Due largely to AMA and specialty society advocacy, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has decided to reopen the reporting time for recipients of Period 1 Provider Relief Funds.
Those physicians who received more than $10,000 in provider relief funds and failed to submit their period 1 report should act immediately. Between Monday, April 11 and Friday, April 22, 2022, at 11:59 pm ET, physicians who have not submitted their Period 1 report may submit a late Reporting Period 1 report request. Physician practices should receive information about how to submit a request directly from HRSA via email.
If a physician did not submit a Period 1 report and does not hear from HRSA, they may initiate communication by calling (866) 569-3522. During this reopening period, the physician must choose an extenuating circumstance(s) that prevented compliance with the original reporting deadline. While attesting to an extenuating circumstance is required, no supporting document or proof is required.
If HRSA approves the extenuated circumstances form, the physician will receive a notification to proceed with completing the Reporting Period 1 report shortly thereafter. They will have 10 days from the notification receipt date to submit the late Period 1 report in the PRF Reporting Portal.
If you’re looking for the next invaluable member of your health care team, the Texas Medical Association offers opportunities for health care organizations to recruit physician and medical staff talent at its Virtual Career Fairs. The next Virtual Career Fair is on April 28, and spots are open for employers to exhibit.
Here’s why you should exhibit at the next Virtual Career Fair:
Reach physicians and medical care professionals – TMA members and their teams are a ready-made pool of qualified professionals in a variety of specialties, locations, and career stages. TMA’s Virtual Career Fair offers employers exclusive access to this select group.
Chat one on one with candidates in a virtual setting – Getting in front of busy physicians and other members of the health care team can be challenging. At the Virtual Career Fair, employers can meet directly with jobseekers at a specified time in a virtual setting.
Have a database of candidates to follow up with – All job-seeking participants create a profile and upload a resume to register for the fair. This means exhibitors can review potential candidates and follow up with specific individuals after the event. (Available for Gold sponsors only.)
TMA 100% member practices receive 25% off exhibitor packages.
Visit TMA’s Career Center for packages and pricing. To become a participating employer-exhibitor, visit the Career Center or email Lena Loomis.
Join our local chapter of Walk with a Doc this Saturday for a fun morning walking, talking about health, and meeting people in our community.
Here is what you need to know about the event:
• It will take place on April 9th, 2022 • The hour-long event will begin at 8:30am • Walkers will start at LVTRise – 8201 Calmont Ave., Fort Worth, TX 76116
Concerned about those in Tarrant County who go without healthcare or who are forced to get emergency care because they cannot afford necessary medical treatments? Consider joining Project Access Tarrant County’s Lunch and Learn on April 20 from 11:45 to 1pm. At this event, you will have the opportunity to:
Learn how we are making a difference for Tarrant County’s low-income uninsured residents
Hear from our staff, physician volunteers, and patients
See how we provide healthcare services for those in greatest need and how our new initiative will expand services
You can register for this free event here. It is targeted toward those who work in healthcare and everyone who is passionate about helping the underserved of our community.
Project Access Tarrant County, which was founded in 2010, is a non-profit organization dedicated to expanding health care access and improving health outcomes for low-income, uninsured residents of Tarrant County, utilizing the charitable gifts of a network of existing voluntary providers and collaborative partnerships.
To date, Project Access has:
Scheduled 10,500 medical appointments
Enrolled over 2,100 patients
Provided over $18 million value in donated medical care
Performed 810 surgeries and hospital procedures
Their vision is for all Tarrant County residents to have access to a continuum of care, which includes specialty, pharmacy, laboratory, ancillary, and hospital care. Come on April 20 and see how you can partner with Project Access to bring healing and hope to those who most need it.
“It was stressful knowing I was not going to make ends meet.”
When “Roberto,” a 49-year-old husband and father of two, began experiencing a burning pain in his torso from an inguinal hernia, he knew he needed to do something about it. Throughout the day it would grow in intensity, making it difficult for him to work. Roberto’s hours were cut, and he eventually had to take an entire month off of work.
“I could not do anything,” he says. “I was falling into a hole of depression.”
The family was experiencing tension from the economic burden, and it was impossible to consider surgery with the financial struggles they were facing day to day. Then, he went to Cornerstone Clinic, where he was referred to Project Access.
“I am very thankful for Dr. Siadati, who was very attentive, respectful, and patient,” says Roberto. “I especially appreciated the patience Dr. Siadati showed when it came to the language barrier we had.” He thanks everyone who made his treatment possible, from those working the front desk to his doctor.
Since the surgery, Roberto has been improving steadily, and he was just cleared to return to work. He is optimistic about the future – he doesn’t feel stuck anymore in the cycle of pain and frustration. “It was a blessing, the entire process.”
On May 27, 1936, May Owen, MD, answered a scientific riddle in a speech before the Texas Medical Association, explaining research that would soon make her a statewide celebrity.
The name of the paper she read that day, “Peritoneal Response to Glove Powder,” sounded vague to nonexperts. But the other clinical pathologists who gathered to listen understood that Dr. Owen had uncovered that a common medical practice posed a threat to patients.
The mystery started nearly 16 months earlier when a fellow Fort Worth physician alerted Dr. Owen to the case of a 19-year-old woman with unexplained fibrous membranes and tumorous nodules growing in her abdomen. The woman had had her appendix removed two years previously, and something about that operation had gone wrong.
After months of research, Dr. Owen proved that the unusual growths plaguing the woman had been caused by the talcum powder used at the time to coat surgical gloves. Human tissue couldn’t absorb the powder, so if just a little bit inadvertently fell into a wound during an operation, it caused infection, scar tissue, and other problems.
Dr. Owen read her paper before a mostly appreciative audience that gave her a standing ovation, according to her biography, May Owen, MD, by Ted Stafford, which is the source for most of this article. But when most of the crowd sat down, one man remained standing and began to shout.
“I have been sitting here listening to this woman spout off about the dangers of glove powder,” he said. “I don’t believe a word she has said.”
He continued ranting until the meeting’s chair ruled him out of order and told him to be quiet. Later that day, Dr. Owen won an award from the Texas Society of Pathologists, just one of many she would earn, including an honorary doctor of science degree from her alma mater, Texas Christian University (TCU).
The man’s outburst rattled Dr. Owen, reminding her of just how far she had come as a woman in medicine – and how far women like her still had to go to win acceptance. But she never lost confidence in herself or her findings.
“I knew if I lived to be 100, that [discovery] would be my most important contribution to humanity,” she recalled.
The research forced surgical glove makers to switch to a starch-based powder the human body could absorb. Texas newspapers clamored to interview this “woman doctor” – partly because her work had caused such an uproar and partly because so few women physicians existed anywhere at the time.
Dr. Owen’s pioneering work continued in the decades to come, making her the first female president of the Texas Society of Pathologists in 1946, the first female president of the Tarrant County Medical Society in 1947, and the first female president of TMA in 1960.
She had help from friends and relatives during her difficult rise from poor farm girl to honored Fort Worth physician, and that made her a conscientious mentor to hundreds of young physicians and people interested in medical careers.
One of them was Margie Peschel, MD, who started her career in Fort Worth as a resident in 1959, when women were still rare in the medical profession. She later became a pathologist who ran what is now Carter BloodCare from 1976 to 1997.
“I always felt lucky to be in Tarrant County because Dr. Owen set the example that women are welcomed,” she said in an interview with Texas Medicine.
From farm to medical school Dr. Owen was born in 1892 in Falls County, just southeast of Waco, the sixth of eight children. She grew up doing hard work on the family cotton farm, and her parents, Jack and Lilli Owen, allowed her to go to school only after her morning chores were done.
Dr. Owen’s mother died when she was nine years old, and her father – whom she describes in her biography as autocratic and demanding – became even more so. He put more chores on his daughter and scoffed when she told him she intended to be a doctor.
“Get that silly idea out of your head right now,” she recounted him saying, according to her biography. “Your place is here on the farm. We will not discuss this matter anymore. Do you understand?”
Dr. Owen’s father tolerated her finishing school up to seventh grade, but only the intervention – and financial assistance – of an older brother allowed her to go first to high school and then to college at TCU in Fort Worth, graduating in 1917. In 1921, she became the first woman to graduate from what is now the University of Louisville School of Medicine in Kentucky.
Dr. Owen’s father did not actively prevent his daughter’s education, but he also never helped it and never acknowledged her accomplishments. Nor did he answer the many letters she sent after she became a physician.
“Her father never honored her,” Dr. Peschel told Texas Medicine. “It was sad. We would drive from Fort Worth to Austin for TMA meetings, and she shared things like that – that her daddy never did recognize her.”
During the 1920s and 1930s, Dr. Owen worked mostly as a pathologist for Terrell’s Laboratories in Fort Worth, and the owner – Truman Terrell, MD – was her friend and mentor. He loaned her the money to attend medical school. She also did advanced study at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and Bellevue Hospital in New York.
Despite her intense training, some fellow physicians – frequently older doctors – still refused to accept her medical opinions. In one case, when a surgeon argued that she was wrong, Dr. Owen found a clever way to win him over.
“I split the specimen in half and did my examination on one section and reported my findings to the surgeon,” she told her biographer. “The other half was sent to the pathologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. When his report came back, it agreed precisely with what I had reported. After a while the people who had doubted my ability and competence began to accept my work without question.”
Dr. Owen also earned the respect of veterinarians early in her career because her rural background gave her an understanding of animals and farming. In 1931, a vet at the Fort Worth Stockyards asked for her help in identifying a mystery disease that was killing sheep. Some suspected anthrax. But Dr. Owen discovered that the molasses cake being fed to the sheep to fatten them up was giving the animals diabetes. This discovery changed the way sheep were raised worldwide.
Despite what coworkers recount as a crushing work schedule, she remained active in all levels of organized medicine, and she encouraged medical students and young physicians to join organizations like TMA. By the time Dr. Peschel became a pathologist in 1964, Dr. Owen knew just who to talk to to get her colleague assigned to committees in TMA and other medical organizations.
“She was so active,” Dr. Peschel said. “She introduced me to everybody at TMA and the pathologists in the state. She just knew all these people. She was an excellent mentor.”
Dr. Owen expressed a deep debt to the people who helped her get a start in medicine.
“I know I could never have done it alone,” she said in her book.
As TMA president, Dr. Owen established TMA’s Physicians Benevolent Fund to help physicians in times of distress. She led the charge with a $2,500 contribution of her own, and since 1961, the fund has distributed more than $4.38 million in financial assistance.
“We all know of cases where our colleagues have suffered illness, death, or other misfortunes,” Dr. Owen said to TMA board members when requesting the fund’s creation.
She contributed money to students individually and also helped establish the May Owen Irrevocable Trust through TMA to provide low-interest loans to medical students. When Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock opened in 1973, Dr. Owen helped provide the library’s first 20,000 volumes and established the school’s first endowed chair.
In old age, Dr. Owen continued to work hard until her health failed. She died on April 12, 1988, at age 96.
“She said, ‘We should all be so lucky to work at something we love until the day we die,’” Dr. Peschel said. “She did that.”
Don’t Miss Out – be part of the conversation on Wednesday, March 23, 2022, 8:30 am – 9:30 am CT.
In honor of International Adolescent Health Week, Drs. Shanna Combs and Meera Beharry will host an Ask the Docs discussion centered around the unique issues pregnant teens face, and the importance of engaging adolescents in their medical and dental health journey before, during and after pregnancy.
This event was created for dentists, physicians, dental hygienists, nurses, doulas, mid-wives, and social workers.
The objectives for this Ask the Docs session include:
Strategies for supporting and helping pregnant teens and families as they transition from pediatric to adult medical and dental care
Providing information on doctor/teen confidential consult, rights of minors, parental consent needs, questions to ask
Identifying stigmas as a barrier to care
Tips for creating a teen friendly environment
This session is part of a virtual series that addresses common questions about oral health care during pregnancy. This series is presented by the Texas Department of State Health Services – Oral Health Improvement Program (OHIP) in partnership with the Children’s Oral Health Coalition let by Cook Children’s.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is alerting people that there is a potential for harm if at-home COVID-19 tests are not used according to the manufacturer’s test instructions. Here are their recommendations for safe and effective at-home testing:
Recommendations
Keep all parts of at-home COVID-19 test kits out of reach from children and pets before and after use.
Store the at-home COVID-19 test in its box until you are ready to use it.
Follow the manufacturer’s step by step test instructions exactly.
Read the Warning, Precautions, And Safety Information in the test instructions for a description of chemical ingredients and recommendations for safe handling and what to do if they accidentally touch your skin or eyes.
Keep the liquid solution away from the skin, nose, mouth, and eyes. Do not swallow the liquid solution.
Use only the swab in the test kit to collect a nasal sample.
After you perform the test:
Follow all test instructions for how to throw away the used test parts.
Skin or eye irritation does not go away after exposure.
A person or animal swallows the liquid solution.
Avoid Potential Harm from Incorrect Use of At-Home COVID-19 Tests
At-home COVID-19 diagnostic test kits include different parts such as a test cartridge, nasal swab, and small plastic vials containing liquid solutions needed to perform the test. The liquid solutions may include chemical ingredients, such as sodium azide, that help the test work properly or act as preservatives. The test chemicals can be irritating or toxic if they get on your skin, nose, or eyes or if they are swallowed.
The FDA has received reports of injuries caused by incorrect use of at-home COVID-19 tests, including:
Injuries caused by people accidently putting liquid test solution in their eyes when small vials of test solution were mistaken for eye drops.
Injuries caused by placing nasal collection swabs into the liquid solution prior to swabbing the nose (the liquid solution is not supposed to touch your body).
Injuries caused by children putting test parts in their mouth and swallowing liquid test solution.
Federal data estimate that during 2020, more than 11 million Texans were living with substance use disorder. A new $23 million public awareness campaign from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) is aiming to keep that number from growing.
The campaign, which HHSC announced in a March 8 release, will focus on “reducing stigma, building community connection and resilience, and changing social norms to prevent substance use.”
HHSC awarded contracts totaling $23.2 million to two entities as part of the campaign:
$16.7 million to FleishmanHillard, a public relations and marketing agency, which will focus the campaign on Texas youth, young adults, and families who are most at risk, as well as community leaders who can reach them; and
$6.5 million to the Center for Health Communication at The University of Texas at Austin to develop an interactive digital tool to improve the referral process for existing substance use disorder treatment, prevention, and recovery services, and to conduct research to support messaging for the prevention campaign.
HHSC says the campaign aims to reach about 2.5 million Texans. The funds are coming from nearly $253 million HHSC received in federal substance abuse prevention and treatment funds during 2021, including from the American Rescue Plan Act.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first generic of Symbicort (budesonide and formoterol fumarate dihydrate) Inhalation Aerosol for the treatment of two common pulmonary health conditions: asthma in patients six years of age and older and the maintenance treatment of airflow obstruction and reducing exacerbations for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
“Today’s approval of the first generic for one of the most commonly prescribed complex drug-device combination products to treat asthma and COPD is another step forward in our commitment to bring generic copies of complex drugs to the market, which can improve quality of life and help reduce the cost of treatment,” said Sally Choe, Ph.D., director of the Office of Generic Drugs in the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.
Tarrant County Physician Online 