The Texas Medical Board has temporarily suspended the license of Richardson psychiatrist Dr. Wayne Charles Jones for what the board calls “unprofessional, abusive, and threatening conduct in regard to a patient.” Jones, who has been in practice for 54 years, has had several formal complaints and restrictions over the past 24 years. He has received prior board discipline but has never had his license suspended until now.

The most recent suspension comes after a sister agency discovered what TMB documents call threatening text messages that Jones, a UT Southwestern graduate, sent to a patient and witness to get TMB complaints against him dismissed.

According to the documents, Jones wrote, “I may need to send the police to do a wellness check[.] She may be held prisoner. What did she say about me and rape attempt charge. If she filed any complaint her life will be over…If she doesn’t back off the rape attempt I have to call the police today and get a protective order for from [redacted]…Otherwise I am in constant danger and I need to get a gun ASAP. This is major league and in life and death issues plus my being criminally charged by the board.”

Later, documents say he promised to get controlled substances for a witness or withhold them if she didn’t cooperate with him. This April, he sent a text that said, “I’ll cut her off from [redacted]. She’ll never be able to get Xanax…The only chance we have is for us to work together.”

Jones also confirmed that he allowed a counselor to prescribe controlled substances on his behalf, and texts show that he was intimidating others to misrepresent information to the TMB to dismiss the case against him. TMB documents also allege that he had a deal with another physician to prescribe each others’ spouses controlled substances.

Jones has a lengthy disciplinary history with the Texas Medical Board. In 1999, State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH) documents described a complaint against him for prescribing controlled substances to a person he knew or should have known was an abuser of drugs. The patient died of an overdose of Ritalin, Prozac, and Desoxyn, all prescribed by Jones. The 1999 complaint describes five other patients who should have been known to be drug users but were being prescribed controlled substances by Jones.

The following year, TMB put restrictions on Jones’ medical license, including improved record keeping, labeling, education, and three years of monitoring by a licensed physician. After complying with the order for under two years, TMB modified the restriction to monitor Jones’ practice quarterly.

In 2009, SOAH received another formal complaint against Jones that he prescribed controlled substances (mostly Adderall) without therapeutic reasons and failed to keep adequate records. As a result, a physician was assigned to monitor his practice for eight monitoring cycles; Jones was ordered to prepare selected patient and billing records for review by the monitor and to attend more educational classes. The TMB cleared Jones’ status in 2014.

But in 2019, the TMB alleged that Jones inappropriately touched and made inappropriate comments to a patient during a physical exam without a chaperone present. According to TMB documents, Jones said he had no memory of interacting with the patient. The TMB again restricted Jones’ license, ordering that he no longer inject or perform physical exams on female patients. He was ordered, among other things, to have a chaperone present whenever meeting with a female patient, take a competency test, complete a professional boundaries course, and take and pass the Medical Jurisprudence Examination or have his license suspended.

In 2021, after complying with the previous order, the TMB terminated the restrictions. Then a little more than a year later, the SOAH received another formal complaint that Jones prescribed drugs to multiple patients who were already taking several controlled substances without proper drug screenings and outside the standard of care. Jones was also allegedly prescribing himself several controlled substances without adequate records.

In 2010, the Dallas Morning News reported that pharmaceutical companies paid Jones tens of thousands to be a speaker, part of an investigation of physicians with disciplinary records who private companies paid to be a speaker. “I believe that either the treatments were reasonable considering the circumstances or that in some cases where my medical judgment was in error, they were reasonable errors of judgment,” he told DMN at the time. “The reason pharmaceutical companies want me is because I do such a good job, and I’m so conscientious.”

On a website for Integrative Psychiatry that matches the name, address, and academic history of Jones, it says he “has given over 1,800 presentations on stress disorders teaching primary care physicians as well as psychiatrists” and that he “always stays on the ‘cutting edge’ of stress disorders by attending over 200 hours of continuing education courses himself each year.” In a letter on the site’s homepage, he thanks patients for their patience and kindness “while everyone is struggling to find certain medications in stock, while staffing has been a challenge, in addition to other concerns. I assure you that I am still Dr. Jones and going strong. Everyone’s needs are being addressed.”

In January, another formal amended complaint was filed by the board, but there is no accompanying documentation about that complaint. The current suspension is connected to threatening messages sent to a witness about a complaint Jones wanted withdrawn from the board.

Jones isn’t the only North Texas physician to keep his medical license despite a history of unprofessional behavior. Former neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch, also known as Dr. Death, was able to kill and maim several of his patients over several years in several Dallas-area hospitals before losing his license. More recently, anesthesiologist Dr. Raynaldo Ortiz was arrested last year after allegedly putting nerve-blocking agents into IV bags at Baylor Scott & White Surgicare North Dallas, resulting in at least 12 cardiac complications and one death. This was after years of TMB discipline, complaints, and spending time in jail for shooting a neighbor’s dog. Despite the TMB disciplinary history and criminal activity, Ortiz was still able to practice until the actions last summer.

But reform is on the way. Governor Greg Abbott signed HB 1998 into law this month, giving TMB tools it needs to protect patients. It prevents physicians who have had licenses revoked, restricted, or suspended from practicing in Texas, requires physicians to be fingerprinted during their background checks, requires that physicians be monitored monthly by the national clearinghouse for all physician complaints, and more.

Jones’ office did not respond to a request for comment. The suspension remains in place until a disciplinary panel hearing or superseding order from TMB.

The post Suspended Physician to Patient: ‘If She Filed Any Complaint Her Life Will Be Over’ appeared first on D Magazine.

Snyder is the president of the Dallas-based cardiology group HeartPlace and has previously served as vice-chair, secretary, and chair of the Texas Medical Association board of trustees. He is active in TEXPAC, TMA’s political action committee, is a past president of the Dallas County Medical Society, has chaired the department of medicine at Medical City Dallas, and served as medical staff president and board trustee there. D CEO magazine profiled him and his wife, Shelley Hall, a heart transplant cardiologist at Baylor Scott and White, last year. He got his start in advocacy through the American College of Cardiology and hasn’t looked back.

As this year’s legislative session moves into a special session, Snyder spoke with D CEO Healthcare about what he sees as the most pressing legislative, regulatory, and legal issues facing physicians in Texas and how the physician community has and can work with the city and county for future health emergencies.

D CEO Healthcare: How did you first get into physician advocacy?

Snyder: “My first official involvement in organized medicine started with the American College of Cardiology and our medical liability crisis in the early 2000s when I realized that science and education were not the preeminent factors determining access to care. It’s literally etched in stone in the national headquarters for the American College of Cardiology in D.C.: ‘Quality care through science, education, and advocacy.’ Advocacy is, in my opinion, far and away the most important part because, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if you have a patient who meets every clinical indication and has no exclusion criteria. it doesn’t matter if their clinical confidence  intervals are clean and the p value has six zeroes. If that test or procedure isn’t covered, it will not happen.”

D CEO Healthcare: How have Dallas physicians come together in the past to solve problems for the region?

Snyder: “When I was DCMS president, we had the West Nile crisis that year. What triggered the county medical society’s involvement because in June of that year and we already had around 18 to 20 people who knew who had gotten it, and several had died. The doctors came together to save the city. It had nothing to do with the science because the science was clear; we needed to spray from the air. But when our doctors met with Dallas County Health and Human Services, they said we’re absolutely not going to spray from the air. It had nothing to do with science and everything to do with politics. That’s when we got involved, and we met with Clay Jenkins. He even said what changed the tide was the county medical society getting involved (Read D Magazine’s 2013 feature about how doctors came together to save the city here).

D CEO Healthcare: Where could the physician community grow to become more effective?

Snyder: “Advocacy is the one area where doctors need to be more like lawyers  For lawyers it is a universal part of their culture, like it is part of their DNA to be part of the political process and advocacy. There used to be the old Norman Rockwellian vision of a physician. I know that it’s almost heresy to say doctors need to be more like lawyers, but this is the reality. As physicians, we have just as much impact, if not more, on the health care our patients receive through our work in legislative chambers as we do in exam rooms and operating rooms. We need to make the hallways and the capitol buildings in Austin and D.C. as familiar as those in our own hospitals.”

D CEO Healthcare: There is a lot of discussion about improving healthcare coverage and expanding Medicaid. What is the debate missing?

Snyder: “We know there’s a lot of discussion about coverage in the legislature, and for us, it is thinking about the wrong thing. It shouldn’t be coverage–it should be access, access, access. Coverage is not the same thing as access, and access to a waiting list is not the same thing as access to healthcare. If your coverage plan affords you the ability to see a physician two counties away or two months away, that’s not meaningful access to care. Timeliness is as much a quality factor as any other. Dak Prescott can throw a perfect quality spiral 60 yards down the field, getting the exact spot he intended, but if it gets there late, it’s incomplete, or worse, it’s intercepted. So timing is critical. Our gold standard must always be timely access. Rural broadband is going to be key for access to the rural community because Texas has a lot of unique challenges to the delivery of healthcare because of its size and geography. You can expand Medicaid all you want, but if it doesn’t translate into meaningful access, it does not matter.”

D CEO Healthcare: Nurse practitioner advocates argue that one way to improve access is to allow nurse practitioners to practice independently as they do in dozens of other states. Why do you disagree with this change?

Snyder: “Most patients are going to want someone who’s had clinical training of 7,000 hours versus 600 hours. A lot of what we do is experienced based. An MD goes to medical school for four years, has an M.D., and has several thousand hours of clinical training, and if they want to practice as a clinician, they still have to go on and do an internship and residency. There are a lot of legislative efforts to allow nurse practitioners and physician assistants who have six to seven hundred hours of clinical training to have an independent clinical practice. We don’t let medical students with M.D.s do that, so we need to push back on that. We had a lot of nurse practitioners, and PAs start seeing patients with chest pain come into the ER. They would make the clinical decision, and we found out the cost of seeing those patients went up dramatically. You need six to seven thousand hours of experience to know when a patient’s chest pain is not their heart and have the competence to send them home as opposed to admitting everybody and getting a CT scan and nuclear strategy in a hospital admission.”

D CEO Healthcare: How are finances impacting the physician-patient relationship?

“Many physician practices are under a lot of strain to stay open. We see a lot of independent practices folding because they cannot stay economically viable with our current medical economic system, and many of them are becoming employed by hospitals employed by payers. We, as the TMA, have to stand up for them and to ensure that their patient-physician relationship and those models enjoy clinical autonomy and are independent. There are a lot of third parties that are trying to insert themselves in that patient-physician relationship and insert themselves in applying regulations that are not based upon science but upon economics and politics. Insurance companies especially are trying to diminish what it means to be a physician and redefining and relegating the physician role to that of a provider and replacing us with nurse practitioners and PAs.”

D CEO Healthcare: What is site neutrality, and why is it an important priority for TMA?

Snyder: “On the cost efficiency issue, one of the key issues is site neutrality. For Medicare, there are two different fee schedules. One is for the hospitals, and another is the physician fee schedule. If a hospital buys a physician practice, they can then apply the hospital fee schedule, so an echocardiogram in my office is $132.70, but the exact same procedure in the hospital outpatient departments is $503.13. The difference in the Medicare allowable for nuclear stress tests is $410.56  in my office vs $1,607.33 in the hospital outpatient department. For many codes  it is 3-4x  more expensive. If my group were employed by a hospital system, the  increased cost to the federal government on a yearly basis  is $16.7 million doing  the exact same echocardiograms and nuclear stress tests in the exact same offices by the same patients by the same doctors. If you enact national comprehensive site neutrality in totality, it would be  $300 billion in savings over 10 years.”

D CEO Healthcare: AI is increasingly impacting every industry. What are your thoughts about how the healthcare industry should work with the change?

Snyder: “We’ve had AI interpret our EKGs, and I’ll tell you easily 10 to 20 percent of it is wrong. Not only wrong but wrong in a big way. We still have the EKGs with the computer interpretation, but we still have a physician read over them. We’re talking about maybe forming an ad hoc committee on AI (in TMA) on how we integrate AI into clinical practice because I think this is something we need to embrace. I think it is the future. I think there are a lot of benefits with AI if it’s rolled out appropriately, and I see AI as something which assists and augments the physician. If you’re reading a scan, your eye cannot see all the different pixels or discern some changes in pixels that a computer can see. I don’t think it’s ever going to replace a clinician, but I certainly think it could assist and augment our thought processes.”

The post Conversation With: TMA President Dr. Rick Snyder Wants Physicians to ‘Be More Like Lawyers’ appeared first on D Magazine.

The Texas Medical Board announced Friday that Stager’s practice of medicine would be a threat to public welfare should he continue his work and temporarily suspend his license. “The Board panel found that Dr. Stager’s recent conduct, including an arrest for domestic violence, while impaired, indicates he is still suffering from an active substance use disorder that was previously the basis for disciplinary action under his 2018 order,” a statement from the board said.

According to his Doximity site, Stager has an office in Plano and is affiliated with Medical City Dallas and Children’s Medical Center Dallas and practices pediatric ophthalmology with a focus on strabismus when the eyes do not line up in the same direction. He graduated from UT Southwestern in 1991 and has been in practice for 25 years. He received D Magazine‘s Best Doctors recognition seven times.

According to TMB documents, TMB board staff alleged that Stager failed to comply with his agreement with the Texas Health Physicians Program, which “provides confidential early intervention, assessment, treatment referral and post-treatment monitoring for health professionals under the Texas Medical Board’s jurisdiction who may not be able to practice safely due to an impairing or potentially impairing health condition,” according to its website.

Board documents say he relapsed by abusing alcohol and failing to take a test that measures blood alcohol content. He had reported a previous relapse in 2017 and the completion of a 90-day inpatient program but had never been disciplined by the TMB before 2018. Documents say he was involved in a domestic dispute in 2018, and police officers observed that he appeared impaired.

The 2018 disciplinary matter said Stager had to refrain from drinking alcohol or using dangerous drugs or controlled substances. If he used any substances that were not approved and prescribed, he was required to report that to the board within 24 hours, and documents said he was required to participate in the TMB drug testing program and submit to drug and alcohol screenings. If he didn’t meet the conditions, his license would be suspended.

He was also asked to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, was monitored by a work-site monitor for one year, and told to participate in Alcoholics Anonymous meetings ten times each month.

After three years and nine months of compliance with the order, the TMB terminated it in August 2022. TMB documents say Stager says he “maintains that he is more well established in his sobriety and has fine-tuned his recovery path for better success” and that he “does specialized therapy and
meditation has a great family support system, leans on his faith, and sees a recovery coach
three to five times per week.”

Ten months later, Stager was arrested for domestic abuse, and TMB temporarily suspended his license pending further action. It is unclear where he was arrested or if he is being held in jail. The story will be updated as we receive more information.

The post TMB Suspends Plano Ophthalmologist’s License After Domestic Violence Arrest appeared first on D Magazine.

Hussain is still focused on his 9-5 but is excited about the growth of his cannabis dispensary, Canna Land, where hopes he is bringing sophistication and security to a market that has seen its fair share of issues in Oklahoma.

In 2018, Oklahoma legalized medicinal marijuana via referendum, allowing entrepreneurs to enter the market as growers, dispensers, and prescribers. While Texas has limited medical cannabis products to specific diagnoses, Oklahoma doesn’t have similar limits, didn’t initially cap the number of licenses, and made it cheaper than other states to become a grower and seller. As dispensaries opened all over the state, regulators and compliance officers couldn’t keep up, resulting in the state banning new licenses for a period.

There have also been unsavory reports about illegal growing operations, trafficking, and violence connected to the Chinese mafia that has accompanied the industry over the last several years. Oklahomans voted against recreational marijuana in another referendum this year.

As a podiatrist, Hussain had never interacted with medical cannabis for his job, but when a childhood friend began working at a dispensary in Oklahoma, he visited to check out the business model in 2019. “There were literally dispensaries everywhere,” he says. “There were different types of dispensaries–some looked kind of shady, and others looked really nice.”

Hussain was intrigued enough to begin to read up on the industry. He dove into policy questions and medical journals about medicinal marijuana, its benefits, and where questions remain about its impact. It wasn’t long until Hussain and his partner found a potential storefront in Broken Arrow, a suburb of Tulsa. His vision for the space was to be a boutique dispensary with the feel of an Apple Store or Starbucks: professional, clean, and comfortable while remaining confidential.

He said they got some pushback from the city, which wasn’t enthused about another dispensary, but after explaining how his business would be unique and his background as a physician, they were allowed to build their first Canna Land dispensary.

Despite the fact that many dispensaries are closing and Canna Land opened during the pandemic, business has been robust enough to open another location in Tulsa, and Canna Land has another in the works outside Oklahoma City.

But Hussain wants to bring the business closer to home. He is in the application process to get a license to open a medical cannabis dispensary in Texas. With HB 1805 from North Texas legislator Stephanie Klick likely to become law during this year’s legislative session, chronic pain will be added to the list of diagnoses eligible for medicinal marijuana prescriptions through the state’s Compassionate Use law. The change will expand potential patients to at least one in three Texans, increasing interest for Hussain and others.

Though there are currently restrictions about where THC products can be stored that make being a medical cannabis dispensary difficult in Texas, future changes to the Compassionate Use rules would be changed by state administrators rather than a new law. That means the rules can be changed more frequently and without all the political turmoil – a boon for entrepreneurs seeking to change the laws.

Hussain has not applied to be a prescriber of cannabis in Texas or Oklahoma to avoid a conflict of interest as a dispensary owner, but is bullish on the industry’s future in the Lone Star State. He has already scouted locations in Fort Worth for his Texas cannabis business, which will include a grow operation in addition to a dispensary and necessary logistics infrastructure. Though he feels comfortable about the dispensary part of the business, he knows there will be a learning curve in growing the cannabis, which Canna Land doesn’t do now.

Hussain says he is in it for the long haul in Texas, as he knows change will come slowly. Being part of the growing industry is worth the wait for him and his business partners.

“In the current situation, the first few years will be difficult,” Hussain says. “But there will be long-term success. Colorado made it work, California made it work, and Oklahoma is making it work. I assume Texas will make it work.”

The post The Local Podiatrist Who Became a Cannabis Entrepreneur appeared first on D Magazine.

The battle between physicians and nurse practitioners is alive and well during Texas’ 88th legislative session. In 26 states, nurse practitioners have unrestricted access to running an independent medical clinic, and 14 additional states provide a pathway for NPs to do so after practicing under supervision for a limited period. Despite Texas’ reputation as a state where government stays out of business, it is one of just a few states that require NPs to practice under the supervision of a physician, called delegation.

A group called the Coalition for Healthcare Access is supporting a pair of bills in the Texas Legislature that would remove the mandate for NPs to be supervised by physicians and place regulatory authority for NPs under the Texas Board of Nursing. Amazon, the Texas Association of Health Plans, Texas 2036, the Texas State Chamber of Commerce, AARP, the Texas Organization of Rural and Community Hospitals, and many others have all signed on as supporters of the legislation that would end the practice that costs NPs thousands of dollars a month for oversight from an MD. 

Two bills have been introduced toward removing the delegation requirement. Senate Bill 1700’s author is Sen. Cesar Blanco of El Paso, and House Bill 4071 is from Fort Worth’s own Stephanie Klick, a nurse who has been responsible for Texas medical cannabis legislation and is chair of the public health committee in the House. The two bills are nearly identical and allow NPs to diagnose and treat patients, prescribe drugs, including controlled substances and devices, and serve as the primary care clinician of record.

The Texas Medical Association, which represents physicians and medical students in Texas with 57,000 members, has defeated similar bills in past legislative sessions and aims to do so again this year.

TMA President Gary Floyd, who spoke with D CEO Healthcare last year, thinks NPs don’t have enough education. “There’s a significant exaggeration about what they could do if they’re independent,” he told Texas Medicine Today. “They don’t have the training to back that up.” 

In an op-ed in the Dallas Morning News, SMU professor Dean Stansel argued that changing NP regulation would allow more providers to provide care in rural areas and address physician shortages, but TMA cites research that says opening up the scope of practice for NPs won’t impact the areas where Texas has provider shortages, and that NPs usually practice in the same areas as physicians.

Other data from the advocacy group Texas Nurse Practitioners found that ending restrictions on NPs resulted in an increase in providers for 25 percent of counties in Nebraska, 33 percent of counties in Nebraska, and the change in Arizona caused rural NPs to increase by 70 percent.

There are also disagreements about potential costs. NP advocates say that they can provide quality care at a lower cost, but there is also evidence that NPs are more likely to overuse diagnostic imaging, overprescribe, or refer more cases to specialists that physicians might handle themselves, which can drive up costs.

NP advocates say the impact would be focused on primary care, where there is a significant need. Nearly three in four NPs are licensed in primary care, while only 36 percent of physicians are licensed in primary care. Talent drain is another issue. If NPs can make work independently without the cost of oversight in another state, they may be more likely to leave.

Other states serve as a model for how Texas could make this work, but Texas was one of the states that suspended the oversight requirement during the pandemic. Neighbors Louisiana, Arkansas, and New Mexico all have either pathways to or outright independence. Delegation was already suspended during the public health emergency, and the change has been the standard in dozens of states nationwide for years.

The physician oversight that currently exists isn’t comprehensive. In 2013, Texas discontinued on-sight supervision for NPs. Today, NPs must pay for a physician review that requires one phone call and a monthly patient note review.

Both versions of the bill have been sent to committees in the House and Senate, where similar efforts in the past have died. Plano NP Peggy Ostrander, the legislative ambassador chair for TPN and a former board member, is frustrated with the process. “If the full chamber would hear the bill and it could get out of committee, we have the votes,” she says.

As is often the case, healthcare legislation creates coalitions that don’t fall on partisan lines, with supporters and opponents for NP practice expansion on both sides of the aisle. The two bill sponsors, Blanco and Klick, are a Democrat and a Republican, respectively.

Opponents of the bill, who have successfully blocked past efforts in Texas despite the changes in the vast majority of states throughout the country, cite patient safety and increased training for maintaining the status quo.

“Until you’ve been through medical training, you don’t know what you don’t know,” Corpus Christi ophthalmologist Dr. Jerry Hunsaker told Texas Medicine Today. “That’s dangerous for patients and expensive for anyone paying for health care.” 

But opponents say there are less than noble motivations behind the resistance. “It’s about power, control, and money,” Ostrander says. “As long as it goes on, most NPs have to work for physicians, and if they bill $500,000 each year, why would they let them be free?”

The post Texas Nurse Practitioners Want to Be ‘Free’ appeared first on D Magazine.

The DCMS headquarters is moving from Oak Cliff to what will be a renovated 1960s-era artist studio in Uptown. The building will include meeting space and offices for DCMS staff, but it will also have a museum about the history of medicine in Dallas that will be open to visitors, field trips, and children from all around Dallas.

The museum space will include physician-led STEM programs for children and simulation and media displays about medicine to engage the next generation of physicians. DCMS is currently fundraising $1.5 million to renovate the building, develop interactive educational programs, and digitize historical artifacts.

For Casey and the DCMS, the building is about morale as much as business and education. “We’re coming out of this horrible pandemic where at first we were the stars,” she says. “Then people said, ‘We hate doctors’. So we need to support each other, come back together, and rebuild our camaraderie and relationships because people have felt very isolated.”

Read on to learn more about the internal medicine physician’s move into leadership, legislative priorities, and hopes for future changes to medicine. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

D CEO: Tell me about your training and education.

Casey: “Medical school was fabulous. I loved everything about it. You’re learning all day, and I lived with my parents, who know about medical school. So I would come home, and my dad and I would talk every night about medicine. He would explain things to me, or I would ask if a case was cool. My mom is a special ed teacher, but she ran my dad’s office for a long time, so she knows all about medicine. So just by being there, it was a family thing. Also, my sister was in medical school at the same time.”

D CEO: How did you end up in internal medicine?

Casey: “All my friends said “You need to do a fellowship, but I didn’t want to do that. Internal medicine is everything, which to many people is scary, but I love it. Every room I open each day is different. Every time I open the door, I see a new patient. I have no idea what is behind the door. Also, I do a lot of teaching. I’ve got medical students and also PA (physician assistant) students. They want to be able to prepare for what is in the room, but we go in and take it head on.”

D CEO: How is being part of an accountable care organization unique?

Casey: “We’ve been one of the number one ACOs in the United States for many years for value, savings, or both. The value thing is tricky, but it does make sense. If we go to American Airlines and say we should be your preferred provider, we ensure that everyone gets their mammogram and 90 percent of people get their colonoscopy. We’re integrated with each other, so I know if I’m going to send a patient to a certain cardiologist, they’re not going to do a million tests and then rack up a bill.”

D CEO: How did you get into advocacy?

“I love my practice, but many doctors leave their practice and go into administration. I don’t want to do that. I love my patients, and they are what keeps me going. But I can help more people if I get involved with the legislative process and lobby. A few years ago, I started going to Austin on the first Tuesday of the month during the legislative session and meeting with legislators, and I realized how open they are to meet with doctors. They ask us if legislation is a good idea or a bad idea. I completely fell in love with that whole process because I can advocate for things to help more people and public health issues. I feel I can influence what is happening in medicine, which is crucial. If you’re going to complain, you better be part of the solution. I got involved because I wanted to help affect change.”

D CEO: What do you see as the role of the Dallas County Medical Society?

“The Dallas County Medical Society is very active in helping our physicians emotionally. Let’s say somebody has an addictive problem like someone was drinking alcohol on the job. DCMS will take him under their wing, negotiate with the hospital, and talk about how to keep them sober, for example. But they do all kinds of things to advocate for physicians, like getting PPE during the pandemic. We are trying to do more, like how we prevent burnout and take care of ourselves. DCMS CEO Jon Roth is amazing. He’s way ahead of the curve on looking out with what’s on the horizon.”

D CEO: What are some of your legislative priorities?

“Nurse practitioners want complete autonomy to run a clinic and write prescriptions. I trained PA students, I have PAs in my office, and they’re fabulous, but I oversee everything they do. But they’re going to refer out if they are not sure what they’re doing. They make more referrals, have more radiology scans, and cost a lot more money. Physicians have over 10,000 hours of training, and PAs have 1,000 hours of clinical training. That’s a wide, vast gap, right? There is a bill that would allow them to be independent and run clinics. This is also about money too, right? So we are against them having total autonomy. They are saying that we need this because NPs will go to all the small towns, but in the other states where they’ve done this, the NPs stay in the big cities where all the money is and all the big patient volumes. Are they better than nothing? Yes, but now with telehealth, I can care for somebody in Midland.”

D CEO: What else would you like to see change?

“We would like to improve graduate education funding, so when a doctor goes to a rural community, we are going to forgive their debt. We want to increase physician Medicaid payments, but let’s expand Medicaid first. We would also like to reduce prior authorization hassles and increase regulation of e-cigarettes because vaping is easy and cheap and cool and dangerous.”

The post Conversation With: Dallas County Medical Society President Dr. Donna Casey appeared first on D Magazine.

The DCMS headquarters is moving from Oak Cliff to what will be a renovated 1960s-era artist studio in Uptown. The building will include meeting space and offices for DCMS staff, but it will also have a museum about the history of medicine in Dallas that will be open to visitors, field trips, and children from all around Dallas.

The museum space will include physician-led STEM programs for children and simulation and media displays about medicine to engage the next generation of physicians. DCMS is currently fundraising $1.5 million to renovate the building, develop interactive educational programs, and digitize historical artifacts.

For Casey and the DCMS, the building is about morale as much as business and education. “We’re coming out of this horrible pandemic where at first we were the stars,” she says. “Then people said, ‘We hate doctors’. So we need to support each other, come back together, and rebuild our camaraderie and relationships because people have felt very isolated.”

Read on to learn more about the internal medicine physician’s move into leadership, legislative priorities, and hopes for future changes to medicine. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

D CEO: Tell me about your training and education.

Casey: “Medical school was fabulous. I loved everything about it. You’re learning all day, and I lived with my parents, who know about medical school. So I would come home, and my dad and I would talk every night about medicine. He would explain things to me, or I would ask if a case was cool. My mom is a special ed teacher, but she ran my dad’s office for a long time, so she knows all about medicine. So just by being there, it was a family thing. Also, my sister was in medical school at the same time.”

D CEO: How did you end up in internal medicine?

Casey: “All my friends said “You need to do a fellowship, but I didn’t want to do that. Internal medicine is everything, which to many people is scary, but I love it. Every room I open each day is different. Every time I open the door, I see a new patient. I have no idea what is behind the door. Also, I do a lot of teaching. I’ve got medical students and also PA (physician assistant) students. They want to be able to prepare for what is in the room, but we go in and take it head on.”

D CEO: How is being part of an accountable care organization unique?

Casey: “We’ve been one of the number one ACOs in the United States for many years for value, savings, or both. The value thing is tricky, but it does make sense. If we go to American Airlines and say we should be your preferred provider, we ensure that everyone gets their mammogram and 90 percent of people get their colonoscopy. We’re integrated with each other, so I know if I’m going to send a patient to a certain cardiologist, they’re not going to do a million tests and then rack up a bill.”

D CEO: How did you get into advocacy?

“I love my practice, but many doctors leave their practice and go into administration. I don’t want to do that. I love my patients, and they are what keeps me going. But I can help more people if I get involved with the legislative process and lobby. A few years ago, I started going to Austin on the first Tuesday of the month during the legislative session and meeting with legislators, and I realized how open they are to meet with doctors. They ask us if legislation is a good idea or a bad idea. I completely fell in love with that whole process because I can advocate for things to help more people and public health issues. I feel I can influence what is happening in medicine, which is crucial. If you’re going to complain, you better be part of the solution. I got involved because I wanted to help affect change.”

D CEO: What do you see as the role of the Dallas County Medical Society?

“The Dallas County Medical Society is very active in helping our physicians emotionally. Let’s say somebody has an addictive problem like someone was drinking alcohol on the job. DCMS will take him under their wing, negotiate with the hospital, and talk about how to keep them sober, for example. But they do all kinds of things to advocate for physicians, like getting PPE during the pandemic. We are trying to do more, like how we prevent burnout and take care of ourselves. DCMS CEO Jon Roth is amazing. He’s way ahead of the curve on looking out with what’s on the horizon.”

D CEO: What are some of your legislative priorities?

“Nurse practitioners want complete autonomy to run a clinic and write prescriptions. I trained PA students, I have PAs in my office, and they’re fabulous, but I oversee everything they do. But they’re going to refer out if they are not sure what they’re doing. They make more referrals, have more radiology scans, and cost a lot more money. Physicians have over 10,000 hours of training, and PAs have 1,000 hours of clinical training. That’s a wide, vast gap, right? There is a bill that would allow them to be independent and run clinics. This is also about money too, right? So we are against them having total autonomy. They are saying that we need this because NPs will go to all the small towns, but in the other states where they’ve done this, the NPs stay in the big cities where all the money is and all the big patient volumes. Are they better than nothing? Yes, but now with telehealth, I can care for somebody in Midland.”

D CEO: What else would you like to see change?

“We would like to improve graduate education funding, so when a doctor goes to a rural community, we are going to forgive their debt. We want to increase physician Medicaid payments, but let’s expand Medicaid first. We would also like to reduce prior authorization hassles and increase regulation of e-cigarettes because vaping is easy and cheap and cool and dangerous.”

The post Report: How Much Do Physicians Bill Each Year? appeared first on D Magazine.

The DCMS headquarters is moving from Oak Cliff to what will be a renovated 1960s-era artist studio in Uptown. The building will include meeting space and offices for DCMS staff, but it will also have a museum about the history of medicine in Dallas that will be open to visitors, field trips, and children from all around Dallas.

The museum space will include physician-led STEM programs for children and simulation and media displays about medicine to engage the next generation of physicians. DCMS is currently fundraising $1.5 million to renovate the building, develop interactive educational programs, and digitize historical artifacts.

For Casey and the DCMS, the building is about morale as much as business and education. “We’re coming out of this horrible pandemic where at first we were the stars,” she says. “Then people said, ‘We hate doctors’. So we need to support each other, come back together, and rebuild our camaraderie and relationships because people have felt very isolated.”

Read on to learn more about the internal medicine physician’s move into leadership, legislative priorities, and hopes for future changes to medicine. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

D CEO: Tell me about your training and education.

Casey: “Medical school was fabulous. I loved everything about it. You’re learning all day, and I lived with my parents, who know about medical school. So I would come home, and my dad and I would talk every night about medicine. He would explain things to me, or I would ask if a case was cool. My mom is a special ed teacher, but she ran my dad’s office for a long time, so she knows all about medicine. So just by being there, it was a family thing. Also, my sister was in medical school at the same time.”

D CEO: How did you end up in internal medicine?

Casey: “All my friends said “You need to do a fellowship, but I didn’t want to do that. Internal medicine is everything, which to many people is scary, but I love it. Every room I open each day is different. Every time I open the door, I see a new patient. I have no idea what is behind the door. Also, I do a lot of teaching. I’ve got medical students and also PA (physician assistant) students. They want to be able to prepare for what is in the room, but we go in and take it head on.”

D CEO: How is being part of an accountable care organization unique?

Casey: “We’ve been one of the number one ACOs in the United States for many years for value, savings, or both. The value thing is tricky, but it does make sense. If we go to American Airlines and say we should be your preferred provider, we ensure that everyone gets their mammogram and 90 percent of people get their colonoscopy. We’re integrated with each other, so I know if I’m going to send a patient to a certain cardiologist, they’re not going to do a million tests and then rack up a bill.”

D CEO: How did you get into advocacy?

“I love my practice, but many doctors leave their practice and go into administration. I don’t want to do that. I love my patients, and they are what keeps me going. But I can help more people if I get involved with the legislative process and lobby. A few years ago, I started going to Austin on the first Tuesday of the month during the legislative session and meeting with legislators, and I realized how open they are to meet with doctors. They ask us if legislation is a good idea or a bad idea. I completely fell in love with that whole process because I can advocate for things to help more people and public health issues. I feel I can influence what is happening in medicine, which is crucial. If you’re going to complain, you better be part of the solution. I got involved because I wanted to help affect change.”

D CEO: What do you see as the role of the Dallas County Medical Society?

“The Dallas County Medical Society is very active in helping our physicians emotionally. Let’s say somebody has an addictive problem like someone was drinking alcohol on the job. DCMS will take him under their wing, negotiate with the hospital, and talk about how to keep them sober, for example. But they do all kinds of things to advocate for physicians, like getting PPE during the pandemic. We are trying to do more, like how we prevent burnout and take care of ourselves. DCMS CEO Jon Roth is amazing. He’s way ahead of the curve on looking out with what’s on the horizon.”

D CEO: What are some of your legislative priorities?

“Nurse practitioners want complete autonomy to run a clinic and write prescriptions. I trained PA students, I have PAs in my office, and they’re fabulous, but I oversee everything they do. But they’re going to refer out if they are not sure what they’re doing. They make more referrals, have more radiology scans, and cost a lot more money. Physicians have over 10,000 hours of training, and PAs have 1,000 hours of clinical training. That’s a wide, vast gap, right? There is a bill that would allow them to be independent and run clinics. This is also about money too, right? So we are against them having total autonomy. They are saying that we need this because NPs will go to all the small towns, but in the other states where they’ve done this, the NPs stay in the big cities where all the money is and all the big patient volumes. Are they better than nothing? Yes, but now with telehealth, I can care for somebody in Midland.”

D CEO: What else would you like to see change?

“We would like to improve graduate education funding, so when a doctor goes to a rural community, we are going to forgive their debt. We want to increase physician Medicaid payments, but let’s expand Medicaid first. We would also like to reduce prior authorization hassles and increase regulation of e-cigarettes because vaping is easy and cheap and cool and dangerous.”

The post This Dallas Surgeon Is Peruvian of the Year appeared first on D Magazine.

The DCMS headquarters is moving from Oak Cliff to what will be a renovated 1960s-era artist studio in Uptown. The building will include meeting space and offices for DCMS staff, but it will also have a museum about the history of medicine in Dallas that will be open to visitors, field trips, and children from all around Dallas.

The museum space will include physician-led STEM programs for children and simulation and media displays about medicine to engage the next generation of physicians. DCMS is currently fundraising $1.5 million to renovate the building, develop interactive educational programs, and digitize historical artifacts.

For Casey and the DCMS, the building is about morale as much as business and education. “We’re coming out of this horrible pandemic where at first we were the stars,” she says. “Then people said, ‘We hate doctors’. So we need to support each other, come back together, and rebuild our camaraderie and relationships because people have felt very isolated.”

Read on to learn more about the internal medicine physician’s move into leadership, legislative priorities, and hopes for future changes to medicine. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

D CEO: Tell me about your training and education.

Casey: “Medical school was fabulous. I loved everything about it. You’re learning all day, and I lived with my parents, who know about medical school. So I would come home, and my dad and I would talk every night about medicine. He would explain things to me, or I would ask if a case was cool. My mom is a special ed teacher, but she ran my dad’s office for a long time, so she knows all about medicine. So just by being there, it was a family thing. Also, my sister was in medical school at the same time.”

D CEO: How did you end up in internal medicine?

Casey: “All my friends said “You need to do a fellowship, but I didn’t want to do that. Internal medicine is everything, which to many people is scary, but I love it. Every room I open each day is different. Every time I open the door, I see a new patient. I have no idea what is behind the door. Also, I do a lot of teaching. I’ve got medical students and also PA (physician assistant) students. They want to be able to prepare for what is in the room, but we go in and take it head on.”

D CEO: How is being part of an accountable care organization unique?

Casey: “We’ve been one of the number one ACOs in the United States for many years for value, savings, or both. The value thing is tricky, but it does make sense. If we go to American Airlines and say we should be your preferred provider, we ensure that everyone gets their mammogram and 90 percent of people get their colonoscopy. We’re integrated with each other, so I know if I’m going to send a patient to a certain cardiologist, they’re not going to do a million tests and then rack up a bill.”

D CEO: How did you get into advocacy?

“I love my practice, but many doctors leave their practice and go into administration. I don’t want to do that. I love my patients, and they are what keeps me going. But I can help more people if I get involved with the legislative process and lobby. A few years ago, I started going to Austin on the first Tuesday of the month during the legislative session and meeting with legislators, and I realized how open they are to meet with doctors. They ask us if legislation is a good idea or a bad idea. I completely fell in love with that whole process because I can advocate for things to help more people and public health issues. I feel I can influence what is happening in medicine, which is crucial. If you’re going to complain, you better be part of the solution. I got involved because I wanted to help affect change.”

D CEO: What do you see as the role of the Dallas County Medical Society?

“The Dallas County Medical Society is very active in helping our physicians emotionally. Let’s say somebody has an addictive problem like someone was drinking alcohol on the job. DCMS will take him under their wing, negotiate with the hospital, and talk about how to keep them sober, for example. But they do all kinds of things to advocate for physicians, like getting PPE during the pandemic. We are trying to do more, like how we prevent burnout and take care of ourselves. DCMS CEO Jon Roth is amazing. He’s way ahead of the curve on looking out with what’s on the horizon.”

D CEO: What are some of your legislative priorities?

“Nurse practitioners want complete autonomy to run a clinic and write prescriptions. I trained PA students, I have PAs in my office, and they’re fabulous, but I oversee everything they do. But they’re going to refer out if they are not sure what they’re doing. They make more referrals, have more radiology scans, and cost a lot more money. Physicians have over 10,000 hours of training, and PAs have 1,000 hours of clinical training. That’s a wide, vast gap, right? There is a bill that would allow them to be independent and run clinics. This is also about money too, right? So we are against them having total autonomy. They are saying that we need this because NPs will go to all the small towns, but in the other states where they’ve done this, the NPs stay in the big cities where all the money is and all the big patient volumes. Are they better than nothing? Yes, but now with telehealth, I can care for somebody in Midland.”

D CEO: What else would you like to see change?

“We would like to improve graduate education funding, so when a doctor goes to a rural community, we are going to forgive their debt. We want to increase physician Medicaid payments, but let’s expand Medicaid first. We would also like to reduce prior authorization hassles and increase regulation of e-cigarettes because vaping is easy and cheap and cool and dangerous.”

The post Texas Medical Association Files Fourth Lawsuit in Battle Against Surprise Billing Implementation appeared first on D Magazine.

The DCMS headquarters is moving from Oak Cliff to what will be a renovated 1960s-era artist studio in Uptown. The building will include meeting space and offices for DCMS staff, but it will also have a museum about the history of medicine in Dallas that will be open to visitors, field trips, and children from all around Dallas.

The museum space will include physician-led STEM programs for children and simulation and media displays about medicine to engage the next generation of physicians. DCMS is currently fundraising $1.5 million to renovate the building, develop interactive educational programs, and digitize historical artifacts.

For Casey and the DCMS, the building is about morale as much as business and education. “We’re coming out of this horrible pandemic where at first we were the stars,” she says. “Then people said, ‘We hate doctors’. So we need to support each other, come back together, and rebuild our camaraderie and relationships because people have felt very isolated.”

Read on to learn more about the internal medicine physician’s move into leadership, legislative priorities, and hopes for future changes to medicine. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

D CEO: Tell me about your training and education.

Casey: “Medical school was fabulous. I loved everything about it. You’re learning all day, and I lived with my parents, who know about medical school. So I would come home, and my dad and I would talk every night about medicine. He would explain things to me, or I would ask if a case was cool. My mom is a special ed teacher, but she ran my dad’s office for a long time, so she knows all about medicine. So just by being there, it was a family thing. Also, my sister was in medical school at the same time.”

D CEO: How did you end up in internal medicine?

Casey: “All my friends said “You need to do a fellowship, but I didn’t want to do that. Internal medicine is everything, which to many people is scary, but I love it. Every room I open each day is different. Every time I open the door, I see a new patient. I have no idea what is behind the door. Also, I do a lot of teaching. I’ve got medical students and also PA (physician assistant) students. They want to be able to prepare for what is in the room, but we go in and take it head on.”

D CEO: How is being part of an accountable care organization unique?

Casey: “We’ve been one of the number one ACOs in the United States for many years for value, savings, or both. The value thing is tricky, but it does make sense. If we go to American Airlines and say we should be your preferred provider, we ensure that everyone gets their mammogram and 90 percent of people get their colonoscopy. We’re integrated with each other, so I know if I’m going to send a patient to a certain cardiologist, they’re not going to do a million tests and then rack up a bill.”

D CEO: How did you get into advocacy?

“I love my practice, but many doctors leave their practice and go into administration. I don’t want to do that. I love my patients, and they are what keeps me going. But I can help more people if I get involved with the legislative process and lobby. A few years ago, I started going to Austin on the first Tuesday of the month during the legislative session and meeting with legislators, and I realized how open they are to meet with doctors. They ask us if legislation is a good idea or a bad idea. I completely fell in love with that whole process because I can advocate for things to help more people and public health issues. I feel I can influence what is happening in medicine, which is crucial. If you’re going to complain, you better be part of the solution. I got involved because I wanted to help affect change.”

D CEO: What do you see as the role of the Dallas County Medical Society?

“The Dallas County Medical Society is very active in helping our physicians emotionally. Let’s say somebody has an addictive problem like someone was drinking alcohol on the job. DCMS will take him under their wing, negotiate with the hospital, and talk about how to keep them sober, for example. But they do all kinds of things to advocate for physicians, like getting PPE during the pandemic. We are trying to do more, like how we prevent burnout and take care of ourselves. DCMS CEO Jon Roth is amazing. He’s way ahead of the curve on looking out with what’s on the horizon.”

D CEO: What are some of your legislative priorities?

“Nurse practitioners want complete autonomy to run a clinic and write prescriptions. I trained PA students, I have PAs in my office, and they’re fabulous, but I oversee everything they do. But they’re going to refer out if they are not sure what they’re doing. They make more referrals, have more radiology scans, and cost a lot more money. Physicians have over 10,000 hours of training, and PAs have 1,000 hours of clinical training. That’s a wide, vast gap, right? There is a bill that would allow them to be independent and run clinics. This is also about money too, right? So we are against them having total autonomy. They are saying that we need this because NPs will go to all the small towns, but in the other states where they’ve done this, the NPs stay in the big cities where all the money is and all the big patient volumes. Are they better than nothing? Yes, but now with telehealth, I can care for somebody in Midland.”

D CEO: What else would you like to see change?

“We would like to improve graduate education funding, so when a doctor goes to a rural community, we are going to forgive their debt. We want to increase physician Medicaid payments, but let’s expand Medicaid first. We would also like to reduce prior authorization hassles and increase regulation of e-cigarettes because vaping is easy and cheap and cool and dangerous.”

The post Plano Provider Leads a Massive Hospital-at-Home Expansion appeared first on D Magazine.

The DCMS headquarters is moving from Oak Cliff to what will be a renovated 1960s-era artist studio in Uptown. The building will include meeting space and offices for DCMS staff, but it will also have a museum about the history of medicine in Dallas that will be open to visitors, field trips, and children from all around Dallas.

The museum space will include physician-led STEM programs for children and simulation and media displays about medicine to engage the next generation of physicians. DCMS is currently fundraising $1.5 million to renovate the building, develop interactive educational programs, and digitize historical artifacts.

For Casey and the DCMS, the building is about morale as much as business and education. “We’re coming out of this horrible pandemic where at first we were the stars,” she says. “Then people said, ‘We hate doctors’. So we need to support each other, come back together, and rebuild our camaraderie and relationships because people have felt very isolated.”

Read on to learn more about the internal medicine physician’s move into leadership, legislative priorities, and hopes for future changes to medicine. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

D CEO: Tell me about your training and education.

Casey: “Medical school was fabulous. I loved everything about it. You’re learning all day, and I lived with my parents, who know about medical school. So I would come home, and my dad and I would talk every night about medicine. He would explain things to me, or I would ask if a case was cool. My mom is a special ed teacher, but she ran my dad’s office for a long time, so she knows all about medicine. So just by being there, it was a family thing. Also, my sister was in medical school at the same time.”

D CEO: How did you end up in internal medicine?

Casey: “All my friends said “You need to do a fellowship, but I didn’t want to do that. Internal medicine is everything, which to many people is scary, but I love it. Every room I open each day is different. Every time I open the door, I see a new patient. I have no idea what is behind the door. Also, I do a lot of teaching. I’ve got medical students and also PA (physician assistant) students. They want to be able to prepare for what is in the room, but we go in and take it head on.”

D CEO: How is being part of an accountable care organization unique?

Casey: “We’ve been one of the number one ACOs in the United States for many years for value, savings, or both. The value thing is tricky, but it does make sense. If we go to American Airlines and say we should be your preferred provider, we ensure that everyone gets their mammogram and 90 percent of people get their colonoscopy. We’re integrated with each other, so I know if I’m going to send a patient to a certain cardiologist, they’re not going to do a million tests and then rack up a bill.”

D CEO: How did you get into advocacy?

“I love my practice, but many doctors leave their practice and go into administration. I don’t want to do that. I love my patients, and they are what keeps me going. But I can help more people if I get involved with the legislative process and lobby. A few years ago, I started going to Austin on the first Tuesday of the month during the legislative session and meeting with legislators, and I realized how open they are to meet with doctors. They ask us if legislation is a good idea or a bad idea. I completely fell in love with that whole process because I can advocate for things to help more people and public health issues. I feel I can influence what is happening in medicine, which is crucial. If you’re going to complain, you better be part of the solution. I got involved because I wanted to help affect change.”

D CEO: What do you see as the role of the Dallas County Medical Society?

“The Dallas County Medical Society is very active in helping our physicians emotionally. Let’s say somebody has an addictive problem like someone was drinking alcohol on the job. DCMS will take him under their wing, negotiate with the hospital, and talk about how to keep them sober, for example. But they do all kinds of things to advocate for physicians, like getting PPE during the pandemic. We are trying to do more, like how we prevent burnout and take care of ourselves. DCMS CEO Jon Roth is amazing. He’s way ahead of the curve on looking out with what’s on the horizon.”

D CEO: What are some of your legislative priorities?

“Nurse practitioners want complete autonomy to run a clinic and write prescriptions. I trained PA students, I have PAs in my office, and they’re fabulous, but I oversee everything they do. But they’re going to refer out if they are not sure what they’re doing. They make more referrals, have more radiology scans, and cost a lot more money. Physicians have over 10,000 hours of training, and PAs have 1,000 hours of clinical training. That’s a wide, vast gap, right? There is a bill that would allow them to be independent and run clinics. This is also about money too, right? So we are against them having total autonomy. They are saying that we need this because NPs will go to all the small towns, but in the other states where they’ve done this, the NPs stay in the big cities where all the money is and all the big patient volumes. Are they better than nothing? Yes, but now with telehealth, I can care for somebody in Midland.”

D CEO: What else would you like to see change?

“We would like to improve graduate education funding, so when a doctor goes to a rural community, we are going to forgive their debt. We want to increase physician Medicaid payments, but let’s expand Medicaid first. We would also like to reduce prior authorization hassles and increase regulation of e-cigarettes because vaping is easy and cheap and cool and dangerous.”

The post Conversation With: Tarrant County Medical Society President Dr. Stuart Pickell appeared first on D Magazine.

The DCMS headquarters is moving from Oak Cliff to what will be a renovated 1960s-era artist studio in Uptown. The building will include meeting space and offices for DCMS staff, but it will also have a museum about the history of medicine in Dallas that will be open to visitors, field trips, and children from all around Dallas.

The museum space will include physician-led STEM programs for children and simulation and media displays about medicine to engage the next generation of physicians. DCMS is currently fundraising $1.5 million to renovate the building, develop interactive educational programs, and digitize historical artifacts.

For Casey and the DCMS, the building is about morale as much as business and education. “We’re coming out of this horrible pandemic where at first we were the stars,” she says. “Then people said, ‘We hate doctors’. So we need to support each other, come back together, and rebuild our camaraderie and relationships because people have felt very isolated.”

Read on to learn more about the internal medicine physician’s move into leadership, legislative priorities, and hopes for future changes to medicine. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

D CEO: Tell me about your training and education.

Casey: “Medical school was fabulous. I loved everything about it. You’re learning all day, and I lived with my parents, who know about medical school. So I would come home, and my dad and I would talk every night about medicine. He would explain things to me, or I would ask if a case was cool. My mom is a special ed teacher, but she ran my dad’s office for a long time, so she knows all about medicine. So just by being there, it was a family thing. Also, my sister was in medical school at the same time.”

D CEO: How did you end up in internal medicine?

Casey: “All my friends said “You need to do a fellowship, but I didn’t want to do that. Internal medicine is everything, which to many people is scary, but I love it. Every room I open each day is different. Every time I open the door, I see a new patient. I have no idea what is behind the door. Also, I do a lot of teaching. I’ve got medical students and also PA (physician assistant) students. They want to be able to prepare for what is in the room, but we go in and take it head on.”

D CEO: How is being part of an accountable care organization unique?

Casey: “We’ve been one of the number one ACOs in the United States for many years for value, savings, or both. The value thing is tricky, but it does make sense. If we go to American Airlines and say we should be your preferred provider, we ensure that everyone gets their mammogram and 90 percent of people get their colonoscopy. We’re integrated with each other, so I know if I’m going to send a patient to a certain cardiologist, they’re not going to do a million tests and then rack up a bill.”

D CEO: How did you get into advocacy?

“I love my practice, but many doctors leave their practice and go into administration. I don’t want to do that. I love my patients, and they are what keeps me going. But I can help more people if I get involved with the legislative process and lobby. A few years ago, I started going to Austin on the first Tuesday of the month during the legislative session and meeting with legislators, and I realized how open they are to meet with doctors. They ask us if legislation is a good idea or a bad idea. I completely fell in love with that whole process because I can advocate for things to help more people and public health issues. I feel I can influence what is happening in medicine, which is crucial. If you’re going to complain, you better be part of the solution. I got involved because I wanted to help affect change.”

D CEO: What do you see as the role of the Dallas County Medical Society?

“The Dallas County Medical Society is very active in helping our physicians emotionally. Let’s say somebody has an addictive problem like someone was drinking alcohol on the job. DCMS will take him under their wing, negotiate with the hospital, and talk about how to keep them sober, for example. But they do all kinds of things to advocate for physicians, like getting PPE during the pandemic. We are trying to do more, like how we prevent burnout and take care of ourselves. DCMS CEO Jon Roth is amazing. He’s way ahead of the curve on looking out with what’s on the horizon.”

D CEO: What are some of your legislative priorities?

“Nurse practitioners want complete autonomy to run a clinic and write prescriptions. I trained PA students, I have PAs in my office, and they’re fabulous, but I oversee everything they do. But they’re going to refer out if they are not sure what they’re doing. They make more referrals, have more radiology scans, and cost a lot more money. Physicians have over 10,000 hours of training, and PAs have 1,000 hours of clinical training. That’s a wide, vast gap, right? There is a bill that would allow them to be independent and run clinics. This is also about money too, right? So we are against them having total autonomy. They are saying that we need this because NPs will go to all the small towns, but in the other states where they’ve done this, the NPs stay in the big cities where all the money is and all the big patient volumes. Are they better than nothing? Yes, but now with telehealth, I can care for somebody in Midland.”

D CEO: What else would you like to see change?

“We would like to improve graduate education funding, so when a doctor goes to a rural community, we are going to forgive their debt. We want to increase physician Medicaid payments, but let’s expand Medicaid first. We would also like to reduce prior authorization hassles and increase regulation of e-cigarettes because vaping is easy and cheap and cool and dangerous.”

The post Can Conscious Capitalism Work for DFW Healthcare? appeared first on D Magazine.