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Texas Medicine Magazine - 11/02/2025

Texas Medicine Magazine

Texas Medicine Back Issues - 10/31/2025

Back Issues

Alternate Paths: Will Limited Licenses Help Alleviate Texas’ Workforce Shortages? - 10/31/2025

House Bill 2038, known as the "Doctor Act," allows Texas to establish "limited" and "provisional" licenses for unmatched medical graduates and international medical graduates. 

New Texas law raises certain Medicaid violations to same level as intentional fraud - 10/31/2025

Senate Bill 1038 provides a key state agency with a new array of penalties, signaling the state’s focus on safeguarding Medicaid spending. In the process, however, it has elevated potential penalties for unknowingly violating Medicaid program rules to the same level as those for intentional fraud. 

Covering Distances: Physicians, lawmakers, med schools look to improve rural patient access to care - 10/31/2025

Texas legislators are taking notice of the dearth of physician care in rural counties with solutions, medical schools are gaining ground with successful rural-specific training tracks, with TMA all the while pushing for further steps to assuage rural health care shortages in Texas.

Pivoting Toward the Future: Progress in the physician workforce grows apace with the state’s population - 10/31/2025

TMA’s physician workforce keeps apace the Texas population growth, and progress is happening to build the workforce through licensure, new state programs, and other initiatives.

Tailored Programming: Upcoming TMA conferences meet physicians where they practice - 10/31/2025

Texas Medical Association offers two upcoming conferences that members can attend - Business of Medicine Conference in El Paso in September and Local Medicine Matters in Tyler in October.

Reaching for the Stars: For Bernard A. Harris Jr., MD, NASA was the start of a childhood dream fulfilled - 10/30/2025

Bernard A. Harris Jr., MD, an astronaut and physician who has done two spacewalks, will be the featured speaker at the opening general session of TexMed, the Texas Medical Association’s annual conference, convening April 16-18, 2026. He’s titled his speech “An Astronaut’s Perspective: The Future of Medicine and Beyond.”

Enjoying Employment: Texas Physicians Trend Away from Independent Practice - 10/14/2025

As the share of Texas physicians trend away from independent practice, TMA members spell out the benefits of employment.

UPDATED: Closer to Home: TMA Reimagines its Event Strategy - 10/07/2025

TMA reimagines its event strategy to meet members where they are.

2025 Legislative Wrap-Up: TMA Defeats Concerning Vaccine Bills For Second Session in a Row - 10/02/2025

Two bills that did survive will took effect Sept. 1, one of which imposes a specific informed consent form on physicians.

2025 Legislative Wrap-Up: Erosions to Medical Liability Reforms Fail - 09/15/2025

Medicine’s work this session to preserve Texas’ landmark medical liability reforms started and ended like legislative sessions past with a perennial attempt to index the landmark 2003 noneconomic damages cap to inflation. But that story had a twist this session in that the vehicle to do so, House Bill 4036, was pushed by a pair of Republicans alongside its typical Democrat contingency.  

2025 Legislative Wrap-Up: Amid Bad Insurance Bills Defeated, Gold Card Law Refinements Close Gaps - 09/12/2025

House Bill 3812 addresses some of the shortfalls and inconsistencies among payers in the intended implementation of Texas’ landmark prior authorization exemption law. The law took effect Sept. 1 but additional rulemaking by the Texas Department of Insurance is likely.    

Talk to Patients About: Vaccines During Pregnancy - 09/11/2025

Protecting moms and babies from certain diseases often starts with pregnant women. Child-bearing women may not realize they pass on disease-fighting antibodies to their babies, protecting them early in life. That protection improves greatly when women get certain vaccines before and during pregnancy. They also may not realize getting vaccinated right after pregnancy can stop the spread of illnesses.  

‘This Is the Teach One’: Physician-Led CME Is Rooted in Relevance and Firsthand Experience - 09/10/2025

CME developed and transmitted by TMA undergoes a rigorous vetting process informed by physician input and expertise.

Personalized Pursuit: Word-of-Mouth Recruitment Plays Vital Role in How TMA Grows Membership - 09/10/2025

TMA launches new pilot program that focuses on member physicians recruiting colleagues to join the association.

2025 Legislative Wrap-Up: Texas Medicaid Enrollment, Eligibility Systems Get Modernization Funding - 09/08/2025

The Texas legislature preserved Medicaid allotments that TMA advocated for in the 2023 session, while providing funding to support two important online systems.

Digital-Age Doctors: What the 21st Century Cures Act Has Done to Change Physician Practice - 09/08/2025

Texas physicians have become more cognizant of electronic health records and innovations in augmented intelligence since the passage of the 21st Century Cures Act.

2025 Legislative Wrap-Up: Scope Creep Defense Preserves Physician-Led Care, Patient Safety - 09/04/2025

TMA's scope creep defense in the 2025 legislative session included an appeal to Gov. Abbott to veto a bill curtailing the Texas Medical Board.

‘A United Force’: Physicians Answered the Call for Patients, Medicine This Legislative Session - 09/02/2025

The Texas Medical Association remained a powerful force to stand up for patients and the practice of medicine

2025 Legislative Wrap-Up: Inside the Capitol – Lessons from the 89th Legislative Session - 09/02/2025

TMA Council on Legislation Chair Zeke Silva, MD, offers an inside look at what it was like to operate at the Capitol behind the scenes and on the stage during this year’s session.

2025 Legislative Wrap-Up: TMA Deflects Onerous Reporting Regs for Independent Practices - 09/02/2025

Far-reaching health care consolidation legislation littered with unintended consequences and laden with potential financial and civil penalties for uncomplicated business transactions was defeated by TMA advocacy.

2025 Legislative Wrap-Up: Life of the Mother Act Provides Clarity Around Medical Emergency Exception for Pregnant Patients - 09/02/2025

TMA was heavily involved in advocating and refining Senate Bill 31, the Life of the Mother Act, to bring much-needed clarity to physicians regarding the medical emergency exception to the state's abortion prohibition.

2025 Legislative Wrap-Up: New Technology Laws Take Effect Sept. 1 - 09/02/2025

TMA took a physician-led approach this session to legislation related to health information technology, safeguarding medicine from would-be detriments, including unchecked use of artificial intelligence by payers and unintended consequences stemming from federal law.

2025 Legislative Wrap-Up: Texas Physician Workforce Gets Budget Boost - 09/02/2025

Proven avenues to expand Texas’ physician workforce – via funding secured for undergraduate and graduate medical education (GME), loan repayment, and rural training programs, as well as supporting TMB’s efforts to process licenses for physicians moving to Texas from other