HHSC seeks family physicians for three health care oversight groups

posted 10.05.11

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission seeks members for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Council, the Quality Based Payment Advisory Committee, and the Physician Payment Committee. Applications are due by Oct. 12, 2011. Each group stems from legislation passed during the special session of the 82nd Legislature.

House Bill 2636 requires HHSC to create the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Council by Dec. 1, 2011. The council will study and make recommendations regarding neonatal intensive care unit use, Medicaid reimbursement, and protocols for lower use; develop NICU operating standards and a state accreditation process; and report their findings no later than Jan. 1, 2013.

The executive commissioner must appoint 13 members to the council, including one family physician who provides obstetrical care and practices in a rural community, one representative from a children’s hospital, one representative from a rural hospital, and one representative from a hospital with a Level II neonatal intensive care unit.

Senate Bill 7 requires HHSC to create the Medicaid and CHIP Quality-Based Payment Advisory Committee no later than the fall of 2011 to advise HHSC on reimbursement systems that reward high-quality, cost-effective health care; setting quality standards and benchmarks; developing policies to encourage delivery models that increase collaboration, promote wellness, improve outcomes, and develop performance measures.

The committee membership must include at least one member who is or who represents a health care provider that primarily provides long-term care services; at least one member who is a physician with clinical practice experience in internal medicine or family medicine; at least one member who is a member of the Advisory Panel on Health Care-Associated Infections and Preventable Adverse Events; and at least one member who is a physician with clinical practice experience in geriatric medicine.

H.B. 1, Rider 68, requires HHSC to establish a committee of Texas physicians and HHSC representatives to use national guidelines to determine the 10 most overused services performed by physicians in Texas Medicaid with the intention for HHSC to decrease Medicaid payment for those services.

For additional information and to apply, go to HHSC’s webpage, www.hhsc.state.tx.us/about_hhsc/AdvisoryCommittees/new-mcd-quality.shtml.