TMA’s Board of Trustees met for their annual retreat July 14 – 16 in Knoxville at the University of Tennessee’s Haslam College of Business. Board members and TMA staff worked on strategic priorities for the association as well as regular duties for the quarterly board meeting.
Team Building
The board invested time in team-building activities, which focused on:
- New technology to engage more members in policy development
- Creative solutions to help Tennessee retain more medical residents in state following completion of training
- Alternative means to financially secure the core activities of the membership
- Expansion of physician wellness activities
Legislative Agenda
In preparation for the 2024 General Assembly, the board approved the preliminary TMA legislative agenda, which will include:
- Continuing resistance to effort to allow APRNs and PAs to practice independent of physician collaboration agreements
- Renewed effort to protect physicians who perform pregnancy terminations to protect the mother’s health
- Seeking protections and privacy for physicians seeking service for mental health and wellbeing
- Combatting insurance tactics that trap practices with audits and recoupment financial penalties
In addition to this current plan, the board added seeking increased penalties to perpetrators of violence against health care workers in response to the recent murder of Dr. Benjamin Mauck in his office in Memphis.
A full 2024 General Assembly preview will be available in the next issue of Topline.
Notable Action Items
- TMA is working with the Tennessee Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (TNAAP) in preparation for the legislative summer session on gun violence. A declaration by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is pending as to the scope of the session.
- In response to a resolution referred to the board, a workgroup has been approved to look at activities in our state focused on physician health and wellbeing with a goal to make resources available statewide.
The Tennessee Medical Association is grateful to the UT Haslam College of Business for hosting the retreat. The next TMA Board of Trustees meeting is slated to take place in October.
