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TOA
President's
Update: Get Active! Texas
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By Timothy L. Beck, MD
President, Texas Orthopaedic Association
Get Active! Texas
In January of 2008, TOA
launched the Get Active! Texas public education campaign.
We asked our members to volunteer as media contacts and to
serve as a community resource for Get Active! Texas. If
you are interested in joining our TOA Speaker Network for
Get Active! |
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Texas or for other news outlets covering
orthopaedic treatment, please contact our TOA Executive Vice
President, Donna Parker via
email. (donna@toa.org)
A press release was sent to the Texas
media entitled "Get Active! Texas - Orthopaedic Surgeons Encourage
Texans to Build Stronger Bones." TOA quoted
recent
statistics, which state that a startling 300 million people worldwide
are obese, and a
that a
whopping 750 million are overweight. Orthopaedic
surgeons are concerned about these statistics and the
Get Active! Texas
public
health campaign by the Texas Orthopaedic Association (TOA) and Texas
Orthopaedic Foundation (TOF) advocates healthier musculoskeletal
systems and obesity prevention through increased physical activity.
The
Get Active! Texas
public
health campaign focuses on the importance of movement, instead of
staying sedentary, as well as the building bone mass early in life to
prevent osteoporosis.
TOA
followed the public education campaign by sending the AAOS produced
"Lazybones" public service announcement (PSA) to over 200 TV stations
in Texas. Please let us know if it has been aired in your city.
A new
radio PSA will be produced in August for the Get Active! Texas public
education campaign. The Lieutenant Governor will encourage Texans to
live healthier lives through increased activity. Lt. Governor
Dewhurst’s assistance with the Get Active! Texas campaign is very much
appreciated. TMA has graciously offered their production studio and
the PSA will be taped for duplication and distribution to radio
stations through Texas.
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Workers Compensation
Educational Session Offered in Corpus Christi on August 22nd
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The Corpus Christi
Field Office of the Texas Department of Insurance, Division of
Workers' Compensation (TDI-DWC) is hosting a brown bag educational
session for health care providers, employers, human resource managers,
claims adjusters, case managers and employee organizations on Friday,
August 22, 2008. The topic is the Designated Doctor: What They Do and
What Is New. This free session will be held from noon to 1 p.m. at the
Corpus Christi Field Office located at 5155 |
Flynn Parkway, Suite 508 in Corpus
Christi. Following a presentation this session is an open forum in
which participants may ask questions.
For more information, contact Bobby Gonzalez, Corpus Christi Field
Office Manager, at 361-883-2551 or via
e-mail. (bobby.gonzalez@tdi.state.tx.us)
A complete list of the brown bag educational sessions that are
currently scheduled is located by clicking on this
link.
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This Week In Texas: Mignon
McGarry Memos
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By Mignon McGarry
TOA Legislative Advocate / Memo: Wed. November 28th,
2007
TOA Online Version: All Memos
July 30, 2008, Wednesday
Most people think of regulation and state government going
hand in hand. In recent years, the Texas Legislature has been
just as interested in the concept of deregulation. |
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Electric deregulation in Texas was the
result of the Texas Legislature agreeing to open the state’s electric
market to competition in 1999. The House Committee on Regulated
Industries met in Austin in late June to discuss the Committee’s
Interim Charge on the effects of wholesale and retail competition in
the Texas electric market. The Committee heard testimony on capacity,
projections and competition from Barry Smitherman, Chairman of the
Public Utility Commission. The Committee also heard testimony from
Trip Doggett, the Chief Operating Officer of ERCOT as well as
representatives of several energy companies. The Committee discussed
the use of smart meters which allow meters to be read remotely without
the need of a meter reader. Fuel diversity was also a major topic of
discussion. Another interesting factor is the makeup of the Public
Utility Commission. Commissioners Julie Caruthers Parsley and Paul
Hudson have both announced they are leaving the PUC, giving Governor
Perry two high profile appointments to make in the coming months. With
the temperature rising outside as well as inside homes and businesses
faced with higher utility bills, electric issues will take center
stage once again in January of 2009.
Another issue that continues to make headlines is the cost of higher
education in Texas. In 2003, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill
3015 which transferred the authority to set tuition rates from the
Legislature to the governing boards of public colleges and
universities. The bill was termed “tuition deregulation.” According to
a recent report by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board,
tuition at public colleges and universities in Texas has risen 112
percent from 2003 to 2007. The schools dispute this data, arguing that
fees play as much a role in the cost of higher education as the amount
of tuition. For example, the University of Texas System says that
total academic costs during 2003-2007 increased 49 percent, not the
higher figure cited in the report. Expect this to be a major topic of
discussion among members of the Texas Legislature in 2009.
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The Federal Obesity
Prevention Act of 2008
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Sponsored by Senators:
Harkin, Dodd, Bingaman, Kennedy, and Mikulski
Last week we had mentioned HR 6478, a
national bill focusing on advancing orthopaedic care, research and
public awareness of musculoskeletal health.
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Another
important health
legislation effort is being made by U.S. Senators Dodd, Harkin and
Bingaman. In an effort to combat the
epidemic of obesity sweeping the nation, Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT),
Tom Harkin (D-IA), and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) today introduced the
Federal Obesity
Prevention Act of 2008. This legislation, which is cosponsored by
Senators Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), would
establish a federal interagency taskforce responsible for creating a
national strategy for combating obesity across America.
The
next generation of Americans may be the first generation to be less
healthy than their parents. The primary driver of this is the growing
childhood obesity problem and the resultant health impacts, including
increasing rates of heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic
illnesses. The rate of childhood obesity has more than tripled in the
last three decades. Currently, 25 million or one third of American
children and youth are either obese or are at risk of becoming obese.
Childhood obesity involves immediate and long-term risks to physical and
psychological health. Children are increasingly being diagnosed with
health problems that were historically confined to adults, such as type
2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
The
Federal Obesity Prevention Act of 2008 was developed to respond to the
recommendations of public health experts and organizations, including
the Institute of Medicine and Trust For America’s Health, which have
called for more coordinated, sustained federal leadership to address the
obesity crisis. The legislation establishes an interagency task force
of department Secretaries or other high level officials to fill that
need. The task force will:
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Establish a government-wide strategy for preventing and reducing
overweight and obesity that includes defining clear roles,
responsibilities, and accountability for all agencies of the Federal
Government;
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Coordinate effective interagency coordination and priorities for
action among Federal agencies, including short-term and long-term
goals for childhood and adult obesity rates; and
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Implement and evaluate the effectiveness of the strategy.
Members of the task force will include the
Departments of Health and Human Services, Agriculture, Education,
Transportation, Defense, Veterans Affairs, Interior, and Labor as well
as the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications
Commission.
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