Money, politics and patient safety: Abbott donors on Texas Medical Board

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Gov. Greg Abbott tapped top-dollar donors to sit down on the Texas Medical Board. He additionally appointed members — tasked with representing the patron — who come from telecom, enterprise, actual property and vitality sectors, with no apparent affected person advocacy or medical expertise, a KXAN investigation revealed.

The TMB’s mission is to “shield and improve the general public’s well being, security and welfare” however some advocates fear that comes with a political price ticket.

“The query isn’t: ‘Is that this somebody who donated a bunch of cash to a political marketing campaign? Is that this somebody who checks a political field?,’” mentioned Ware Wendell, the chief director of the non-partisan group Texas Watch, which advocates for affected person security. “The query must be: ‘Is that this somebody who’s going to be sure that sufferers are protected?’”

‘Take politics out of affected person security’

KXAN wished to see how cash and politics intersect with affected person security in Texas. Digging via marketing campaign finance data, we discovered a number of board members, appointed by the governor, who’ve collectively donated a whole lot of hundreds of {dollars} to Abbott’s marketing campaign, in response to data courting again to 2014.

By regulation, the 19-member medical board is answerable for licensing and regulating physicians in Texas. All are appointed by the governor to serve six-year phrases. A dozen of the TMB board members — greater than half — are medical doctors. Lower than half, seven, are thought-about “public members.” These are members who, by design, haven’t any medical background and assist steadiness the board by defending the pursuits of sufferers and shoppers. Advocates like this strategy and have pushed for extra outdoors illustration on medical boards throughout the nation.

The TMB’s web site doesn’t particularly determine which of its members are “public,” like different states do. KXAN discovered some members, meant to characterize the common affected person and client, who don’t have an apparent monitor report of affected person advocacy work however do have a historical past of donating to Abbott since 2014:

• Arun Agarwal, CEO of Nextt, a big textile firm, gave the governor $196,758.
• Michael Cokinos, president of Cokinos Power Company in Houston, donated $32,500 to Abbott’s re-election.

KXAN searched marketing campaign data for each board member. Along with Agarwal and Cokinos, we discovered 5 medical doctors gave the governor between $7,425 and $85,000, in response to marketing campaign finance data. The very best quantity got here from Dr. Sherif Zaafran, the board’s president.

KXAN analyzed each state medical board within the nation. In practically each state, board members are governor-appointed. Nationwide, Texas is tied for first with probably the most variety of public members on its board. Regardless of that, Wendell, and others, fear that appointing donors permits for the potential to politicize these positions.

“We have to take politics out of affected person security,” he mentioned.