Texas Medical Association

As last year’s one-time 2.5% increase expires this coming Dec. 31, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS’) 2027 fee schedule proposal integrates yet another round of repeated cuts to Medicare’s conversion factors, which are used to calculate payment for physician services. This year’s conversion factors for physicians in traditional Medicare face a proposed reduction of 1.68% compared with 2026.

Instructions from Novitas, the Medicare administrator in Texas, walk through three scenarios for teleradiology services: A radiologist with a private practice interpreting tests from home; A radiologist interpreting tests from home for a practice group located in the same state; and A radiologist interpreting tests from home for a practice group located in a different state. In the first scenario, Medicare bases payment on the radiologist’s home location.

“It just doesn't get any more meaningful when you’re talking about the subject of space than that,” TMA President Bradford W. Holland, MD, told Texas Medicine. The House of Delegates, where he presented the gavel, uses a near-identical instrument. Dr. Seddon was one of six women in her medical school class and the only woman in her surgical residency at the University of Tennessee. When NASA opened its astronaut program to women in 1976, she applied and was designated an astronaut in 1979.

Organized by the Austin Museum Partnership, the 29th Annual Austin Museum Day is a free celebration of art, culture, history, music, nature, and science. Over 30 museums in Austin will welcome visitors with special programming, including guided and self-guided exhibition tours, activities, and more. TMA’s History of Medicine Gallery will offer free merchandise, mineral water samples, and an interactive activity for attendees.

That was the message the Texas Medical Association wrote to the agency after TDI released proposed rule revisions. Those revisions followed a court order agreed upon by the Texas Association of Health Plans (TAHP) and TDI that directed the agency to reopen rulemaking. Texas legislators passed House Bill 3359 in 2023, which in part requires state-regulated PPO and EPO health plans to demonstrate they made good-faith efforts to contract with physicians and others  to build an adequate network.

“I want to brag about Texas, and say Texas needs to keep [the grants] growing,” said Woodson “Scott” Jones, MD, vice dean of graduate medical education at the UT Health San Antonio Long School of Medicine. “We can’t lose momentum here.” As a member of the Texas Medical Association’s Council on Medical Education, Dr. Jones added, “If you learn it here, you’re more likely to stay and practice here.” On July 28, Gov.

“I’ve noticed people embracing disagreement for disagreement’s sake …  and while there are ways to explain this, I wonder, could we be asking the wrong questions?” host Thomas Kim, MD, Austin psychiatrist, said in the podcast’s introduction. Dr. Kim will explore various health care and medical topics with his guests in episodes released every other week. “With the goal of supporting better health and wellness, we will reconsider questions that tend to spiral into unhelpful distress,” he said.

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The three received Cowles Young Physician Scholarships to support their TMA Leadership College journeys, continuing the association’s effort to ensure strong and sustainable physician leadership within organized medicine. “It just really says a lot that TMA offers to give this,” said Chantal Mendes, MD, a Houston anesthesiologist who received one of this year’s three scholarships.

Now, as one of seven winners of the Krishna Memorial Scholarship, the Spring native feels more confident than ever. In his second year at The University of Texas at Tyler School of Medicine, Mr. Bouldin is studying internal medicine and infectious disease. As one of several scholarships available through the Texas Medical Association and funded by the TMA Special Funds Foundation, the Krishna Memorial Scholarship has been presented annually since 2021.