Reform Works for Texas- Reform Works for Bexar County
September 18, 2009
Here are the facts: medical malpractice reforms mean increased access to care as more doctors come to Texas.
In Bexar County specifically, more than 800 doctors have come to practice here since reforms were passed in 2003. This growth has created opportunities for 1,314,000 more patient visits per year and had a direct economic impact of $204,000,000 in our community. Additions to our local healthcare community include 92 anesthesiologists, 79 internists, 79 family medicine doctors and 48 emergency medicine physicians. They have added 44 pediatric specialists, 40 pediatricians, 27 cardiologists, 20 orthopedic surgeons, 19 gastroenterologists and 18 oncologists.
Reforms have helped our senior citizens as the number of geriatrician specialists has doubled in the last seven years. The poor are primary beneficiaries of the state’s legal reforms. The emergency rooms are better staffed and the liability savings have permitted hospitals to render more than twice as much charity care on a cost basis than they did prior.
Bottom line: reforms work: protecting our senior citizens, our poor and everyone’s access to quality care.
Copyright
2010