Vol. 98 No. 11
COVER STORY
Rest for the Weary
Starting next summer, residents won't have to go through the Bataan Death March-like experience of endless hours on call without sleep that you endured and barely survived when you were a resident. That's because the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, concerned about potential danger to patients from exhausted resident physicians, has cut maximum resident work hours to 80 hours per week, beginning in July 2003. But some residency program directors worry that shorter hours may do more harm than good in the long run.
By Ken Ortolon
LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS
Prompt Pay Again
The governor vetoed it the last time, so the Texas Medical Association will seek passage of a prompt pay bill in the legislature one more time next year. A powerful senator is promising that it will get done. But will it be signed?
By Ken Ortolon
LAW
Disclosing Fees
The Texas Department of Insurance has finally -- albeit reluctantly -- issued rules on how much information insurance companies have to give physicians about how they determine fees, but the lack of specificity means many doctors may still be in the dark.
By Walt Borges
MEDICAL ECONOMICS
Discounted Fees
TMA has taken its fight to the attorney general's office to make sure physicians who don't have a contract with an HMO but who work in a hospital that does are paid fairly for their services. We've asked a state legislator to request an attorney general's opinion.
By Walt Borges
PUBLIC HEALTH
West Nile Virus
The death toll and number of illnesses from the West Nile virus are rising, and Texas public officials are taking the threat from the mosquito-borne disease very seriously. But they say it still doesn't kill as many people as pneumonia and the flu do.
By Ken Ortolon
SCIENCE
Black Mold
Why all the fuss about black mold? A panel of TMA scientific experts says it cannot find a link between Stachybotrys chartarum , commonly known as "black mold," and human illness.
By the TMA Council on Scientific Affairs
THE JOURNAL
Blood Folate Levels on the Texas-Mexico Border
By Marilyn Felkner, DrPH; Lucina Suarez, PhD; Kate Hendricks, MD; and Elaine W. Gunter, MT(ASCP)
By Victor R. Scarano, MD, JD; Cyndi M. Baily, JD, MPH; and James R. Banfield, JD
ROUNDS
Legislative game plan * Black mold report * Anson Jones award * HIPAA update * Liability crisis recognized * Sesquicentennial party * Medicare treatment * Texas Medicine revisited
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MedBytes: West Nile Virus
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