Archives
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Buprenorphine and the elimination of the X-waiver
By Larry Kravitz, MD, Chris Allen, and Matthew Seghers
As primary care physicians, we all want to help end the opioid crisis. But the options for family physicians in this epidemic have been limited. Most of us are not addiction specialists. Most of us do not work in substance abuse rehab clinics. Within the traditional primary care clinic setup is the undercurrent of our daily struggles, as our patients succumb to progressive illness, and with that, often the emergence of chronic pain conditions. Tackling chronic pain can be one of the most vexing issues in medicine, and primary care is at the frontlines of handling these patients.
Statistics from the National Institute on Drug Abuse are staggering: Roughly 21-29% of patients prescribed opioids for chronic pain misuse them, between 8-12% of people using an opioid for chronic pain develop an opioid use disorder, and approximately 80% of people who use heroin first misused prescription opioids. COVID-19 only exacerbated opioid-related consequences, with several publications from prominent organizations such as the Journal of the American Medical Association and the American Medical Association outlining the harrowing spikes in both non-fatal and fatal overdoses. Texas has not been immune to these trends, as highlighted in a KHOU segment from December 2020 that describes a record-breaking number of calls to first responders for overdoses.
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Texas Physicians for Social Responsibility releases report on health and climate change
By Samantha White
A new report on the disastrous health impacts of climate change was recently released by the Texas Physicians for Social Responsibility. The organization’s report, “Texas Climate 2040: How Climate Change Impacts the Health of Texans,” examines the various consequences of the climate crisis and the public health problems they create.
“Climate change is the greatest public health threat of our time,” said Dr. Lisa Doggett, a family physician and president of Texas PSR. “Urgent global action is needed to reduce its impact and mitigate its effects. We need a massive shift to renewable energy to protect the health and future of Texas families and communities.”
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Funded delegate spots and scholarships available for NCCL
Each year, AAFP holds the National Conference of Constituency Leaders and Annual Chapter Leader Forum together in Kansas City, Missouri. NCCL representatives and ACLF attendees from across the nation gather to discuss various issues, suggest policies and programs to AAFP, and receive leadership training. In 2022, the conferences will be held April 28-30 and TAFP is looking for members to serve on the delegation or apply for scholarships to attend.
Texas Delegation to NCCL
Spots are available for 10 TAFP members to represent each of the five constituencies: new physicians (physicians who have been out of residency for seven years or fewer), women, minorities, international medical graduates, and LGBT physicians. TAFP reimburses up to $1,200 for expenses for each of the five delegate and five alternate delegates. In addition, TAFP offers two other opportunities to attend NCCL with funding. These scholarships will be awarded to one third-year resident and one minority physician.Interested? Please fill out this form and send a current curriculum vitae to Kathy McCarthy at kmccarthy@tafp.org by Friday, Dec. 17, 2021.
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Time to triumph over the trials of burnout
By Anticipate Joy
It all started with a dream. Maybe it was to make the world a better place. Maybe it was to save lives. Maybe it was to help others. Or maybe it was just to make a nice paycheck. Whatever it was, you had a dream of becoming a doctor, and you did it. Your dream came true! But unlike fairytales, achieving our dreams doesn’t always mean “happily ever after.” In fact, sometimes our dreams can seem nothing like how we always imagined they’d be.
One of the biggest problems physicians struggle with today is burnout. With 44% of doctors experiencing this issue and 96% of medical professionals believing burnout is a problem, there clearly needs to be something done about this topic. However, despite nearly half of doctors undergoing feelings of burnout, 40% of physicians are reluctant to seek out mental health treatment, and 41% of physicians choose to isolate themselves as a method of coping. These are things that will only lead to more difficulty for doctors, both in their work and in taking care of themselves. Here are some symptoms that might indicate you’re struggling with feeling burnt out.
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Texas Family Physician of the Year urges House committee to invest in rural primary care workforce
By Jonathan Nelson
The House Public Health Committee of the Texas Legislature held a hearing this week focused on addressing health care access for communities along the Texas-Mexico border. TAFP’s Family Physician of the Year, Adrian Billings, MD, PhD, made the drive from his home in Alpine to Austin to provide his perspective on the great need for primary care investment in rural Texas.
“My work, although rewarding in so many ways, has been both exhausting and challenging because of the incredible need for care in my communities,” Billings told the committee. “Rural health care organizations such as critical access hospitals and rural clinics are like small football teams. We have very few, if any, additional staff on reserve sitting on the bench for relief. For example, our Alpine clinic today does not have a provider because I am here testifying.”
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Explore Ecuador on a medical mission
By Katherine Lynn Walker, MD
A warm hello to my fellow AAFP members! My name is Katherine Lynn Walker. I am a board-certified family medicine physician with more than 20 years of clinical experience and more than 10 years of leadership experience on international medical brigades. I work in a private practice located in Boulder County, Colorado. And I also serve as an adjunct faculty member at the St. Anthony North Family Medicine Residency in the greater Denver area.
I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce MissionCMEcuador, a program I developed and presented at the AAFP Global Health Summit National Conference in 2020. In collaboration with the Ecuadorian Ministry of Health in Otavalo, this one-of-a-kind international opportunity allows U.S.-based physicians to provide medical care in underserved areas of the Otavolo Canton, located in the Imbabura Province of Ecuador.
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Steps to raise awareness during Suicide Prevention Month
By Anticipate Joy
There are few things in our world that are more heartbreaking than suicide. It is a final symptom of horrible mental illness, so severe it would drive someone to take their own life. With suicide being the tenth overall leading cause of death in the United States — the second for individuals between 10 and 34 — nearly everyone has been impacted by suicide in some way, shape, or form.
However, the epidemic of suicide is even worse among medical professionals. The suicide rate for male-identifying physicians is 1.41 times higher than the general male population, and even higher for female-identifying physicians, at 2.27 times the average female rate. Due to the exhaustive nature of your position, burnout, depressive symptoms, and suicide risk are much higher for physicians than the general public.
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Federal public health officials push vaccination efforts at Texas meeting
By Jonathan Nelson
As COVID-19 cases continued to climb to crisis levels across the state, state and public health officials gathered for a roundtable discussion in Austin on August 5. The takeaway message from all parties: We must get as many people vaccinated as possible to get the pandemic under control.
The Biden administration vaccinations coordinator, Bechara Choucair, MD, led the federal delegation as they met with DSHS representatives including commissioner John Hellerstedt, MD, and physician leaders from multiple physician associations including TAFP.
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Family physicians encourage masking and vaccination of students
As parents and students prepare for the start of the fall 2021 school year, the TAFP Board of Directors has heard loud and clear from many members that students, teachers, administrators, and all other personnel affiliated with Texas schools should take all necessary precautions to avoid infection and spread of COVID-19. The Academy has released a statement urging that everyone involved in in-person education at schools wear masks and that all eligible people be vaccinated for COVID-19. Read the statement here.
Family Physicians Encourage Masking and Vaccination of Students
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Reducing the stigma around mental health
By Anticipate Joy
As physicians, you are used to constantly helping and providing for your patients. However, there is a sense of stigma around doctors taking care of themselves — particularly in mental health. Suffering from depression, burnout, and suicide occur in higher rates among medical professionals than almost any other profession. There is so much stigma around doctors getting mental health care, as if a person is less fit to fulfill their profession if they are seeking out help. We would never shame someone for seeking treatment for a physical disease, and it should not be any different for someone struggling mentally.
Prejudice and stigma around mental illness will keep people from seeking out the help they need and deserve. Here is some advice for helping reduce stigma in your workplace.
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A scribe's story
By Ben Saul, Harish Thoppe, and Larry Kravitz, MD
It is hard to lay bare your personal medical practice to the eyes of another professional. As I have told every medical student on rotation with me, “You will learn from me how to practice medicine right, but you will also quietly learn how to practice medicine wrong, seeing things you will know you never want to repeat.” We are imperfect. When we are teaching medical students, we showcase our successes, but we relinquish any hope of hiding our professional flaws. You must make your own peace with that in order to teach. You must trust in the benevolence of students to see that you stepped up to the plate and volunteered to try to raise their medical skills.
Medical students shadow and practice, practice and shadow. They come and go, usually for four short weeks within a family medicine rotation. But scribes come and stay; they are the ultimate shadows. Muted by the nature of their mission. Silent witness to the inner clinical sanctum. We take them on to share the exhausting intensity of our trusting patients with their challenging mortal illnesses and aging. A bond develops with your scribe, often unspoken, yet undeniably strong.
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New Braunfels family physician receives TMA’s Young at Heart Award
New Braunfels family physician Emily D. Briggs, MD, MPH is the 2021 Texas Medical Association Young at Heart Award recipient. Doctors from the TMA Young Physician Section announced the award during TexMed, TMA’s annual meeting, held virtually.
The YPS, a group of TMA physicians under age 40 or in their first eight years of medical practice, chose Briggs for her dedication to engaging medical students, resident physicians, fellows, and young physicians in organized medicine.
“I have never been so pleasantly acknowledged — and by a wonderful group of future leaders,” said Briggs, a TMA member for 17 years.
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Awarding grants in the Heart of Texas
By Jean Klewitz
The TAFP Heart of Texas Chapter started a chapter grant program in early 2020. Supported by family physicians, the grant program fuels local community work. Applicants to the grant program are chapter members supporting the local community or member-nominated community groups within the Heart of Texas’ 12 counties.
Leaders of the chapter, Karen Smith, MD, chair, and Katharina Hathaway, MD, vice chair, met while doing some nonprofit work together through the Manor Community Wellness Alliance. Smith was working with others to start the Manor Free Clinic. Their meeting in humanitarian work helped fuel philanthropic community work within their chapter.
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Mental health in the time of COVID
By Katherine Buck, PhD, LMFT
This article is an edited version of a continuing medical education lecture Dr. Buck presented during the 2020 Annual Session and Primary Care Summit.
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President's Letter
Keeping up the fight for family medicine through the pandemic
By Amer Shakil, MD, MBA
TAFP PresidentGreetings members. What a strange year and a half its been for all of us. As life is slowly and cautiously beginning to return to something akin to normal, we should take a moment to acknowledge the struggles and the achievements we have experienced, both individually and as a specialty. Over these several months, the resilience of family physicians, our physician colleagues, other health care providers, and aides of all sorts has been nothing short of amazing.
I have also marveled at the resilience of our Academy. In February of 2020, it seemed unimaginable that we would cancel April’s C. Frank Webber Lectureship and Interim Session. And then it became obvious that we couldn’t possibly hold the meeting. The Academy would go on to learn to produce virtual conferences, and that’s how we would conduct business for the rest of the year.
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Attention residents and students: Attend AAFP’s National Conference virtually
Once a year, family medicine residents and medical students come together to engage in real talk about family medicine with family medicine leaders, educators, and recruiters at the National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students. This year, National Conference is virtual. From July 29-31 you can attend online workshops and main stage speaker sessions. The popular Expo Hall will be broken into sections so you can find the residency programs by state and exhibitors you are most interested in. You can schedule one-on-one appointments with residency programs, recruiters, and other exhibitors. You can also network with fellow attendees.
Because it is virtual this year, the price tag to attend is much lower and there are more opportunities for financial assistance if you act fast.
TAFP Foundation funding
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The TAFP Foundation is increasing the number of funding slots to help 300 Texas medical students and residents attend national conference. The application will stay open until July 25 or all the funding slots are taken. -
TAFP residents and students elect their 2021-2022 officers
TAFP has a new governance structure, and the Section on Medical Students and Section on Resident Physicians no longer exist. In their place, a TAFP Resident and Student Leader Forum meets virtually throughout the year and a Residency Network with representatives from all programs and an FMIG Network with representatives from all medical schools meets a few times a year.
The student and resident board members serve as co-chairs at the forum that include the chair, chair-elect, National Conference representatives, Member Assembly representatives, members serving on the new councils, resident and student advisors to the TAFP Foundation, the FMIG coordinator, and the resident advisors. There will also be an active member in attendance serving as the TAFP Board Liaison.
Monthly meetings during the academic year allow members to share information, plan live educational meetings, and carry out other projects.
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Beat the Heat (And the Anxiety it May Bring)
By Anticipate Joy
The sun is out, the school year is drawing to a close, and Texas is embarking upon absolutely balmy 100+ degree weather. Summer is officially here.
While the summer season is always depicted as a chance to relax and unwind, it can be a very stressful time. Trying to plan vacations, enduring an influx of clients rushing to get appointments before school starts back up in August, and missing out on time with loved ones who might be home while you’re at work can all be stressors impacting your mental health. Combine that with all the challenges this year has brought with the pandemic — specifically impacting your industry so greatly — can lead to a great deal of built-up anxiety going into the summer months.
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Is stress from your job getting in the way of your happiness?
By Anticipate Joy
Responses to the “Medscape Family Medicine Physician Lifestyle, Happiness and Burnout Report 2021” indicate that in a study of more than 12,000 physicians from more than 29 specialties, family physicians are in the middle of the pack in rankings by specialty regarding happiness outside of work.
As guest speakers at TAFP's C. Frank Webber Lectureship, our co-founders Dr. Evans and Dr. Tetterton were delighted to meet many of you face to face. They shared the importance of family physicians taking care of their mental health. This has become increasingly important because researchers have consistently shown a trend of surging rates of physician burnout. It may not come as a surprise that the COVID pandemic has drained the medical profession; nearly half (47%) of family physicians in the Medscape survey reported experiencing severe burnout. In fact, an alarming 1 in 10 physicians is considering leaving medicine as a result.
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AAFP praises new report that recommends increased investment in and access to high-quality primary care
By AAFP Public Relations
On May 4, 2021, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine released a new report, “Implementing High-Quality Primary Care,” that details the importance of having high-quality primary care in America and the positive difference it would make for individuals, communities and the entire country. AAFP was one of the sponsors of the study.
Building on the foundation set forth in the Institute of Medicine’s 1996 report, “Primary Care: America’s Health in a New Era,” NASEM’s report is the result of nearly 18 months of research and work to examine the role that primary care should play in the U.S. health care system.
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CMS decision to rescind Texas’ Medicaid waiver extension rekindles bipartisan effort for coverage expansion
By Jonathan Nelson
After the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced it would pull out of an agreement to extend the Texas Medicaid 1115 Transformation Waiver for 10 years, a bipartisan group of Texas House members joined health care organizations including TAFP, employers, and advocacy groups to push for a plan that would increase coverage for Texans.
The 1115 waiver allows hospitals to draw down federal funds to cover uncompensated care costs incurred when uninsured patients can’t pay for their care. While CMS subsidizes those costs for hospitals, community physicians are not covered by the waiver. The state’s current waiver remains in effect until Sept. 30, 2022, but this recent decision by CMS throws into question the stability of Texas’ health care safety net programs after that date.
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House speaker introduces initiative to improve health care access for Texans
By Jonathan Nelson
Speaker Dade Phelan led a bipartisan group of representatives in announcing support for a number of bills to address access to health care during a press conference at the State Capitol on April 7, 2021. The Healthy Families, Healthy Texas plan marks a serious commitment to tackle some longstanding barriers to care facing Texas patients.
“The goal of this legislative package is to make health care more affordable, more accessible, and to save lives through better health outcomes,” Phelan said.
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Let the Child Psychiatry Access Network help you help your patients
By Edith Ortiz, MBA
The Child Psychiatry Access Network can assist a primary care physician during a mental-health-focused assessment in the office, providing them with education and recommendations for evidence-based interventions. Studies show that families place enormous trust in you, their family doctor, and often prefer to have mental health issues managed without a referral to a specialist. Our CPAN team is there to support that process as well as help locate mental health services when the problem is severe and warrants specialty intervention.
We are happy to take a call whether the patient is in your office or not. Call us when you get that inbox message and are not sure of the next steps. Call us when an intervention you have recommended is not effective. Call us when you want help explaining a mental health challenge to a family. You will reach a team member within five minutes of your call, and if a child psychiatry team member is needed to assist, they will call you back within 30 minutes.
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Mindfulness strategies to declutter your mind
By Dr. Karla Evans and Dr. Veronica Tetterton, co-founders of Anticipate Joy
Spring is finally here! The change in season inspires motivation for a refreshing change in our environments and moods. Spring is often associated with cleaning and re-organization of our homes. But today we would like to encourage thoughtful consideration to setting aside some time to declutter your mind. By getting rid of stress, anxiety, racing thoughts, or negativity that you may be holding on to, you create a refreshing space for peace, joy, and enjoyment to settle in, and we have the perfect strategy to help. This month we would like to feature a couple of mindfulness strategies to help you gain greater perspective and peace of mind.
So what is mindfulness? Mindfulness is an integrative mind-body strategy to help manage your thoughts, feelings, and mental health. Research shows mindfulness helps relieve stress, treat heart disease, lower blood pressure, reduce chronic pain, improve sleep, and improve mental health. Here are a couple of easy ways to tap into mindfulness.
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House committee hears bill to grant APRNs independent practice for medical acts
By Jonathan Nelson
The long-anticipated scope of practice showdown of the 87th Texas Legislature took place Wednesday, March 24, in the House Committee on Public Health. Two TAFP members — Tina Philip, DO, of Austin, and Troy Fiesinger, MD, of Sugar Land — joined a number of physicians who provided in-person testimony against this session’s attempt to grant advanced practice registered nurses the ability to conduct medical acts without a delegation agreement with a physician.
House Bill 2029 by Rep. Stephanie Klick (R-Fort Worth) would allow APRNs to prescribe medications, order and evaluate diagnostic testing, and prescribe durable medical equipment, all without any physician collaboration. These actions are clearly defined as the practice of medicine under Texas law, yet the text of the bill states that should HB 2029 become law, an APRN performing one of these acts “is not considered to be practicing medicine without a license.”
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The storm overhead
By Larry Kravitz, MD, and Tuyet Tran
Swirling down with the suddenness of an unheeded prophecy, a storm descends on us, threatening to strip away our comfortable manner of practicing medicine. We are losing our templates for ordinary living. Everything has shifted. The pandemic is upon us, and it is the tip of the spear for the revolution of our future medical world.
As I record this reflection, I gaze out upon an unfamiliar landscape, a vast white blanket spreads over the fields behind my house. A polar vortex of climate change origin has descended to latitudes never before so compromised. Electric power is gone. Phone service is spotty. The Internet is dead. Water, little that there is, must be boiled. The gears and engines of my city’s infrastructure have slowed to a cold, eerie, and silent halt. The roads are impassable. I can’t get to my office. I can’t reach my patients by phone. They are hurting today. And it’s not just the homeless under the bridges. This unprecedented vulnerability will stretch its menacing fingers to the apartments of our blue-collar underclasses, and even seep into comfortable suburban mansions. This week, almost no one will escape this tide of disruption. People are going to suffer. Some will no doubt die today. Some will die alone.
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Registering voters at health care centers
By Elizabeth Kravitz and Larry Kravitz, MD
We are two generations of primary care providers. The father, a family physician, is in his 42nd year of medical practice. The daughter, just beginning, is a fourth-year medical student at Baylor College of Medicine pursuing obstetrics and gynecology. We are at opposite ends of our medical careers, but we collaborate on our health care perspectives more than we clash. Today, we share my daughter’s view of a physician’s role in promoting democracy.
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7 national primary care organizations launch joint vision to rewire primary care financing
With COVID-19 as a catalyst, the organizations developed recommendations to fundamentally change the way primary care is financed, improve health equity, and boost clinicians’ ability to offer seamlessly integrated care
By One Voice
Seven of the nation’s largest primary care physician organizations have released recommendations on the urgent need to change the way primary care is delivered and financed. The American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Board of Family Medicine, the American Board of Internal Medicine, the American Board of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians, and the Society of General Internal Medicine represent more than 400,000 physicians and have created a unified vision to change the conversation and modernize primary care as we know it.
This collaborative work comes at a critical time when the health of the population has weakened and the primary care setting has been severely strained by COVID-19. Handling nearly 40% of all health care visits, primary care clinicians have made incredible adaptations to continue to provide care during the pandemic, yet they have been largely left out of national pandemic relief legislation. A series of clinician surveys conducted during the pandemic has shown widespread closures and layoffs among primary care practices despite the critical role these practices and clinicians play in pandemic recovery efforts.
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Let the Child Psychiatry Access Network help you help your patients
By Edith Ortiz, MBA
The Child Psychiatry Access Network can assist a primary care physician during a mental-health-focused assessment in the office, providing them with education and recommendations for evidence-based interventions. Studies show that families place enormous trust in you, their family doctor, and often prefer to have mental health issues managed without a referral to a specialist. Our CPAN team is there to support that process as well as help locate mental health services when the problem is severe and warrants specialty intervention.
We are happy to take a call whether the patient is in your office or not. Call us when you get that inbox message and are not sure of the next steps. Call us when an intervention you have recommended is not effective. Call us when you want help explaining a mental health challenge to a family. You will reach a team member within five minutes of your call, and if a child psychiatry team member is needed to assist, they will call you back within 30 minutes.
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Cyber fraud case study: Failure to recognize phishing email
By Gracie Awalt, Marketing Associate
Texas Medical Liability TrustA small, rural hospital contracted with an emergency medical group for emergency department coverage. The group was paid monthly by electronic funds transfer, or EFT, from the hospital’s account to the ED group’s account.
In June, the hospital received an email invoice from the ED group with instructions to send payment to a new account. The hospital sent the $200,500 payment to the new account on July 10.
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Are you taking care of your emotional health?
By Anticipate Joy
As a Texan, you may have been physically, financially, and emotionally challenged by the recent weather storm. As physicians, you likely have the added stress of the care of your patients during this challenging time. So this month we felt the need to focus on your emotional health. Are you taking care of your emotional health?
Let’s take a short quiz to find out by honestly answering the questions below:
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TAFP to HHSC: Address insufficient payment for COVID-19 testing
By Jonathan Nelson
TAFP joined five other physician associations last week in calling on the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to ensure adequate reimbursement for COVID-19 testing. The organizations sent a letter to HHSC Executive Commissioner Cecile Young on Feb. 16, bringing attention to a problem Texas physicians face: payments by some Medicaid managed care organizations for COVID-19 tests often do not even cover the cost of the tests.
A recent New York Times article quoted a Texas pediatrician who said he offered rapid coronavirus tests that cost $37 each, but the Medicaid MCOs covering his patients paid only $15 to $19. The article stated that because of the low payments, some doctors are deciding to stop testing, which hinders the nation’s effort to control the pandemic.
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Let the Child Psychiatry Access Network help you help your patients
By Edith Ortiz, MBA
The Child Psychiatry Access Network can assist a primary care physician during a mental-health-focused assessment in the office, providing them with education and recommendations for evidence-based interventions. Studies show that families place enormous trust in you, their family doctor, and often prefer to have mental health issues managed without a referral to a specialist. Our CPAN team is there to support that process as well as help locate mental health services when the problem is severe and warrants specialty intervention.
We are happy to take a call whether the patient is in your office or not. Call us when you get that inbox message and are not sure of the next steps. Call us when an intervention you have recommended is not effective. Call us when you want help explaining a mental health challenge to a family. You will reach a team member within five minutes of your call, and if a child psychiatry team member is needed to assist, they will call you back within 30 minutes.
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TAFP asserts that physicians should be allowed to administer excess vaccine from opened vials according to their best judgment
AUSTIN, TX, Feb. 22, 2021 — The Texas Academy of Family Physicians issued a statement asserting that well-intentioned physicians and other health care providers should be allowed to use their professional judgement when administering COVID-19 vaccinations to avoid wasting vaccine in a punctured vial. Physicians should not be charged with a criminal offense for using the vaccine remaining in a partially used vial once all scheduled or available patients meeting the requirements of the current CDC vaccine priority groups have received their dose.
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Reconnecting to your "why"
By Dr. Karla Evans and Dr. Veronica Tetterton, co-founders of Anticipate Joy
Has your love for your career waned a bit? Are you struggling to connect to your “why”? Indeed, you have been through a lot in the past year. With COVID and the overwhelming demands on you physically, emotionally, and psychologically, it’s not uncommon to lose touch with your purpose and the joy for your career.
We want you to know that you are not alone. You are among others who feel the same. Since we began our partnership with TAFP, one of the common reasons family physicians have sought treatment is due to work overload, stress, and a need to reconnect to the joy of their job and family.
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This year, resolve to reach out when you need help
By Anticipate Joy
There is no doubt you have experienced extreme stressors in 2020, and now is a great time to determine where you want to be in the new year. Discussing New Year’s resolutions can feel somewhat cliche but can absolutely have benefits.
It’s a common practice for physicians to “cope alone.” Your schedules are chaotic, your expectations are near unreachable, and looking forward to retirement is sometimes your only effective strategy for coping with the turmoil.
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Texas Immunization Registry webinar series for reporting COVID-19
By the Texas Department of State Health Services
The Texas Immunization Registry will host a series of live webinars to help providers identify data quality issues and how to resolve them using registry resources for accurate reporting. The webinar is for organizations reporting COVID-19 immunizations via data exchange.
The registry is offering multiple sessions to allow for flexible attendance. Each session will cover the same content. A recording of the webinar will be made available at a future date on the DSHS Registry webpage under “User Training.” Each webinar session has a maximum capacity of 900 attendees, and you should register for only one session. If all sessions are full, we recommend referring to the DSHS Registry web page later for the posted recording.
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