Scope of Practice

TMA’s Top Legislative Priorities: Guarding Against Scope of Practice Expansion - 01/06/2025

TMA is working to grow the physician workforce and preserve physician-led health care in Texas.

AMA Board Chair Calls on Texas to Help Secure Medicare Fix, Restore Physician Autonomy - 12/04/2024

Attendees of Texas Medical Association’s second Business of Medicine Conference heard a host of economic hurdles to physicians, but underscoring them all is the decades-long trend of decreasing Medicare physician payment, according to the American Medical Association’s Board of Trustees Chair Michael Suk, MD.

AMA President-Elect Acclaims TMA Advocacy for Scope, Prior Auth Wins - 12/04/2024

Texas physicians’ advocacy accomplishments both in the state and alongside the American Medical Association earned praise from AMA’s president-elect at the Texas Medical Association’s Leadership Summit on Jan. 27.

Senate Committee Tackles Scope of Practice in Access-to-Care Hearing - 11/18/2024

In a hearing packed with representatives from medicine, nursing, pharmacy, behavioral health, licensing boards, and academia, the Senate Health and Human Services Committee tackled Texas’ health care workforce shortages with the Texas Medical Association delivering its message loud and clear: Expanding scope of practice is not the answer to helping patients in rural and underserved areas.

Removing Texas Physicians From the Health Care Team Would be Harmful, Costly - 05/04/2023

Op-ed by Texas Medical Association (TMA) President Gary W. Floyd, MD, and Board of Trustees Chair G. Ray Callas, MD, about legislation proposing to give advanced practice registered nurses and other providers independent practice authority without physician supervision.

Commentary: Hey Texas, Time to Stop Using the Word Provider! - 08/02/2021

The growing unwillingness to highlight the differences in training, education, and expertise between physicians and other health care professionals constitutes an increasing danger to not only our profession but also to patients, our health care system, and society as a whole. Patients deserve to know who is rendering their care. It is our hope that every physician reading this article will think and act in some way to speak up against the “provider” label and help reclaim the rightful title. Our profession is thousands of years old, so let’s not be the generation that destroys its own name. For the sake of those who follow in our footsteps, let’s take a stand together today.

Some Clarity, Some Fog: AG Opines on Physician-Optometrist Relationship - 07/01/2020

An opinion by the Texas attorney general will keep the Texas Optometry Board (TOB) from exerting influence over the practice of medicine – to a certain point.

CRNAs Can’t Administer Anesthesia Unless Physician Delegates It, AG Rules - 09/12/2019

The state attorney general has agreed with the Texas Medical Association in an official opinion that keeps certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs) from administering anesthesia without physician delegation.

Prohibit Chiropractors From Practicing Neurology - 04/29/2019

The current statutory definition of chiropractic references its focus on the musculoskeletal system. SB 1867 would add “neuro” to its definition. We find this an unwarranted expansion, contrary to patient health care, and unsupported by chiropractors’ education and training.

Chiropractors Are NOT Neurologists – Don’t Expand Their Scope - 04/03/2019

Simply alleging that the basis of this proposal is the impossibility of treating conditions related to the “musculoskeletal” system without a neurological connection is misleading, oversimplified, and potentially dangerous. Adding the term “neuro” is not merely the addition of the nerves that may connect muscle tissue or bones. It is the addition of the entire neurological system that includes the brain, the spinal cord, and the regulation of many bodily functions – all well beyond chiropractors’ education and training.

Stop APRN Scope Expansion - 04/03/2019

Medical school was a very humbling experience as I learned the depth of what I did not know as a nurse practitioner. Many times I realized I had inadvertently provided improper treatment for a patient simply out of ignorance. I came to realize, for example, the reason I struggled to understand how to interpret lab data as a nurse practitioner was that I hadn’t gained the in-depth knowledge of normal physiology and abnormal pathophysiology required to understand the “why” behind the lab tests.