Texas doctors seek medical board reform.(News)

Physicians in Texas are working to change the way the state board of medical examiners disciplines doctors by adding more due process to the system.

"The state board really is over-stepping its bounds in terms of reviewing standard of care issues," said Clyde A. Henke, M.D., an ob.gyn. in San Angelo, Tex., who has called for reform of the state board's rules.

This has significant implications for ob.gyns. They are already under pressure to drop obstetrics due to high premiums, low managed care payments, and now aggressive sanctioning of physicians by the state board, he said.

In September 2003, the Texas legislature gave the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners new authority to regulate medical practice through the passage of Senate Bill 104. This year, the legislature will review how the agency has used those new powers during its Sunset Review Process.

S.B. 104 gave the board a 60% increase in funding in fiscal year 2003 to be used to pay expert physician consultants, more competitive salaries to retain staff, and 20 additional full-time employee positions.

One of the big changes made has been the implementation of a new investigation module, said Donald W. Patrick, M.D., executive director of the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners. This new process is used to assess the approximately 6,000 complaints that the board receives each year.

In a national ranking of serious disciplinary actions taken against physicians in 2003, Public Citizen's Health Research Group ranked Texas in the middle--23rd out of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia.