Texas, liability caps, and the influx of physicians

Texas today is licensing an average of 400 more doctors per year than before reform. The Texas Medical Board expects a record 4,100 new applications for physician licenses this year — 38 percent more than last year, which was the previous record!
The number of medical specialists is growing rapidly. Since reform, Texas has gained 146 obstetricians, 127 orthopaedic surgeons and 25 neurosurgeons. And medically underserved communities in the Rio Grande Valley have seen their physician ranks swell, including primary-care doctors, specialists and critically needed emergency medicine physicians.
Hospitals, too, have benefited, saving an estimated $10 million or more in liability premiums since Prop. 12 passed, money they have utilized to buy new equipment, expand emergency care and increase care for the needy.

Comments

Criminallopath
Not much of a surprise. If you legalize gambling in Nevada, gamblers will come. In a similar vein, if you devalue the lives of stay at home women, children and the elderly as a consequence of giving special privileges to the physician class…physicians will abandon existing patients… and yes… they will come. For all of the talk of “family values” from the right side of the aisle, allowing this legislation to pass showes that the value of family is secondary when it comes to political expedieny.
CJD
The only problem with these claims is that most are demonstrably false, using the statistics of the Texas Medical Board. But what do they know?
And of course, the growth in the number of Texas physicians is not surprising given the growth in the number of Texans:
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/006142.html
And the number of new hospitals built in Texas, most of which were started during the “crisis”. By the way, how many of those residents of the Rio Grande Valley are having their bills paid by the government? Does that help or hurt your efforts to break the govt.’s hold on your reimbursement?
And of course, with the liability premiums, since they raised rates 100-150%, a reduction of 20% from that new total isn’t that impressive. Particularly when states without caps are seeing prices fall or maintain as the improving economy and bond markets bring in new competition in those states as well.
But don’t let the facts get in the way of propaganda! Seriously guys, where’s the academic rigor?
NoAcuteDistress
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! We Sodomintes won’t get more money! Waaaaaaaah!
Criminal- three words: seek profesional help.
Criminallopath
Professional help? You mean from the whore psychiatrists that are busy concocting the next junk science mental health criminal defense? No thank you. Dealing with the scum that sully the name of science to free mass murderers, rapists and child molesterors is even more unsavory than associating with the criminal defense attornies.
lawyersux
Criminallopath: When You talk like that you sound like the guy in Pa. who just mowed down 5 little girls. Of course the sodomites are mobilizing to attack C.H.O.P. (Childrens Philly) Since 2 of the girls died in their ICU.
CJD: Keep pumping your Bullshit that Docs don’t move to states where they enact tort reform. We like living in states where some asshole forces us to spend a month in court telling us what asshole’s we are, when, as in my case, I never even saw the patient. The more you can talk docs out of moving to states with Tort reform the more there’ll be a job there for me.
Criminallopath
Lawyersux. After reading your commentary, I can relate to how Copernicus must have felt when it came to dealing with the Orthodoxy of his day. In any event, your hypocrisy is amusing but not suprising when it comes to the role of the physician as whore vs. defendant. The “miniscule part of 1%” of physicians engaged in prostitution with the legal community arguement doesn’t fly one bit. With all of the “patient told me so and I am a human lie detector” junk science that gets passed off as “scientific clinical causation,” the field of psychiatry engaged in the active freeing of actual sodomites, pedophiles and the deranged and the WC prostitutes… is there a single physician left that actually eschews the prostitute mindset?
As far as unreasonable expectations go… that lies solely in the cultivation of allopathic idolatry in what passes for the minds of the sheeple. On one hand, phsyicians expect the monetary compensation and societal status for the practice of “medicine, magic, miracles” but always have a cop out ready when their performance fails to meet the expectations that they have engendered. Then, it is a “bad outcome.” The general populace should expect magic and miracles with the allowance that has been given to the allopathic medical community for the position afforded to them and the monetary compensation that is commensurate with such a position.
CJD
I’m sorry you don’t like the facts that the Texas Medical Board puts out. But by all means, continue to move in the ever elusive quest for immunity.
Weren’t you going to Europe, anyway?
ismd
CJD,
Just what factoids might that be
(from the Texas Medical Society)?
CJD
The numbers of physicians, increases and such.
Here’s the even funnier thing – in states where rates don’t go down, “reformers” say it’s because the cases haven’t worked their way through the system so there are no savings yet. Yet somehow Texas managed to get them down right away and doctors started coming “immediately”.
Of course, the population increase of Texas, all the new hospitals that have come online to serve this increase in the last 2 years, and the improving economy and bond rates have nothing to do with insurance rates or more physicians.
ismd
CJD,
You didn’t provide me with the FACTS you say come from the Texas Medical Assn. Please provide sources. If you look at this link from the TMA (http://www.texmed.org/Template.aspx?id=5245), they note the influx of doctors BECAUSE of the reform, not despite it.
I checked both the Tx Med Board website, and the Texas Hospital Assn website. I can’t seem to find anything to support your claim about increased numbers of hospitals. Please provide links and proof instead of the “trust me on this” type of comments you posted.
CJD
The Texas Medical Board (which is not a lobbying organization like the TMA) has a website and within it are the statistics on numbers of physicians overall and by specialty in Texas going back to ’98 I believe. Go here and click on Reports and Statistics:
http://www.tmb.state.tx.us/
The Texas Medical Association polled 117 doctors and asked them questions designed to get the response they wanted. It’s like a poll asking teenagers if their curfew should be later. We know nothing about these physicians polled, such as whether they got a pay raise, what their previous job was, what their previous premiums were, how they determined what the “climate” was in their previous state, etc.
Seriously, ismd, you know that link is weak.
ismd
Actually, CJD, if you read the 2006 annual report from the Texas Medical Board, they too cite reform as the major factor leading to the increased influx of docs to Texas. The report is available on the website. Hmm, like you said, they’re not a lobbying organization.
Where’s the info on the increased number of hospitals you claim has occurred in Texas?
anonymous
CJD and other naysayers are simply wrong. Tort reform works. Those of you in states where tort reform has not been enacted need to VOTE, with your feet if all else fails. The following press release comes form the Texas Medical Liability Trust website:
“September 12, 2006…The Board of Governors of Texas Medical Liability Trust (TMLT) has declared a 20% dividend amounting to approximately $35 million for 2006 effective January 1, 2007 for renewing TMLT policyholders. Dividends will be credited to each policyholder’s premium as a lump sum when his or her policy renews in 2007.
In addition, the Trust will be reducing rates 7.5% for all specialties across the state beginning January 1, 2007. Current TMLT policyholders will receive this rate decrease when their policy renews.
TMLT has now reduced annual rates four times since the passage of House Bill 4 and Proposition 12—12% in 2004; 5% in 2005; 5% in 2006; and now 7.5% in 2007, a total of 29.5% in four years. By the end of 2007, TMLT’s rate reductions, since 2004 will amount to nearly $139 million and returned dividends of 25% will amount to nearly $45 million. Since the passage of Prop 12 and medical liability reform of 2003, TMLT policyholders will have realized cumulative savings of over $180 million.
Non-meritorious claims intake is down as a result of the medical liability reform achievements in 2003. TMLT believes the legal environment will continue to improve as long as 2003 tort reform measures remain in effect.
Because of TMLT’s recent earnings and strong surplus position, physician policyholders can share in the organization’s success in the form of rate reductions and dividends.
TMLT is the state’s largest medical liability insurance provider, serving approximately 50 percent of active practice Texas Medical Association (TMA) member physicians – or nearly 13,800 Texas doctors. A physician must be a member of the TMA to apply for coverage with TMLT.
The Trust is not-for-profit and is physician-owned. TMLT is endorsed by the Texas Medical Association as well as a number of county and specialty medical societies. TMLT is headquartered in Austin, Texas.”
anonymous
For more evidence on the beneficial effects of tort reform on physician availability, look here:
http://www.ahrq.gov/research/tortcaps/tortcaps.htm
CJD
A lobbying organization endorsing an insurance company somehow gives it credibility?
Thanks for the info on how much it reduced rates. That would be helpful IF you knew how much they had raised them prior, whether those increases were in line with actual losses or just a poor job of estimating losses, etc.
I mean, if you’re curious about insurance rates and all.
anonymous
More information for the dubious, this study polling 1,154 Texas physicians.
http://www.texmed.org/Template.aspx?id=5245
anonymous
For those of you who do not know about the Texas Medical Liability Trust, it is a NON-PROFIT organization run by physicians, and surpluses are periodically refunded to insured physicans. There is no reason to overcharge physicians, as the excess will be distributed back to policyholders. The following is an excerpt from the TMLT website:
“In 1979, in the face of a major medical liability crisis, a group of pioneering physicians worked through the Texas Medical Association, and eventually to the state capitol, to create their own insurance provider, Texas Medical Liability Trust. TMLT was formed to offer a source of affordable and stable medical liability insurance for Texas physicians.
Today, TMLT has grown to be the largest and most respected medical liability carrier in the state, with more than 13,000 policyholders. An elected, nine-member physician board helps direct the activities of the Trust to serve the best interests of Texas physicians.”
CJD
It’s amazing, given what physicians know about insurers, that they still trust them so implicitly. Faith trumps reason every time I guess.
Hey, in all your celebrating about caps, did any of you ever think about the victims of malpractice? You know, the people who don’t know enough to go to the physicians you would never send your kids to?
How are all those people doing? Ahh, who cares – you’re all making more money, right?
anonymous
Wrong. Physicians are still making less money, but losing less to malpractice insurance costs.
scalpel
Caps on noneconomic damages don’t prevent patients from trying to sue if they believe malpractice has occurred. It sure does seem to prevent attorneys from agreeing to represent patients who have no income, however.
Who are the greedy ones again?
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/business/15324185.htm
CJD
“Caps on noneconomic damages don’t prevent patients from trying to sue if they believe malpractice has occurred. It sure does seem to prevent attorneys from agreeing to represent patients who have no income, however.”
How many of you physicians are willing to drop $100K of your own money on the CHANCE that you’ll be able to get them enough money to pay their medical bills? Much less have any quality of life. Oh that’s right, none. But hey, at least their pain and suffering is worth about what you’ll make in a year or so, eh? Well, a little less now that you’ve capped their recovery!
If you’re a stay at home mom, a small child, or an elderly person, and you are faced with the kind of malpractice injury that gets a large pain and suffering award, and the lawyer tells you that sure they can help you, but all of the money will end up going back to the health care providers, why exactly would you go to the trouble?
But hey, lawyers are bad and you’re making more money. That’s all that matters – certainly not the facts of the case or the nature of the injury!
ismd
CJD,
Your above rant hasn’t made me forget to once again ask you – where’s the proof for your earlier statements about increased numbers of hospitals in Texas? Where’s your rebuttal to the Texas Medical Board’s assertion that reform is the reason for more doctors in Texas? And while rates did go up prior to reform, the important point is that, no matter what the rates were prior to reform, THEY ARE COMING DOWN!!! No matter how you try to twist that fact, it’s there, staring you in the face. Just answer the questions without resorting to generalizations and bullshit.
As far as those physicians who are seeing savings in their premiums (or, as you would say, getting richer), while you wax poetical about the “victims”, you ever think about those practices that can now ensure their survival economically, and still provide services to their patients? And before you get into what you percieve as lack of lobbying efforts to improve reimbursements, various medical societies have been on the Hill every year to lobby. The American Academy of Family Practice was just in DC lobbying. The AMA has been there, deeply concerned over the impending cuts to Medicare. The Radiology societies have been there. We can’t lobby against private insurers, but we’re increasingly voting against them with our feet. And, yes, CJD, we’re still lobbying for tort reform. While you damn us for “making money”, YOU seem to support the efforts of your ATLA brethren to continue enriching themselves at the expense of doctors and patients.
scalpel
“But hey, lawyers are bad and you’re making more money. That’s all that matters…”
Actually, I’m not making more money. All that really matters is that I don’t have to deal with people like you as often.
CJD
“where’s the proof for your earlier statements about increased numbers of hospitals in Texas?”
I’m trying to find the link that had all of them. Here are news releases of new ones opening throughout Texas – and this is just a snapshot:
http://www.dentonhospital.com/AboutUs/Newsroom/PressReleaseGrandOpening
http://www.texaschildrenshospital.org/allabout/newscenter/ArticleDisplay.aspx?aid=1300
http://www.seton.net/about_seton/news/2006/02/28/the_seton_family_of_hospitals_and_triad_hospitals_inc_announce_joint_venture_to_build_new_hospital_in_cedar_park
http://www.modernhealthcare.com/news.cms?newsId=5469&potId=FS
Given Texas’ population increase, why would more hospitals surprise you?
“Where’s your rebuttal to the Texas Medical Board’s assertion that reform is the reason for more doctors in Texas? “
Do I need a rebuttal? Their claim is based on a survey of 117 physicians, and it does not appear they asked about any other factors. Seriously, if a drug company was trying to get you to utilize their drug based on that kind of “study”, would you rely on it? Or even better, if ATLA polled 117 lawyers in Texas on whether tort reform was good for Texans, what would you say? Be serious.
“And while rates did go up prior to reform, the important point is that, no matter what the rates were prior to reform, THEY ARE COMING DOWN!!!”
Do you even wonder why? Do you really think insurance is that simple? Do you truly think that the economy, interest rates, etc. have nothing to do with it? Your own brethren’s claims belie that “reform” had anything to do with it, because when they don’t fall you guys say it’s because the cases haven’t worked their way through the system. Your claims run into each other constantly.
Does a 25% decrease after a 150% increase really satisfy you? Don’t you wonder why, since they haven’t made many payouts on the pre-cap claims, rates are falling so fast? Do you really not think you were getting gouged or that they overinflated their projected losses? Are you this big of a believer in insurance companies?
Don’t you even wonder why we go through the same insurance cycle in states that DON’T adopt tort reform? YOu know that the number of claims really didn’t increase that much in the first years of this decade v. the average growth per year in the 90s? So what do you think changed? You really don’t think the crashing economy had ANYTHING to do with it? That reinsurance rates skyrocketing after 9/11 had ANYTHING to do with it?
“you ever think about those practices that can now ensure their survival economically, and still provide services to their patients?”
Malpractice premiums are, on average, less than 5% of a physician’s overhead. The problem for you guys is that you give the “run out of practice” cry too much. It has grown tired, particularly as your ranks continue to grow.
“And, yes, CJD, we’re still lobbying for tort reform. While you damn us for “making money”, YOU seem to support the efforts of your ATLA brethren to continue enriching themselves at the expense of doctors and patients.”
That makes no sense. Do you get paid for your work? Are you “enriching yourself at the expense of patients”? I’m not damning you for making more money – I think everyone should. I’m damning you for arbitrarily capping the damages of the most seriously injured and the most helpless for a mere hope that an insurance company will give you more money. That’s what I’m damning you for. Gullibility.
Evidently you’re too young, so you may not know that this last “crisis” was the third one in 30 years. And EVERY ONE comes with the same cries by insurers and physicians, yet EVERY ONE corresponds with an economic downturn. Weird, huh? Must just be a coincidence. Think you’ll remember that during the next one?
I’m sure you’re well meaning, but you really need to educate yourself on how insurance works.
CJD
“Actually, I’m not making more money. All that really matters is that I don’t have to deal with people like you as often.”
And the victims? What of them?
Esquivel
No matter how many times I hear it, I always end up genuinely laughing out loud when I see trial attorneys doing their best to demonize doctors as heartless profiteers that care nothing about patients. CJD never gives up, that’s to his credit, but given the choice between listening to a one-sided presentation by a doctor, someone whose life is spent caring for people and saving lives, and a one-sided presentation by a trial lawyer who is little more than a sycophant making a commission off of convincing a judge to transfer money from one party to another, I’ll listen to the doctors every single time.
When malpractice rates go up, “it’s not our fault! Everyone else mismanaged everything!” When reform is enacted and rates go down, “it’s not the reform! Everything else counts, but not that!” When doctors leave states, “it’s not our fault! Everything else counts, but not the astronomical verdicts we pursue!”
CJD, if you pick and choose your battles while admitting that you’re wrong in cases where it’s obvious, your credibility will improve. But your total unwillingness to accept any responsibility as a lawyer for the sorry state of our malpractice system is, to put it kindly, laughable. You do make good points sometimes, and you’re correct in that it’s not a good idea to listen to only one side of the debate, but you shoot yourself in the foot over and over and over by (as lawyers are trained to do) denying the obvious and present only one side of the argument without any qualification.
A prime example of (as the phrase goes) lying with statistics is when you try to deny that there’s a malpractice premium problem by citing an average percentage of overhead for all physicians. You know as well as anyone reading this that that’s irrelevant. It’s the outliers that are the problem, and the premiums that specialists in high risk professions pay that are the issue. The average means nothing, and no one is citing that as a problem.
I could go on, but you know as well as I do what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. You’re a smart guy, and you have interesting things to say at times. Please, let me take you seriously. I really do want to. I don’t want lawyer stereotypes to be true, but when I read your posts, it’s hard to think any other way.
lawyersux
What about states where Tort reform is and will be an impossibility. The President of the Massachusetts Medical Society has said it’s not even worth it to promote tort reform because the Political “Hacks” in Massachusetts have so much power and money to keep it in place. Other then leaving the state, what do you do if you live in one of those Liberal, lawyer-friendly states where you will always be facing multi-million dollar suits, even for patients you never saw? I have proposed physician strikes, but I’m laughed at.
ismd
CJD,
Oh, please. I’m not gullible, nor are any of my colleagues. We’re not shills for the insurance companies. Think it if it makes you feel better. And I’m flattered that you think I’m young, but I’m not. If anyone is gullible, it’s you, spouting the ATLA party line time and time again. Yep, it’s all about justice – sure it is, as long as that “justice” includes a rather large reward for the oh so hard working attorney. And how much justice does that patient eventually see in compensation?
As far as the Tx Medical Board is concerned (not the Texas Med Assn), the increased physician numbers aren’t based on a survey of docs, but an actual counting of the number of docs. And yes, there are more docs since reform was enacted. You damn us for ignoring facts, yet you do the same when they stare you in the face?
scalpel
“And the victims? What of them?”
Since this legislation passed, there are a lot fewer victims (of unjustified lawsuits). The cases that we once would have to spend a lot of our time worrying about and eventually perhaps settling for nuisance value to make you go away are now no longer worth your time.
Cry me a river.
CJD
“I’m not gullible, nor are any of my colleagues. We’re not shills for the insurance companies. “
You take a 117 person survey put out by a lobbying organization as clear evidence of your position and you’re not gullible? And you accuse ME of putting out a party line?
Of course there are more docs now. There have been additional docs nearly every year, “crisis” or not. Again, the population increased, new hospitals were built. That means more jobs for physicians and yes, more physicians. Yet you want to attribute it all to tort reform? But you’re not gullible?
CJD
“Since this legislation passed, there are a lot fewer victims (of unjustified lawsuits). The cases that we once would have to spend a lot of our time worrying about and eventually perhaps settling for nuisance value to make you go away are now no longer worth your time.”
Nuisance value claims were never worth the time. The only thing that has changed is that people without economic damages – women, children, old people – are less likely to have viable cases. But hey, you’re making more money!
Cry me a river indeed. I’m sure the agony you feel is very similar to being brain damaged, or having to urinate through a tube in your stomach, or being a vegetable, like a person who is affected by caps is likely to be. How do you overcome it?
ismd
CJD,
Read what I wrote. The info on increased physician numbers comes from the Texas Medical Board, NOT the Texas medical Assn. You yourself said in an earlier post that it’s not (the Board) a lobbying organization. They didn’t do a survey. They actually looked at the numbers. Don’t try to deliberately confuse the issues. Again, read and comprehend.
Here’s what the agency had to say in their 2006 strategic report. Note that it DIDN’T survey any docs!
“The agency has considered external factors that may have contributed to this
increase:
• Displacement of physicians caused by Hurricane Katrina: Data shows
only a small percentage of applications received from applicants in
states impacted by the hurricane.
• More residents wanting a license in order to moonlight now that the
80 hour work week is being enforced: Data shows the number of
residents seeking licensure remains relatively stable.
• Tort reform: It appears that changes in the medical malpractice laws
may be the most viable explanation. Tort reform as enacted appears to
be working as envisioned by the Texas Legislature to create a more
encouraging environment for the practice of medicine.” http://www.tmb.state.tx.us/agency/StrategicPlan2006.pdf page 15
CJD
“The info on increased physician numbers comes from the Texas Medical Board, NOT the Texas medical Assn. You yourself said in an earlier post that it’s not (the Board) a lobbying organization. They didn’t do a survey. They actually looked at the numbers.”
Yes, and the numbers indicate increases literally every year.
“It appears that changes in the medical malpractice laws
may be the most viable explanation. Tort reform as enacted appears to be working as envisioned by the Texas Legislature to create a more
encouraging environment for the practice of medicine.”
This is evidence? Physicians perceptions? In what way has your environment improved? Other than some premiums going down, and who knows for how long, the only other way is perception of risk. Yet your risk hasn’t changed that much. You still have almost zero chance of being forced into bankruptcy. When the economy tanks and we go through this yet again, will the environment have changed? Or do you not know the environment unless the AMA tells you what it is?
If it’s based on more dollars in your pockets, do you sleep better at night knowing those injured the worst are recovering less than their case is worth? That it’s harder for them to find lawyers to take their cases? Is that the better environment you were looking for?
scalpel
“I’m sure the agony you feel is very similar to being brain damaged, or having to urinate through a tube in your stomach, or being a vegetable, like a person who is affected by caps is likely to be. How do you overcome it?”
People with that much physical disability surely can produce sufficient expected lifetime medical bills that you can happily take a third to a half of them and make some good coin off of their tragedy. I’m sure you can justify a case like that, whether they were previously employed or not.
Add your 750K of “pain and suffering” and you are starting to talk some real money.
Your
lawyersux
“do you sleep better at night knowing those injured the worst are recovering less than their case is worth?”
OK, show the study that proves that a bad outcome deserves a bigger lottery win? How do you decide what it’s worth? Is that why CP cases “earn” so much money, even though 90% of the time we know the doc is the poor schmuck unlucky (or stupid enough) to have attended to a CP baby? If you’re so worried about these “maimed and injured” not finding lawyers, why don’t you uproot and move to Texas and take up these cases despite the low returns? You could call yourself “Lawyers without (tort reform) borders”
CJD
“People with that much physical disability surely can produce sufficient expected lifetime medical bills that you can happily take a third to a half of them and make some good coin off of their tragedy. I’m sure you can justify a case like that, whether they were previously employed or not.”
Given that you get paid even when you screw up, I’m pretty sure you’re not one to lecture others on making money from people who can ill afford it.
And how can I justify it? They ask me what they’ll get out of it and I have to tell them that after paying back their health insurer, if they have one, or Medicaid, then paying their future medicals, they’ll be lucky to have anything, even if they didn’t pay me. They’re better off to go bankruptcy without pain and suffering damages because they’ll be going through two years of hassles and ultimately end up with nothing to show for it. If you were them, what would you do?
“Add your 750K of “pain and suffering” and you are starting to talk some real money.”
$750K is real money? Is that what your brain function would be worth to you? How about your kid’s? Sound like a fair deal – having some legislator who has never even seen your kid decide the value of his case based on what insurance lobbyists tell him it’s worth?
We all know how much physicians hate having their compensation for work performed arbitrarily set and how unfair you believe it is. Imagine the value of your quality of life was arbitrarily set by people who knew nothing of your life but sure did like those steak dinners at Morton’s AIG’s lobbyists are always having – how fair would that be?
CJD
“OK, show the study that proves that a bad outcome deserves a bigger lottery win?”
You keep asking me to prove your claims. I never said that, so why would I point you to a study that did?
Read for comprehension.
anonymous
CJD,could we please get our FACTS correct!
“The online survey measuring physicians’ attitudes and practice habits was conducted from Aug. 22 to Aug. 30, 2006 and 1,154 completed responses were received. Invitations to participate in the survey were sent via e-mail to 10,000 randomly selected physician members of TMA. Of those e-mails, 9,442 were delivered to the potential respondents’ e-mail address. The response rate was 12.2 percent. The survey results accurately reflect the opinions of Texas physicians in general, with an overall margin of error for questions answered by all respondents of plus or minus 2.8 percent”
chucky
Esquevil,
Very nice job on summarizing thoughts on CJD. Kudos for taking the time to type it out even though he will miss it with his blinders on.
Criminollopath,
I agree with your part about “junk science”. It is criminal how people have perverted the legal system. However you are generalizing a lot of accusations. I have been practicing for 21 years and I have not met any doctors that do this. Sure they are out there but it is not a rampant disease.
I now just skip over your entries because you are going to talk about the same thing in the same incoherent way.
ismd
CJD,
Your comments from your 6:48 post show how you continue to ignore the facts put in front of you. Again, the numbers of physicians increased in Texas ONLY BECAUSE OF REFORM! What is it about htis plain and simple fact you don’t comprehend? Because it goes against everything taught to you by the ATLA playbook?
BTW, look at the strategic report. A good portion of the membership of the Texas Medical Board are not physicians. So much for your “perceptions” comment.
ismd
CJD,
Your comments from your 6:48 post show how you continue to ignore the facts put in front of you. Again, the numbers of physicians increased in Texas ONLY BECAUSE OF REFORM! What is it about htis plain and simple fact you don’t comprehend? Because it goes against everything taught to you by the ATLA playbook?
BTW, look at the strategic report. A good portion of the membership of the Texas Medical Board are not physicians. So much for your “perceptions” comment.
CJD
“Again, the numbers of physicians increased in Texas ONLY BECAUSE OF REFORM!”
And all the other years they increased was because of what? Climate?
ismd
CJD,
You’re very good at twisting facts to fit your preconceived notions. Again, go to the Medical Board’s Annual Report for 2006, and also look at the statistics for numbers of physicians over the last few years posted on their website. Yeah, sure, there was minimal growth over the few years prior to reform, but since then , licensure applications have dramatically increased, especially this year. I refer you to page 14 of the report. Boy, for someone who accuses physicians of ignoring facts that don’t fit their world view, you more than do the same. For someone who accuses us of ignoring facts, you’ve made that a specialty.
Criminallopath
“However you are generalizing a lot of accusations. I have been practicing for 21 years and I have not met any doctors that do this.”
Generalizing? Reliance on provided history and assumption of patient veracity without the ability, capability or desire to objectively evaluate such history is the norm in clinical practice. Do you, in all seriousness, expect anybody to beleive that you have not engaged in this junk science method for attributing cause of a non-hallmark diagnosed condition?
Anirban
“Reliance on provided history and assumption of patient veracity without the ability, capability or desire to objectively evaluate such history is the norm in clinical practice”
And what you’ve got to back up that claim ? Reply in simple sentences .

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