By Walt Borges Legislative Affairs Repairing managed care Unlike its involvement in previous sessions of the Texas Legislature, the Texas Medical Association is not looking to break any new ground in managed care reforms during the current session. Instead, the association aims to fine-tune laws dealing with issues such as prompt payment, physician networks' risk, and joint physician negotiations that were passed in previous sessions. It's a no-brainer. Managed care companies should tell physicians in plain language how and how much they are going to be paid for their services. But that's not always the case.
Some companies guard information about their fee structures like nuclear secrets.
Now, TMA is asking state insurance regulators to define exactly what state law requires the companies to tell the doctors who sign their contracts. The silent epidemic Hepatitis C is a particularly nasty critter. It's believed to have infected million of Americans, it's second only to alcohol in causing cirrhosis of the liver, and experts predict it will quadruple liver cancer in the next 10 to 15 years. And researchers have not been able to identify all the ways it is transmitted. The new reality of practicing medicine in the 21st century is causing medical schools in Texas to re-examine their curricula to make sure they are adequately preparing the physicians of the future.