Docs Back Insur­ance Reforms
from The Austin Chronicle, April 3, 2009
Texans' health insurance premiums continue to rise while coverage has stagnated or decreased, says Dr. Josie Williams, president of the Texas Medical Association. Consumers are "paying more and more and receiving less and less, and they really don't understand their health insurance policies," she said during a March 25 press conference at the Capitol. More

Doctors Are Opting Out of Medicare
from The New York Times, April 2, 2009
Early this year, Barbara Plumb, a freelance editor and writer in New York who is on Medicare, received a disturbing letter. Her gynecologist informed her that she was opting out of Medicare. When Ms. Plumb asked her primary-care doctor to recommend another gynecologist who took Medicare, the doctor responded that she didn’t know any - and that if Ms. Plumb found one she liked, could she call and tell her the name? More

Letter to the Editor by Josie R. Williams, M.D., TMA President
from The Amarillo Globe-News, April 3, 2009
The Texas Medical Association opposes the state budget rider proposed by Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, that would prohibit any state money from going toward research using embryonic stem cells. More

New Texas Study Urges Innovative Immunization Strategies for Adolescents
from Medical News Today, April 6, 2009
A new study by a Houston physician calls for the need for more inventive ways to ensure adolescents are receiving adequate preventive health care. "A 'one size fits all' approach will not work," said Dr. Middleman, who is an expert advisor for Texas Medical Association's Be Wise - Immunize program. "We will need to consider multiple delivery strategies, including school-based immunization programs, to assure success with immunizing this age group," she said. More

Fewer People Going Under the Knife
from The Houston Chronicle, April 6, 2009
As they downsize and economize, Houstonians are finding quicker and cheaper ways to improve their looks and lives. Rather than full face lifts, for example, they’re opting for Botox. The no-downtime injections are in high demand at the same time area physicians report sagging business in heavy-duty cosmetic surgeries. More

Insurance Consolidation a Concern for Medical Providers
from The Chicago Tribune, April 8, 2009
Talk of potential mergers in the medical insurance industry has doctors and hospitals worried about health plans having too much clout over consumer choices and prices. “It becomes difficult for patients to have choice and doctors to get their patients the care that is needed because a monopoly has been created," said Dr. James Rohack, a Texas cardiologist and AMA president-elect. "Patients don't have as many other options." More

Opinion: Proposed Law To Turn Health Care Into a Business
from The Wichita Falls Times-Record News, April 2, 2009
How would you like it if you were in the hospital and the hospital administrator came by and said: "you cost too much" and discharged you? Or if you needed to be transferred to the care of a super specialist somewhere else and the hospital administrator came by and said: "we need all the money we can get for the new tower so you can’t be transferred."More

Editorial: Health Care Outsourcing That Failed
from The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, April 4, 2009
The state Health and Human Service Commission’s latest adventure in government privatization will mercifully end May 31, when it terminates its contract with UnitedHealth’s Evercare program. The program, which sought to coordinate care for more than 74,000 elderly and disabled North Texas Medicaid clients, produced more than 1,300 complaints and was assessed more than $1 million in fines by the state for inadequate staffing and other bureaucratic sins in its first 11 months. More

Poor Access to Primary Care Increases Illness, Death
from Scripps Howard News Service via The Corpus Christi Caller-Times, April 5, 2009
One in five Americans does not have a family doctor and even many who do often are shut out of care, translating to higher rates of illness and death, and higher costs. A Scripps Howard News Service review found that access to primary care is deteriorating, driving millions of people outside traditional family practices, or leaving them without care. Millions of people, even those with insurance, find it impossible to see a doctor except in an emergency room or walk-in clinic. More

Obama Administration Putting AIDS 'Back on Nation's Radar'
from USA Today, April 7, 2009, 2009
The Obama administration vowed Tuesday to attack complacency about the nation's HIV/AIDS epidemic with the first media barrage aimed at the public in two decades. The campaign, unveiled during a White House ceremony, will hammer home the theme that every 9½ minutes, someone in the USA is infected with HIV, for an estimated total of 56,300 new cases each year. More