Volume 115, Number 8 — August 2019
Cover Story: Charting Medicine's Statehouse Progress (pages 16-24)
Physicians checked off major accomplishments during the 2019 session of the Texas Legislature, including improvements to insurance network adequacy, raising the tobacco purchasing age to 21, and vital funding increases for women's health, mental health, and graduate medical education. These wins offset disappointments like no Medicaid pay increase.
Women in Medicine: Texan to Lead AMA (pages 6-7)
Sue Bailey, MD, is set to become the AMA's third woman president in a row.
Practice Management: Making Telemedicine Work (pages 26-29)
More physicians are embracing telemedicine, and new TMA-backed laws make it easier.
Legislative Affairs: Swinging for Fairness (pages 30-31)
Senate Bill 1264 establishes and arbitration process to resolve surprise medical bills.
History of Medicine: One Giant Step for Physicians (pages 32-35)
Texas cardiologist's memoir recounts the role physicians played in the race to reach the moon.
Quality: Anybody There? (pages 36-37)
New TMA policy says physicians should not be responsible when Medicare Advantage-assigned patients go AWOL.
Law: Setting the Record Straight (page 38-40)
Supreme Court curtails TMB
Public Health: Firearms Safety (pages 42-44)
Physicians say the best way to approach the delicate topic as a public health issue.
Vaccines
Talk to Patients About: Hib (Haemophilus influenzae b)
Also in this issue
Journal: HIV-Related Stress in Texas
Rounds: AMA Annual Meeting
Deaths