Subject: H.B.3816 Protect Your Patient-Doctor Rights-Call for Action

This is the information we discussed about how Texas Doctors are being persecuted by the current Texas Medical Board and how Patient Rights & access to healthcare are threatened.
We need people to contact their Representatives and ask them to support the proposed revisions to the Texas Medical Practice Act. H.B. 3816 / S.B.2336.
A form letter is attached and at the end of this email. email addresses are provided. It's a cut and paste effort.

This 2009 reform (House Bill 3816 ) of the Texas Medical Practice Act is motivated by the need for (1) more transparency and accountability and (2) reducing time spent by the Board on frivolous, malicious and/or anti-competitive complaints. In short, this reform strengthens the Board with respect to serving and protecting public health. (Bill summary & full bill links are below).

Synopsis of the H.B. 3816 / S.B. 2336

1. The Executive Director of the Texas Medical Board (TMB) must be a physician (Current Exec. Dir. Is a young attorney.)
2. Elimination of anonymous complaints. Provide the accused physician with a copy of the complaint.
3. No more anonymous complaints from pharmaceutical, insurance companies, competitors, disgruntled employees or angry
spouses.
4. Elimination of unsworn complaints.
5. Elimination of anonymous, incompetent or non practicing Texas Medical Board (TMB) expert witnesses.
6. Prohibition of conflict of interests by TMB members.
7. Establish legal due process to the physician corresponding to that practiced in criminal and civil American jurisprudence, as
well as at the State Bar of Texas.
8. No more disregard by the TMB of expert testimony that exonerates physicians subject to complaints.
9. Discipline only if there is “clear & convincing” evidence.
10. Protection of the doctor/patient relationship.
11. No more invasions of patient privacy, or discipline when patients benefited from the care and are happy with it.
12. No more career-ending punishment over minor documentary issues or fee disputes.
13. Doctors, like attorneys, deserve a right to a jury trial before license revocation.

Any assistance you can provide in getting the word out for a Call To Action to contact State Representatives will be appreciated by all. Please let me know of any others I may contact to facilitate additional support. Beverly Kotsanis and I will be at the hearing April 14th for comment.

Hello Fellow Texans,
TEXAS RESIDENTS: Call Today to Protect Your Patient-Doctor Relationship from the Insurance Companies and Their Agents on the Texas Medical Board. Tell Your Representative That You Support the Revised Texas Medical Practice Act. H.B. 3816.
HB 3816 is tentatively scheduled for a Tuesday, April 14th hearing before the House Public Health Committee.
Please call the Public Health Committee TODAY to encourage them to support this bill.
Please call your local representative and ask them to support HB 3816!”
1. Visit the Texans for Patients' and Physicians' Rights website, www.txppr.com, and read H.B. 3816 and its summary.
2. Contact Rep. Lois Kolkhurst of Brenham, chairwomen of the House Public Health Committee, as well as the other members of that committee, and ask them to support H.B. 3816. (512) 463-0600. House Committee on Public Health (C410e) Link & Email Addresses
http://www.legis.state.tx.us/Committees/MembershipCmte.aspx?LegSess=81R&CmteCode=C410
Lois.kolkhorst@house.state.tx.us. Elliott.naishtat@house.state.tx.us, Garnet.coleman@house.state.tx.us, John.davis@house.state.tx.us, Veronica.gonzales@house.state.tx.us, Chuck.hopson@house.state.tx.us, Susan.king@house.state.tx.us, Jodie.laubenberg@house.state.tx.us, Jim.mcreynolds@house.state.tx.us, Vicki.truitt@house.state.tx.us, john.zerwas@house.state.tx.us

3. Contact your State Representative both by phone and e-mail and ask him to cosponsor H.B. 3816. The contact information for your state representative can be found online at http://www.house.state.tx.us/resources/faq.htm#who_rep.

4. We need your help to make sure that House Bill 3816 stays on the Calendar to be read so that it will be voted on.
House Committee on Calendars (C050) Link & Email Addresses

http://www.legis.state.tx.us/Committees/MembershipCmte.aspx?LegSess=81R&CmteCode=C050

brian.mccall@house.state.tx.us, Eddie.luccioIII@house.state.tx.us, norma.chavez@house.state.tx.us, garnet.colemand@house.state.tx.us, byron.cook@house.state.tx.us, brandon.creighton@house.state.tx.us, charlie.geren@house.state.tx.us, jim.keffer@house.state.tx.us, lois.kolkhorst@house.state.tx.us, edmund.kuempel@house.state.tx.us, allan.ritter@house.state.tx.us, burt.solomons@house.state.tx.us, jim.mcreynolds@house.state.tx.us

Follow this link to get to your representative. You can e-mail them directly from there.
http://www.house.state.tx.us/resources/faq.htm#who_rep.

For information on how the medical board has been abusive of its power go to the following link: http://www.txppr.org/

You should visit the website of the Texans for Patients' and Physicians' Rights (TXPPR), www.txppr.com, to read the entire bill, which contains the underlined changes, and to review the more complete analysis of the changes which are being proposed.

Summary of Comprehensive Revisions to the Texas Medical Practice Act
Read the Bill
Read the Key Points below.
H.B. 3816 - Sponsored by Rep. Fred Brown / SB 2336 - Sponsored by Senator Dan Patrick
March 16, 2009
This 2009 reform of the Texas Medical Practice Act is motivated by the need for (1) more transparency and accountability and (2) reducing time spent by the Board on frivolous, malicious and/or anti-competitive complaints. In short, this reform strengthens the Board with respect to serving and protecting public health.

Section One: ensure that physicians who serve on the board have been practicing in Texas for at least five years, so that they have adequate experience (currently merely three years is allowed).

Section Two: eliminate the conflicts of interests, such how a Board member was receiving checks from Blue Cross/Blue Shield while he served as the top disciplinarian on the Board.

Section Three: provide some accountability for the TMB with a new advisory commission having oversight and subpoena powers (currently there is virtually no accountability).

Section Four: ensure that the Executive Director is a physician in good standing in this State (currently a lawyer holds this important position which is equivalent to a doctor being the executive director of the State Bar Association).

Section Five: provide transparency by disclosing who has served on the panels for Informal Settlement Conferences, and how often (currently panel assignments are easily manipulated).

Section Six: require sworn complaints, encourage amicable settlement, have sensible time limits on old complaints, and remove immunity for malicious complaints (promotes truthfulness).

Section Seven: provide the practitioner with a copy of the complaint (other States, such as Kansas, already do this; the Board could still redact the complainant’s name for good cause). This eliminates anonymous complaints.

Section Eight: give the accused 30 days to respond, require prompt resolution afterward, and require the Board to review an expert report submitted by the practitioner (basic due process).

Section Nine: use independent expert reviews, provide exculpatory expert reports to the practitioner, and disclose the identity and qualifications of the experts (more due process). This eliminates anonymous witnesses.

Section Ten: experts must be in active practice in the same or similar specialty as the accused, and their reports must be sworn (just as expert testimony in court is sworn).

Section Eleven: preserve patient privacy by allowing patients to object to an invasion of their right to privacy in their medical records (currently there is no protection of patient privacy).

Section Twelve: (i) require “clear and convincing evidence” for discipline rather than a mere preponderance of evidence (merely 51%), (ii) respect medicine practiced as taught by accredited organizations, (iii) refrain from trying to dictate how a physician must practice medicine while retaining full power to stop anything that might harm the public, (iv) refrain from increasing penalties beyond what is recommended by the Board’s own panel, and (v) not discipline doctors based on how he maintains office records unless there is a likelihood of causing patient harm.

(Reasons: (i) the trend among other States is toward the stronger “clear and convincing” standard, which gives the Board full power to prevent harm yet also protects patients and physicians against arbitrary injustice; so much is invested in a medical license, and so many patients depend on it, that the mere 51-49% preponderance of the evidence is not sufficient for revoking a medical license; (ii)&(iii) the Board does not have the authority to practice medicine and should not be punishing practitioners who abide by the teachings of accredited organizations, (iv) the Board should not be ratcheting up penalties beyond what its own panel recommends, which the Board currently does to punish practitioners in an abusive manner, and (v) the Board should not be wasting its scarce resources on picayune office-record issues unless it is preventing a likelihood of harm to patients).

Section Thirteen: provide at least 48 hours prior notice to the practitioner of the identity of the panel members presiding over an Informal Settlement Conference proceeding, and allow the practitioner to record or transcribe it (again, this is basic due process). This provides for transparency by eliminating Star Chamber proceedings cloaked in secrecy.

Section Fourteen: require random assignments to the Informal Settlement Conference panels (again, basic due process, and ends the manipulation of panel assignments to stack the deck). This prevents the TMB from manipulating assignments of its members to influence the outcome of the hearing.

Section Fifteen: require that the decision of the SOAH judge shall be binding on the Board (this ends the abusive practice of the Board simply ignoring the outcome of the costly SOAH procedures), and enable a practitioner to have access to information held about him by the Board (this enhances the fact-finding of the proceeding and enables the practitioner to defend himself fully, just as everyone in civil and criminal proceedings have a right to do).

Section Sixteen: require courts to use the “clear and convincing” standard discussed above for reviewing disciplinary decisions, and give practitioners the same right to a jury trial provided to attorneys before disbarment.

Section Seventeen: require that discipline for nontherapeutic treatment be limited to where there is a likelihood of harm to a patient (this enables the Board to focus on its proper function: preventing harm to patients).

Sections 18-23: these are standard provisions for this type of legislation, as added by Legislative Council.
Sample Letter is attached and below.

April, 9, 2009

Subject: Co-Sponsorship Request– Comprehensive Revision of the Texas Medical Practice Act (TMPA) for H.B.3816 & Companion bill of S.B. 2336.


Dear Representative __________________,

How would you like being forced to answer anonymous complaints about your business without benefit of knowing who the complainant is, the specifics of the complaint and without due jurisprudence?

I am requesting that you consider cosponsoring H.B. 3816, sponsored in the House by Rep. Fred Brown. It is the companion bill of S.B. 2336 sponsored by Sen. Dan Patrick. H.B. 3816 is a comprehensive revision of the Texas Medical Practice Act (TMPA) which is being proposed to address the actions of the Texas Medical Board (TMB) in its capricious and arbitrary dealings with thousands of physicians across Texas over the past several years.

The TMB allows anonymous complaints to be filed against physicians by anyone including competitors, insurance and drug companies, disgruntled employees & angry spouses. The TMB knows who files the complaints but WILL NOT REVEAL THE SOURCE OF THE COMPLAINT TO THE PHYSICIAN. The Physician Is Not Allowed To See The Complaint. The TMB then has so called “expert witnesses”, anonymous to the physician subject to the complaint, present written testimony against the physician. The TMB is not required by law to allow the subject physician to have an expert witness in his behalf.

The subject physician must attend an Informal Settlement Conference (ISC) run by two members of the TMB. The subject physician is not allowed to take notes, audio or video tape the ISC or have a transcriptionist. Yes, this is occurring in the USA despite the fact that the 7th amendment requires that an accused know who his accuser is and who is testifying against him. This constitutional guarantee is the backbone of American jurisprudence in both criminal and civil law, but not at the TMB.

Actions by the Texas Medical Board (TMB), cloaked in secrecy, are a recipe for corruption by dishonorable individuals both on and off the board.

Rep. Fred Brown held a hearing of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Regulation of Health Agencies to investigate the actions of the TMB in November 2007. Based upon that committee’s findings, Rep. Brown has introduced H.B. 3816 to correct the problems which exist in the current TMPA-Texas Medical Practice Act. H.B. 3816 would ensure transparency of the actions of the Texas Medical Board (TMB) and establish legal due process for patients and physicians.

This is not just about Physicians’ right but also the rights of patients, who have entrusted themselves, voluntarily, to the care of a physician. When a physician is unjustly treated it adversely affects his patients, and their care.

Below is a short synopsis of some of the provisions which are contained in H.B. 3816.

Synopsis of the H.B. 3816 / S.B. 2336

1. The Executive Director of the Texas Medical Board (TMB) must be a physician (Current Exec. Dir. Is a young attorney.)
2. Elimination of anonymous complaints. Provide the accused physician with a copy of the complaint.
3. No more anonymous complaints from pharmaceutical, insurance companies, competitors, disgruntled employees or angry
spouses.
4. Elimination of unsworn complaints.
5. Elimination of anonymous, incompetent or non practicing Texas Medical Board (TMB) expert witnesses.
6. Prohibition of conflict of interests by TMB members.
7. Establish legal due process to the physician corresponding to that practiced in criminal and civil American jurisprudence, as
well as at the State Bar of Texas.
8. No more disregard by the TMB of expert testimony that exonerates physicians subject to complaints.
9. Discipline only if there is “clear & convincing” evidence.
10. Protection of the doctor/patient relationship.
11. No more invasions of patient privacy, or discipline when patients benefited from the care and are happy with it.
12. No more career-ending punishment over minor documentary issues or fee disputes.
13. Doctors, like attorneys, deserve a right to a jury trial before license revocation.

You are probably well aware of Rep. Brown’s long time battle with the Texas Medical Board (TMB). Would you please assist him by cosponsoring H.B. 3816?

Tom Holloway serves as Rep. Brown’s Chief of Staff. Logan Spense is Senator Patrick’s Chief of Staff.

Thank you in advance for your consideration of this request.

Sincerely Yours,





Thank you for your assistance in contacting our State Representatives. Good luck to us all.