Contents tagged with legislature

  • Increase support for residency training and invest in Texas' health

    Tags: legislature, legislative budget board, 84th, graduate medical education, residency

    Tuesday, February 24, 2015 10:42:00 AM
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    By Blair Cushing
    Fourth-year TCOM student

    As a fourth-year medical student, I have spent the past four years highly concerned about what fate would await my classmates and me on Match Day, which is now only a few weeks away. With each passing year, the number of graduating medical students has climbed while the number of available first-year residency positions has remained stagnant. It is anticipated that in 2016, Texas medical schools will graduate 100 more doctors than available residency positions in the state. With three new medical schools expected to matriculate their first classes that fall, this number could easily rise to over 350 by the year 2020 in the absence of any new investment in graduate medical education.

    Despite Texas being one of the few states that currently uses state tax dollars to support GME, the dollars have not kept up with the need and more importantly, a flawed funding formula has prevented this money from being used in ways that align with the health care needs of our population. Fortunately, the 84th Texas Legislature affords us a unique opportunity to reform the way GME dollars are allocated in Texas.

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  • Texas Women’s Healthcare Coalition

    Tags: texas women's healthcare coalition, women's health, legislature, chatillon

    Thursday, January 8, 2015 3:22:00 PM
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    Working to improve Texans’ access to health care in the 84th Texas Legislature

    By Anna Chatillon
    Policy coordinator for the Texas Women’s Healthcare Coalition

    The Texas women’s Healthcare Coalition, of which TAFP is an active steering committee member, is a coalition of 47 health care, faith, and community-based member organizations. We are dedicated to improving the health and well-being of Texas women, babies, and families by assuring access to preventive health care for all Texas women. Access to preventive and preconception care—including health screenings and contraception—means healthy, planned pregnancies, and early detection of cancers and other treatable conditions. The TWHC was formed in response to the devastating legislative budget cuts to women’s health care in 2011.

    Now that the prior level of funding has been restored, it is clear the restoration was only the first step toward ensuring that all women in Texas have access to the preventive care they need. Even now, only three in 10 women who need publicly funded health care have access to it. Texas desperately needs to appropriate more funding for women’s health care in the next legislative session. The consequences of failing to provide women access are too high, both in human costs and in financial implications, for Texans to accept.

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  • Advocate for the specialty of family medicine with TAFP

    Tags: advocacy, key contacts, physician of the day, tafppac, legislature

    Wednesday, November 12, 2014 9:32:00 AM
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    TAFP serves as your voice in the Texas Legislature and we have a team of advocates with strong relationships throughout the Capitol community and in state agencies working on your behalf. We continue to make strides for the specialty, but we can’t do it without your help. TAFP members can make a difference and we invite you to get involved in the fight for family medicine.

    The 84th Texas Legislature convenes on Tuesday, Jan. 13, and getting involved is possible no matter how much time you’re able to commit. Whether taking five minutes to read a TAFP Capitol Update and send a message to your representative, or a few minutes to donate to TAFPPAC online, or dedicating a day to see patients at the Capitol, your involvement matters. Here are a few opportunities to consider.

    • Sign up to be a Key Contact – State and federal lawmakers are making decisions that directly affect your patients and your practice. As legislative battles heat up, legislators need to hear from family physicians about how medicine should be practiced. Physicians who sign up for TAFP’s Key Contact program serve as resources to their legislators, educating them on health care issues that affect the practice of medicine and patient care. As a Key Contact, TAFP will reach out to you leading up to and during the 84th Legislative Session with resources and guidance for connecting with your senator or representative. It can be as easy as sending an e-mail, but each member interaction adds to the total effort.
    • Serve as a Physician of the Day – As a service to the Texas Legislature, TAFP coordinates the Physician of the Day program. TAFP-member family physicians volunteer to staff the Capitol Health Services Clinic for a day during each legislative session or special session, demonstrating first-hand the value and necessity of family physicians in Texas. The Physician of the Day is introduced in both the Senate and the House of Representatives and his or her name becomes a permanent part of the official legislative record. Sign up on the Physician of the Day page of TAFP’s website.
    • Join TAFPPAC – The TAFP Political Action Committee speaks on behalf of TAFP members through grassroots involvement, personal relationships with elected officials, and political campaign participation and contributions. TAFPPAC is a non-partisan political action committee that supports candidates who demonstrate support for issues important to family physicians and our patients. TAFP members can give a one-time donation or sign up to be a monthly donor on the TAFPPAC page of TAFP’s website.

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  • Report on the 2014 C. Frank Webber Lectureship

    Tags: c. frank webber lectureship, cme, austin, self assessment module, interim session, texas conference of family medicine residents and students, clerkship coordinator, residency, twitter, facebook, american board of family medicine, maintenance of certification, legislature, chassay, margo, briggs, board of directors

    Wednesday, March 19, 2014 4:10:00 PM

    Report on the 2014 C. Frank Webber Lectureship

    Family physicians congregate in Austin for annual symposium

    posted 03.19.14

    Almost 300 physicians attended the C. Frank Webber Lectureship held … more

  • Legislature restores women’s preventive care funding

    Tags: realini, legislature, texas women's healthcare coalition, women's health, department of state health services

    Monday, August 19, 2013 7:52:57 AM
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    By Janet Realini, M.D., M.P.H.
    Chair, Texas Women’s Healthcare Coalition

    In a bipartisan effort, the 83rd Texas Legislature increased funding for preventive care for low-income women, making an important first step toward restored access for over 140,000 low-income women. Senate Bill 1, now signed into law by Gov. Rick Perry, invests in family planning in three key funding streams.

    • It adds $32.1 million in state funding to the Department of State Health Services Family Planning Program, replacing federal dollars awarded to the private Women’s Health and Family Planning Association of Texas network through Title X;
    • It adds $100 million for a DSHS Primary Health Care Expansion for women’s health care, 60 percent of which will provide contraceptive care; and
    • It adds $71.3 million in state funding to maintain the Texas Women’s Health Program, which lost its federal funding due to the “Affiliate Ban Rule” that excluded Planned Parenthood from the program.

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