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PRESIDENT’S
MESSAGE
It’s time to take a seat at the table
By James L. Humphreys, MD
2015 BCMS President
Our new state legislature has spent the last month memo- ment for services and the numerous bureaucratic obstacles of
rizing the location of their offices and other important Capitol the Medicaid program, and lack of sufficient funded residency
landmarks such as conference rooms and the nearest rest- slots to take advantage of the newly graduated medical stu-
rooms. The first month of every legislative session gets off the dents and maintain a sufficient physician workforce in the
ground a little slowly as the new guys learn the system and state. Additionally we have to attempt to restore the lost
legislators get a feel for their committee assignments and com- Medicare/Medicaid dual eligible patient funding that hit doc-
mittee chairmen and women. With so much change in the tors hard all across the state and particularly in the Rio Grande
legislature after the November elections, this feeling-out Valley. Lastly, the issue of price transparency in medical care
process has taken even longer than usual. has been pressed to the fore by a media blitz over the past two
years and is sure to be an issue with bill filings this session.
This month is when things start to heat up and get serious.
Bill filings pick up and committees start to have more frequent Take advantage of the opportunity to learn our current hot-
meetings. Advocacy activity at both the TMA and BCMS button issues at the state house and what new legislation is in
never actually stops, but there is a definite uptick in activity the pipeline that affects them. Every new legislative session is
starting in February. The annual collection of First Tuesdays your chance to be a part of the process directly and take a shot
advocacy visits to the Capitol jointly operated by TMA and at shaping new laws (or fixing broken old ones). BCMS will
the TMA Alliance run from February through May. If you again be very active in legislative advocacy this session, and
have not participated in a First Tuesdays visit to Austin, I we invite you to join us in these efforts. Feel free to contact
highly recommend attending at least one to see how your state either myself or Mary Nava if you have any questions about
and local advocacy teams take issues affecting your practice how to help us help ourselves and our colleagues. Remember,
straight to the legislators. if you aren’t at the table, you are on the menu.
In the 84th Legislative Session we face the usual list of is- James L. Humphreys, MD, is the 2015 president of BCMS.
sues: attempts to undo or weaken tort reform, expansion of He is a pathologist with Precision Pathology in San Antonio.
non-physician scope of practice, inadequate Medicaid pay-
8 San Antonio Medicine • February 2015
