Ortho gathers from across the nation to debate AAOS policy and work to positively influence national and state public policy. Your Texas Orthopaedic Association has been nominated for the AAOS State Society of the Year award, which will be announced on Thursday night. Stay tuned, I like our chances.

We will be visiting all 34 members of Congress from Texas (32 Reps and 2 Senators) on Thursday. Although we will be prepared to discuss all our issues, our primary focus is to win a permanent solution to the failed SGR formula that Medicare uses; the same flawed formula that keeps decreasing your government payments and now is used by all commercial health plans to keep ratcheting down our fees.  We will also work to prevent CMS from implementation of Pay for Performance (P4P) measures that will only increase our reporting and decrease our reimbursement instead of using evidence based medicine to achieve better outcomes and patient safety. Another issue of importance for all of us is to support our Texas military colleagues by continuing to urge increased support for research funding for the Extremity War Injury (EWI) program. You can get more information about each of these issues and others by clicking here.

TOA is all about you and your patients. Please take the opportunity to join us on Friday morning May 11th in Austin as we will be visiting our elected leaders at the Texas Capitol. We have many bad bills and a few good ones still pending, with the end of the 80th Legislative Session only one month away. The only way to make your voice heard is to join us. These visits are in conjunction with the TOA Annual Meeting at the Austin Four Seasons from May 11th – 13th. We will have more briefings on what is (or isn’t) going on in D.C. and Austin throughout the meeting. You can register at the TOA website  by using the Annual Meeting link. I hope to see ya’ll there.
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Texas District by District: Eliot Shapleigh
    

A fifth-generation El Pasoan whose roots in his community trace back to 1847, Senator Eliot Shapleigh represents Senate District 29, which includes most of El Paso County. He graduated from Rice University in 1974 and served in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone, West Africa until 1977. Senator Shapleigh graduated from The University of Texas School of Law in 1981 and is the managing partner of the Shapleigh Law Firm, PC. He is deeply committed to both the El Paso community and his family. He has been married to Lee Shapleigh, assistant county attorney for El Paso County, for over 20 years and is the proud father of Zoe and

Ben. Senator Shapleigh has lived and traveled extensively in Mexico and is fluent in Spanish.

Senator Shapleigh just completed his fifth session as a legislator. For the 79th Legislative Session, Shapleigh was appointed to the Finance Committee as well as being named chairman of the subcommittee on BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure). He was also appointed to the International Relations and Trade Committee; the Transportation and Homeland Security Committee; and the Veteran Affairs and Military Installations Committee.

Throughout his first four sessions, Shapleigh received numerous honors for his work on educational and health issues. Upon completion of the 78th Legislative session, Shapleigh was selected as one of the top legislators by the Classroom Teachers Association. After the 77th Legislative session, he was named the Texas Legislator of the Year by the Mexican American Bar Association. Others who have honored Shapleigh for his work include the Hispanic Journal, the Texas Chapter of the Sierra Club and the AARP.

During his five sessions, he has authored or sponsored more than 450 bills, with particular focus on education, economic development, infrastructure, technology and health care.

Senator Shapleigh is dedicated to increasing equity in state funding, ensuring fairness in state taxation, expanding educational opportunities for minority and low-income students and developing community solutions for health, safety and environmental issues. As an advocate for El Paso and other border communities, he is also interested in raising per capita income and boosting economic prosperity along the Texas Border.

Occupation:  Attorney
 Legislative Experience: Senate Member, 1997 - present

Current Committee Chairmanships:

·         Subcommittee on Base Closure and Realignment Current Committee Appointments: 

·         Finance

·         Transportation and Homeland Security

·         International Relations and Trade

·         Veteran Affairs & Military Installations

·         Sunset Commission

Email Eliot Shapleigh to thank him for his work!
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This Week In Texas: Mignon McGarry Memos

By Mignon McGarry
TOA Legislative Advocate / Memos: Thu Apr. 26 & Tue Apr. 24, 2007
TOA Online Version: All Memos

 

April 26, 2007, Thursday
 On Wednesday the Lt. Governor appointed three Republicans and two Democrats to represent the Senate on the conference committee that will negotiate a budget from the two draft bills.

Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, will lead the Senate half of the team. The other Senate conferees are Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, and Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock.

Speaker Craddick appointed the five House conferees last week.

Today, the full conference committee received an overview of the two versions of the budget from the Legislative Budget Board. The negotiations are expected to take several weeks.  

Next Tuesday the House is expected to take up a bill that would alter the new business margins tax enacted last year as part of the school funding plan.  The bill, HB 3928, by Rep. Jim Keffer, R-Eastland, would seek to modify the margins tax with various technical corrections.

April 24, 2007, Tuesday
Yesterday, the Senate passed a bill forbidding state health officials from requiring an HPV vaccine for Texas schoolchildren for a period of four years. The House already approved the bill last month and if they accept the changes made by the Senate, the bill will go to the governor's desk.

If the Governor wants to veto the bill, he has ten days (excepting Sundays) from when it is presented to him. He may also choose to let it become law without his signature, or he can sign it into law.  If he chooses to veto it, the Legislature can only override the veto with a two thirds vote (of members present) in each house.

We are still waiting for the Lt. Governor to appoint Senate members to the conference committee that will draft the final budget. 

Today, after lengthy debate, the House passed a bill requiring voters to produce proof of citizenship at the polls. The final vote was 76 – 69. 

The news of the day from the Senate floor is the passage of “Jessica’s Law”, a comprehensive proposal tightening penalties for crimes against children.
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Hospitals Shifting To Pay Specialists For Being "On Call"
    

An article in the Boston Globe examines the growing issue of specialists being compensated for emergency department duty. Decreases in overall reimbursement, a desire to keep regular hours, and a shortage of available and willing specialists are leading to more requests for compensation for being on call. Some physicians argue that taking emergency department calls is a “service to the community,” while others respond that in a changing world, it is unfair for hospitals to ask

that physicians provide their services for free. For more information click here.

The AAOS position statement issued last year on "On-Call Coverage and Emergency Care Services in Orthopaedics" calls for hospitals to assume "some of the financial burdens that orthopaedists and other physicians now bear alone," and outlines the responsibilities of physicians, hospitals and government in addressing this issue. The position statement is available on the AAOS Web site and appeared in the October 2006 AAOS Bulletin, which included several articles addressing the trauma/on call issue. The issue is available online here.
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ICT Publishes The April 2007 Edition Of The Texas WC Update
  
By Steven W. Nichols
Manager, Workers' Compensation Services
Insurance Council of Texas

The newsletter includes articles on the following developments impacting the Texas workers' compensation system:

  • The Texas Legislature Continues to Act On Workers’ Comp Legislation

  • House Legislation That Sets Hospital Fee Guideline Reimbursement Rates Would Undermine Key Provisions of Workers’ Compensation Reform

  • Legislation Passed in 2005 Says the Texas Association of Business

  • Governor Perry Reappoints Commissioner Betts

  • Division of Workers’ Compensation Proposes Emergency Rule to Change Effective Date of Treatment Planning Rule

  • ICT Offers Disability Management Training

  • Number of Job Injuries and Illnesses Requiring Days Off Work Drops in Texas in 2005

  • Workers’ Compensation - Guarded Optimism in 2007

  • But Workers Compensation Is Different! The Unique Position of Workers’ Compensation Insurance in a Post-9/11 World

  • Risk and Security - Insurers Seek Continued Backstop to Ensure Viable Terrorism Programs, Most Worrisome for Workers’ Comp: CBRN Attacks

  • Workers’ Compensation Coverage of Undocumented Workers

  • Speedy Licensing Won't Mean More Work Comp Docs

  • ICT Opens Registration for Its 2007 Mid-Year Property & Casualty Insurance Symposium

To view any or all of the above articles, please click here.  (PDF file - 4 mb)

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