Valley Physician's to Hold Rally

By Steve Taylor

McAllen, March 21- To coincide with an online petition it has just launched, the Texas Medical Association will hold a rally and a town hall meeting in McAllen next Tuesday to reverse state cuts in Medicare-Medicaid funding.

"If the budget cuts stay, some physicians may have no choice but to close their doors," the TMA stated Wednesday.  "Physicians want to take care of all their patients, many of whom are long-term patients, neighbors, and even friends.  This issue affects physicians and patients in the Rio Grande Valley and throughout the state."

The rally, which will include a news conference, will feature physicians and their patients, is being held in the parking lot of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission building at 4501 West Business 83 in McAllen, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on March 27.

Both events are being co-hosted by the Hidalgo-Starr counties Medical Society.

"Along the border, the Medicare-Medicaid dual-eligible program is vital.  We have more Medicare-Medicaid patients per capita than anywhere else," said Hidalgo Starr Counties Medical Society President Victor Gonzalez.

Dual-eligible patients are those old enough to qualify for Medicare and able to qualify for Medicaid assistance because of their income.  Gonzalez said he believes that on average, primary care physicians in the Valley have a patient mix that is 60 percent dual eligible.  As a result of budget cuts imposed by the legislature last year, physicians are getting 20 percent less money for seeing such patients.

"Any corporation that has a dramatic drop of 20 percent in their revenue from one year to the next without taking the proper precautions, in therm of controlling internal costs, is going to get into a lot of trouble," Gonzalez told the Guardian, in a recent interview.

On a visit to Edinburg last week, HHSC Commissioner Tom Suehs said he believes reimbursement rates to health care providers should be structured to take into account the socio-economic makeup of a region.

"One of the things my staff and I are sensitive to is that the Valley is different to every other area.  When I reimburse, say, a primary care physicians in Dallas, Medicaid may be 15 to 20 percent of their practice. Here in the Valley it is 75 to 80 percent," Suehs told reporters.

Suehs made his remarks to reporters while attending meetings with South Texas lawmakers, physicians, pharmacists and hospital representatives.  The meetings were called to discuss the rollout of managed care in the Hidalgo Service Area.

Among the physicians who attended the meetings with Suehs, which was held at the Edinburg Conference Center at Renaissance, was Dr. Carlos Cardenas of Edinburg.

Cardenas said Suehs was very receptive to the plight of Valley physicians, especially those with a high percentage of dual-eligible patients.

"I am feeling more positive walking out of this meeting than I did walking into it," Cardenas told the Guardian at the end of the meetings.  "What we heard today is that the commissioner wants to restore the deductible payments for the Medicare-Medicaid.  That is a significant move.  There is also a willingness to look at the rate cut itself."

The deductible payment is $140.

Cardenas is vice chairman of the TMA.  He will speak at next Tuesday's rally, along with Gonzalez and TMA President Bruce Malone, MD.

Cardenas said the rally has been organized to press state leaders to rescind the state budget cuts that threaten the vital health care access for hundreds of thousands of "dual eligible" Texans.

Cardenas said physician leaders are urging colleagues and patients to sign petitions asking Texas legislators and the Legislative Budget Board to reverse the budget cuts for dual-eligible patients' health care.  "We encourage everybody to sign the petition," he said.

The TMA's petition is on its website.

"A combination of poorly informed governmental decisions and bureaucratic bungling has created a medical emergency across the state for thousands of dual-eligible Texans and the physicians who care for them," the TMA states, on its website.

"Preserve access to quality health care.  Please ask Texas legislators and the Legislative Budget Board to reverse the cap on Medicaid-allowable payments for dual-eligible patients and ensure physicians to continue to see these patients."

The TMA has also produced a vide to highlight the plight of La Joya physician Javier Saenz, who has a high number of dual-eligible patients.  Saenz has had to sink the $35,000 a month of his own money in order to keep his practice open this year.

In the video, Saenz says he has not been paid by the state for treating Medicare-Medicaid patients for weeks.  "We have lost close to $50,000 in deductibles.  We have said goodbye to $50,000 over a four week period," Saenz said.  "I have had to go through my personal money to be able to keep my office open.  If I had no savings whatsoever this office would have closed over two weeks ago."

The TMA video points out that the people of La Joya think so highly of Saenz that middle school was named after him.  He has 5,000 patients and more than half are dual-eligible," which means they are old enough to have their medical bills paid by Medicare and poor enough to qualify for Medicaid.  Saenz tells the TMA is trying to get a loan to keep his practice going.

According to the TMA, a "combination of bad government decisions and bureaucratic bungling is creating a medical emergency for thousands of Texans and the physicians who care for them."

The video also features and interview with Dr. Gonzalez, Dr. Noe Oliveira and Dr. Diana Cortines, who works with Saenz at his La Joya practice.

Write- Steve Taylor