Houston Chronicle: Closer look irks doctors
One by one, angry, frustrated doctors from Houston to Laredo took the microphone at a legislative hearing in Austin, spilling woeful tales of overzealous oversight — grueling, expensive probes, witch hunts, railroading — allegedly committed by the state board that regulates them.
Texas physicians blast anonymous complaints
Angry Texas doctors told a legislative panel Tuesday that they are being harassed through anonymous complaints to state regulators.
They also complained that the agency following up on the complaints, the Texas Medical Board, conducts lengthy and sometimes unjust investigations that can cost innocent physicians thousands of dollars.
“Malicious anonymous complaints are filed against physicians, anonymous so-called experts are hired by the TMB to discredit them and secret proceedings are conducted without due legal process,” said Steven Hotze, a Houston physician. “The physicians are intimidated and forced to sign agreements under the threat of license revocation.”
I have no idea where the truth lies in these complaints about how medical malpractice accusations are handled. Figuring out what is the right level of intervention is always debatable. But this does show that Texan tort reform doesn’t mean that doctors are completely unaccountable.
Whether the system in place needs to be more or less draconian, one thing I wonder is if the decisions made by the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners are providing guidance for other Texas doctors as to what constitutes proper procedure. Do we have here the hope of setting objective precedents?
But while the system may need improvements one way or the other, it demonstrates it is possible to provide medmal consumer protection without irrationally high tort costs causing doctor shortages.
Hat tip: Kevin MD, Every Patient’s Advoctate
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November 4, 2007 at 6:05 am
Insurance » Texan doctors and accountability
[...] markhorne wrote an interesting post today on Texan doctors and accountabilityHere’s a quick excerptHouston Chronicle: Closer look irks doctors. One by one, angry, frustrated doctors from Houston to Laredo took the microphone at a legislative hearing in Austin, spilling woeful tales of overzealous oversight — grueling, … [...]
June 7, 2008 at 3:28 pm
batguano101
Witch hunts to protect income are the specialty of the Texas Board.
Remember the oil crash of 82?
Unscrupulous officials of public trust in medicine trotted up to a contrived hearing aimed at turning a scandal into a witch hunt.
The Claud Pepper Ad Hoc Committee on Aging had Texas doctors testify under oath who bore false witness to create a witch hunt by lies that there were 10,000 “frauds” practicing medicine in the USA, “a hip shot” according to the testimony.
They whipped up a witch hunt to “close the door to foreign medical graduates”, “because we aren’t making as much money as before” (post oil crash).
Yep, you have the fox guarding the hen house.
When medical licensing is used specifically to enforce and retaliate for illegal rackets, you have real abuse of power on behalf of the people running the system.
Before you tidy up the doctors across Texas, check the moral compass of the people doing that tidying.
Legitimate licensing and legitimate oversight begin with oversight of those placed in positions of trust and authority.
Witch hunts like the Pepper hearing and the harm done to thousands of physicians for that lie are a warning flag, whistles, bells, flares, and trumpets but no one in Texas heard or questioned them inside or outside of the medical community.
Therein is the problem. Witch hunts? When one is whipped up you best hear warning horns, it is not as it appears.