A majority of the Texas House members, 81 of 150, have signed on as sponsors of the Texas Medical Board (TMB) reform bill, CSHB 1013. This bill eliminates most confidential / anonymous complaints against hardworking physicians and establishes legal due process protections for physicians subject to complaints before the TMB.
CSHB 1013 passed the House Public Health Committee 7-2 and is now in the Calendars Committee, which will set it for a vote by the entire House.
CSHB 1013 would require transparency of the TMB’s actions which are currently cloaked in secrecy. The secrecy that conceals the complaint process has led to systemic abuse. Shining sunlight on the process by ending most confidential/anonymous complaints is long overdue.
Incredibly, despite the fact that there is widespread support by physicians and patients for change at the TMB, the Texas Medical Association (TMA) opposes reform and has worked to undermine and defeat this bill at every turn.
Oddly absent from the list of the bill’s supporters is Vicki Truitt, a Republican legislator who won with only 52% of the vote in her own primary last year despite backing by the TMA.
The TMA may be encouraging Truitt to block this bill in the Calendars Committee, of which she is a member, even though she voted for a similar bill two years ago in committee. Truitt represents the Fort Worth and Southlake areas, and her website is here: http://www.vickitruitt.com/
Both Vicki Truitt and the other TMA ally on the House Public Health Committee, Susan King, ducked the committee vote on this bill in March. Do not be mistaken: the TMA is going to do everything it can to prevent final passage of this TMB reform.
Please call or e-mail Rep. Truitt and ask her to support CSHB 1013. Her phone contacts are: (512) 463-0690 at the Capitol, and (817) 488-4098 in her District. Her e-mail is [email protected]
Please tell her to put physicians and patients first, not the TMA, and ask her to support CSHB 1013. And please have a blessed Easter or Passover.
Please forward this correspondence to your distribution lists. Thank you!
