The TMA Board of Trustees held its first quarter meeting on Jan. 18. Discussion surrounded activities of the new year and the imminent start of the 114th Tennessee General Assembly.

TMA’s legislative agenda seeks to make the case for increased reimbursement to physicians that have supported and continued to participate in the TennCare program. The Board of Trustees approved the use of a special outside consultant to aid in the creation of a proposal to win the necessary funding to make these reimbursement improvements. Additional key issues in our legislative agenda include adjustments to the insurance prior authorization law and continued work to protect physicians who perform medically necessary pregnancy terminations related to lethal fetal anomalies.

The Board discussed ongoing dialogue between hospital-based physician specialties and Tennessee hospitals about reforms to the corporate practice of medicine doctrine. Tennessee is one of two states that has a prohibition against hospitals employing hospital-based physician specialists.

The Board made appointments to TMA committees in preparation for the TMA Annual Meeting in May. Those physicians appointed or reappointed to committees will receive communications from TMA staff in the coming weeks. There remain many committee positions available for members who wish to serve. View the full list of open positions here.

Included in our committee needs is an opportunity for those physicians who may wish to serve on the Tennessee Delegation to the American Medical Association House of Delegates. There are slots coming open over the next few years and the Board was asked to begin searching for suitable member candidates. TMA members wishing to serve in this capacity must be members of the American Medical Association (AMA) to qualify.

The Board of Trustees approved the 2025 Association budget. TMA finance chairman Dr. Daniel Bustamante, Knoxville, explained the critical need to increase operational revenue in the coming years to support TMA programs and services. Many pandemic-era federal financial programs, such as the Employee Retention Credit Program, supported the TMA budget over the past few years but are no longer available.

“Our organization only has two ways to bring in money to support our mission. . . Membership dues and corporate supporters for our activities,” said TMA CEO Russ Miller. “TMA either needs to double its number of members or we all need to start buying products and services from our partners!”

To help alleviate some immediate financial stress, the Board adopted a modification to its investment policy for the association reserve to allow a portion of reserve earnings to be used to help general operations of the association.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the board engaged in dialogue about the impact of artificial or augmented intelligence on medical care. There was a House of Delegates resolution in 2024 calling on TMA to become engaged in the discussions and education about the benefits and pitfalls of AI in healthcare. The board will work closely with the AMA and various specialty societies to share resources and coordinate speakers to present to TMA members on timely topics.

The next regular meeting of the Board will be on Friday, May 16 to kick off the 2025 TMA Annual Meeting and House of Delegates.