For details, click on headline

TCMS Foundation Lecture Series

First Tuesdays at the Capital

DPS number on RX starting Sept 1

Insurance Carrier Information

TCMS Foundation Lecture Series

The TCMS Foundation’s Fall Lecture, America’s Health Care Crisis: Options for Reform, featured distinguished lecturer Arnold S. Relman, MD and guest panelist J. James Rohack, MD. The program was designed to educate and engage physicians in the national debate on health care system reforms. The lecture, highlighted in the November/December TCMS Journal was videotaped and is now available on DVD.

The Texas Medical Association has approved the program for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™.

To order the DVD or DVD CME packet for $20 contact the Society at 206-1270 or email tcms@tcms.com.

Click here to view a small section of the DVD

Drs. David Fleeger, Arnold Relman, and J. James Rohack.

First Tuesdays at the Capitol

TMA headquarters in the Thompson Auditorium

401 West 15th Street

81st Texas Legislative Session
Feb. 3  •  March 3  •  April 7  •  May 5

The “White Coat Invasion” was key to physicians’ successes in the Texas Legislature in 2003, and 2005, and again in 2007. Physicians and alliance members make a big impression when they show up en masse at the Capitol. Our senators and representatives listen when their hometown doctors show up in their offices. It’s time to bring out Texas medicine’s secret weapon again.

Click here for more information

DPS number on Rx starting Sept 1

On Sept. 1, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) will begin collecting more information from prescriptions for Schedule II-V controlled substances. Starting that day, prescriptions must contain the following information to be considered valid:

• Quantity of the substance prescribed (written as both a number and word);
• Date of issue (prescription cannot be postdated);
• Name, address, and birthday of the patient;
• Name and strength of the controlled substance prescribed;
• Directions for use of the drug;
• Intended use of the drug prescribed, unless the physician determines that furnishing this information is not in the patient's best interest;
• Printed or stamped name, address, federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) registration number, and telephone number of the physician's usual place of business;
• The physician's signature, unless the prescription is called into the pharmacy; and
• The physician's current valid DPS registration number. The number must belong to the physician writing the prescription. For Schedule III-V drugs, the prescribing practitioner may be a properly registered physician's assistant or an advanced practice nurse.

The Texas Legislature ordered the changes last year when it passed a new law - supported by DPS and other law enforcement agencies - to curtail drug diversion. The bill aims to establish an electronic monitoring system for all Schedule II-V drugs that physicians, pharmacists, and others with prescriptive authority can access to monitor their own prescribing patterns and patients who may be using multiple prescribers for narcotics. TMA was able to amend the bill to create an advisory committee to help DPS establish the system.

The advisory committee, which has physician and pharmacist members, has raised questions about collating prescribing data by DPS number because it is unique to Texas, not generally required except for Schedule II drugs, and not routinely collected by pharmacists for insurance billing. The physicians and pharmacies would prefer to use either the DEA number or the physician's national provider identifier because they are more universally available, more easily collected, and more generally used by the pharmacies.

DPS, however, believes it has no leeway under the law and must begin collecting the information on Sept. 1.

[back to top]