Beto O’Rourke pledges Texas Medical Board reforms if elected, after KXAN investigations

AUSTIN (KXAN) — In a direct response to a collection of KXAN investigations, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke is pledging, if elected, to extend affected person security statewide by reworking the Texas Medical Board.

“That’s what stands out to me, from what I’ve discovered out of your reporting, is simply this pay-to-play system that we knew existed in Texas,” O’Rourke mentioned throughout a digital interview Might 13. “I didn’t understand how unhealthy it was on the TMB. However, it’s one thing that we’ve bought to alter.”

The TMB is the state company overseeing how medical doctors are licensed and disciplined. In our months-long collection, “Nonetheless Training,” KXAN found the TMB is preserving dozens of out-of-state disciplinary information secret, opposite to state legislation, and permitting medical doctors it deemed to be a “risk to public welfare” to maintain working towards. These embody greater than a half-dozen credibly accused of sexual misconduct with sufferers and one not too long ago convicted of promoting greater than one million opioid tablets.

Our group additionally revealed Texas Gov. Greg Abbott appointed top-dollar donors to take a seat on the medical board — a number of with actual property, vitality and enterprise backgrounds however no apparent affected person security or affected person advocacy expertise. One board member, Dr. Satish Nayak — who gave the governor $38,920 — is eligible to be faraway from the board by Abbott attributable to being positioned on a remedial plan. The board decided he “did not preserve enough medical information for a number of sufferers.”

KXAN reached out a number of instances to Gov. Greg Abbott to request an interview. A spokesperson didn’t reply when requested if his workplace was conscious of this and if he seemed into eradicating Nayak from the board. As a substitute, we acquired a written assertion.

“Governor Abbott expects all medical skilled on the Texas Medical Board and throughout Texas to uphold the very best requirements of care and belief Texans deserve, and can settle for nothing much less,” wrote his spokesperson, Ranae Eze, in a press release.

His workplace wouldn’t say why the governor appointed donors to the TMB and didn’t reply to O’Rourke’s allegations that he’s giving donors “plum appointments” as a part of a “pay-to-play system.”

Board members, together with Nayak, didn’t reply to KXAN’s request for remark.

“I believe one of many issues we see with the TMB proper now could be you’ve gotten medical doctors who most likely ought to have been eliminated who’re nonetheless working towards,” O’Rourke mentioned. “You even have members of the TMB who’ve had issues with how they’ve dealt with affected person info and information who most likely ought to have been faraway from the TMB who’re nonetheless there proper now on this place.”

O’Rourke — a former presidential hopeful turned Democratic nominee for governor — mentioned he needs extra accountability for physicians and board members. He additionally needs extra oversight of the TMB.

“We could not have the oversight and the accountability for our medical suppliers that we must always be capable to rely on,” O’Rourke mentioned. “For ourselves, and our for our household.”

Reworking the TMB

Following KXAN’s reporting, O’Rourke is proposing to alter the make up of the 19-member board so public members with non-medical backgrounds — meant to stability the board by representing affected person pursuits — are “nearer to half” of the variety of board members who’re physicians. It’s a measure praised by affected person advocates.

Board members are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Texas Senate.

A KXAN evaluation of each state medical board within the nation discovered Texas has seven public members, greater than all however one different state within the nation — a truth cited by the governor.

“Tied for first with probably the most variety of public members on our state medical board,” Eze mentioned, “Governor Abbott has labored to nominate members that can assist promote his insurance policies to guard the pursuits and care of Texans.”

Whereas Texas has among the many highest variety of public members, they nonetheless characterize lower than half your complete board. There are additionally no necessities that these public members have any affected person security or affected person advocacy expertise. In truth, we discovered a number of of the TMB’s public board members plucked from actual property, vitality and enterprise sectors. In a information launch saying the appointment of Arun Agarwal to the TMB — the CEO of a textile firm who gave the governor $196,758 — Abbott highlighted his “enterprise pursuits in textiles, cotton buying and selling and actual property.” No less than seven board members collectively, donated almost $400,000 to Abbott since 2014, in response to marketing campaign finance information.

“If I’m governor,” O’Rourke mentioned, “we’re gong to make it possible for the Texas Medical Board is comprised of individuals whose sole focus is in defending the general public well being and defending the general public from the uncommon cases the place now we have medical suppliers who abuse the general public belief and find yourself abusing their sufferers.”

O’Rourke mentioned he wouldn’t look to nominate individuals who donated to his marketing campaign.

“No, I’d not look to donors for any appointment,” he mentioned. “What I’d search for are the most effective individuals who may present the best worth to the parents in Texas.”

He pledged to pick out board members with experience in affected person security. O’Rourke additionally mentioned he needs to work with the legislature to do-away with appointing donors for all state boards so as “to make sure that we finish the pay-to-pay that has lengthy outlined appointments within the state of Texas,” he mentioned.

“The very last thing that we’ll need to have a look at is whether or not somebody has donated to me. Folks have to be positioned in these positions on their deserves,” he mentioned. “We now have to anticipate, after which maintain the governor accountable, for having the perfect individuals in these positions.”

“Look, on the finish of the day,” he added, “our accountability in our state authorities is to look out for, and defend, the individuals of Texas.”

Nationwide chief in transparency and self-discipline?

In a press release, Abbott touted the TMB as a “nationwide chief.”

“Our workplace continues working with TMB to make sure board members and physicians are held accountable to their sufferers and to Texas, making our board a nationwide chief in transparency and enforcement of state and self-discipline legal guidelines,” Eze mentioned.

To make the case, his workplace despatched KXAN a 2016 investigation by the Atlanta Journal-Structure. The report checked out just a few centered areas, together with medical board transparency in terms of self-discipline information being made public for medical doctors accused of sexual misconduct.

The six-year-old AJC report additionally highlighted medical doctors in Texas allowed to maintain treating sufferers regardless of being credibly accused, in a single case, by a number of sufferers. It discovered a “problem in prosecuting a well-connected physician and the way that may drive a medical board into compromise.”

The report didn’t measure the general efficiency of the TMB in terms of issues KXAN discovered akin to: permitting physicians to observe in Texas, regardless of having their medical licenses revoked in different states; dozens of out-of-state disciplinary information saved secret, opposite to state legislation; and medical doctors deemed a “risk to public welfare” to nonetheless observe.

A spokesperson for the TMB beforehand instructed us it might “welcome the chance” to work with any lawmaker to “higher serve Texans.”