Together we can and do make a difference.
Take advantage of these member services and the many more offered by HCMS and TMA, and you will receive more than your dues dollars in return. For more information, contact the HCMS office at 713-524-4267, or click on the "Benefits" category listed below.
Join HCMS (application process and instructions)
What do your Harris County Medical Society & Texas Medical Association provideyou?
Harris County Medical Society (HCMS) is the largest county medical society in the United States with nearly 11,000 physician and medical student members. We have the lowest dues of any major metropolitan county medical society in the nation.
Your membership will enable you to immediately take advantage of 2011 fall services (personal reimbursement consultations, referral base development services, networking and CME opportunities in your area of town, and much more) as well as a full year of membership in 2012, including presence in the 2012 HCMS Pictorial Roster and the electronic membership database. The roster and the electronic database are Houston’s most comprehensive directories of physicians practicing here and are used for patient referrals.
Legislative Advocacy:
This year has been a challenging one but we feel we have been successful in meeting our goal of helping physicians thrive in this new era of change. Specifically in the legislature we achieved the following successes:
- Fought off severe cuts to physicians’ Medicaid payments.
- Protected the patient-physician relationship by passing into law numerous protections against corporate interference in the practice of medicine.
- Won significant Texas Medical Board reforms including extending the complaint response period to 45 days, creating a much fairer disciplinary process without endangering Texas’ medical liability reforms, and eliminating anonymous complaints from TMB consideration.
- Successfully fought off numerous proposed scope of practice expansion
- Safeguarded the public health in a time of sever budget tightening by mitigating cuts to mental health, tobacco cessation and chronic disease prevention as well as improving immunization requirements.
Practice Management/Business of Medicine:
In addition to our legislative efforts, HCMS and TMA will continue:
- Working on a permanent fix to the physicians’ Medicare payments.
- Helping members understand, survive and thrive in the new health care landscape.
- Assisting members to collect from payers through the HCMS Payment Advocacy Program. More than $17 million has been collected through this program over the past 10 years. Additionally, HCMS and TMA have brought changes in insurance policies, resulting in millions of dollars in savings for academic institutions and community physicians.
- Assisting members in making their practices more profitable and efficient through Business of Medicine seminars, the HCMS website, and a variety of other services.
- Publishing the HCMS Pictorial Roster, voted each year by the membership as the best valued member benefit and a great tool for patient referrals as well as offering mobile applications with HIPAA compliant communication platform.
- Helping our community by continuing involvement with the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center, McGovern Health Museum and the Texas Medical Center Library, which were all founded by HCMS.