October 14, 2014 5:24 PM

Updated: TMA faces possible internal challenges with financial implications from Davis Senate seat endorsement

Conservatives seek to separate membership from access to TMLT potentially undermining physician legislative advocacy

A political standoff is brewing between two doctors’ groups that has the potential to cause serious implications for the way thousands of physicians in Texas cover their liability insurance needs. The already existing tension between the Texas Medical Association and the more conservative Association of American Physicians and Surgeons has reached a boiling point over the last few weeks following TMA’s endorsement of a Democrat to succeed Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Ft Worth, in the Texas Senate.

The two groups have not seen eye-to-eye on a number of political races this year. The AAPS said the Willis endorsement by TMA “is not an isolated example.” The group pointed to a right-wing blogger who has said the Texas Medical Association is becoming a "liberal-only special interest.”

For some on the right to make that argument, of course, is not news. But the AAPS is harnessing that rhetoric to try to drum up support for a policy shift that could have significant implications for TMA’s membership. But that’s only if the smaller group can gain traction with no real lobby presence in Austin. AAPS does not publicize how many members it has but the Wikipedia page about them says they have 3,000 members nationwide. The TMA has about 47,000 members in Texas.

Now that TMA has endorsed Democrat Libby Willis in the Senate District 10 race over her Republican opponent Konni Burton, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons has said they want doctors to take a stand against TMA by asking that membership in TMA no longer be legally required for doctors to use a unique system for their liability insurance. "No physician should be required to join a group like the TMA that raises money for Leftist candidates," the AAPS said in a statement and encouraged doctors to sign this petition.

The Texas Medical Liability Trust, or TMLT, was created in 1979 during what was described as the state’s first medical liability crisis. It’s a unique, not-for-profit health care liability claim trust owned by its physician policyholders. It is now the largest medical liability provider in the state, protecting more than 17,000 Texas physicians.

According to the latest information available, forty-nine percent of active TMA members are insured in this way. As we understand it, TMA receives royalties in the amount of $48 per insured from TMLT, meaning that TMA received about $750,000 from TMLT per year in recent years. TMA dues for a physician in the active practice of medicine is $525 per year, plus county medical society dues.

TMA President Austin King, MD, an otolaryngologist from Abilene, defended the current link between membership in the group and use of the insurance trust as something conservatives should support, given their opposition to what many deem to be frivolous lawsuits.

By Scott Braddock