Texas PACS: A Roundup of the Special Interests Driving Texas' Political Action Committees

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Health Care

The 66 health care PACs spent $4.1 million (7 percent of all PAC spending).

Thirty-five health professional associations spent $2.7 million, with physician groups accounting for $1.1 million. Two Texas Medical Association (TMA) PACs spent $745,095.

Texas doctors—who helped transform the Texas Supreme Court into a champion of medical malpractice suit defendants—continue to invest heavily in judges as the ultimate malpractice defense. Recently, however, doctors’ eyes have been opened by Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs), some of which have stripped physicians of workplace autonomy and treated them as just another labor cost. The TMA responded by successfully urging the Legislature to make Texas the first state to allow malpractice victims to sue HMOs when these insurers interfere with how physicians practice medicine.²²

The largest specialty physician PAC was the Texas Opthalmological Association’s Eye PAC ($283,784). Opthalmologists have waged a long turf war with optometrists. The Texas Optometric PAC along with three local chapters spent $548,038. In the 1997 legislative session, this PAC unsuccessfully sought to expand its members’ practices to include procedures now reserved for opthalmologists.

Similarly, the Texas Dental Association ($511,970) and the Texas Chiropractic Association ($139,706) perennially seek expanded insurance coverage of their practices and chiropractors also have waged turf wars with physical therapists and physicians.

HMOs & Hospitals
Ten HMO or hospital PACs spent $537,014, or 13 percent of health PAC spending. The Texas Hospital & Health Care Organizations Association ($170,974), was the sole hospital interest in this sea of HMOs. Individual HMOs and their trade association, the Texas Association of Health Plans ($44,950), dominated. Columbia/HCA ($124,925) led this HMO sector. Columbia’s 10-year hospital acquisition binge, in which it acquired 70 hospitals in Texas alone, came to a halt in early 1997, when federal investigators raided Columbia facilities to gather evidence of Medicare fraud. The investigation prompted resignations of top company executives, the indictment of mid-level executives and a federal civil suit filed in October 1998.

Nursing Homes
Eight PACs representing the state’s home care and scandal-ridden nursing home industries spent a total of $399,764. Nursing home interests pushed through legislation in 1995 that weakened state regulation of this industry. But a backlash ocurred in 1997, as the media reported a slew of nursing home abuses of residents that triggered negligible reprimands. The industry trade group, the Texas Health Care Association ($271,890), dominated this group. The next biggest spenders were the Texas Association for Home Care ($49,037), Living Centers of America—now called Paragon Health Network—($29,433) and Beverly Texas Health Care PAC ($19,838).

Medical Education
Spending in the last two health subcategories falls short of what the Texas Health Care Association spent on its own ($271,890). Six medical education PACs spent a total of $260,982, led by Friends of Baylor Medicine ($111,300) and the Galveston Association for Medical Education ($98,928).

Pharmaceuticals Seven pharmaceutical and medical product PACs spent a total of $173,678. Eckerd PAC ($82,760) led the six pharmaceutical PACs, followed by the Texas Pharmaceutical Association ($42,457) and the South Texas Pharmacy Network ($11,516).

The only medical product PAC was Kinetic Concepts ($29,614), which makes hi-tech hospital beds. Kinetic is controlled by conservative San Antonio ideologue James Leininger, who is discussed along with education PACs in the Ideological and Single-Issue section.

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