Rohack to head AMA Posted On: Monday, Jun. 15 2009 01:47 AM By Hayley Kappes
Killeen Daily Herald

Equality in health care and medical education is not a castle in the sky for Dr. J. James Rohack.

Rohack, director of the Center for Healthcare Policy at Scott & White Hospital in Temple, graduated with a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at El Paso in 1976, 10 years after then Texas Western College became the first men's basketball team to win the NCAA Division I championship with all black starters.

UTEP was the first southern college to integrate its athletic teams in the early '50s.

Drawing from his alma mater's commitment to civil equality, Rohack will focus on egalitarian issues in health care as he assumes presidency of the American Medical Association at its House of Delegates annual meeting in Chicago on Tuesday.

Rohack was elected to AMA's Board of Trustees in 2001 and was a chairman for the AMA Council on Medical Education.

The past year, Rohack focused on what he said are the greatest issues facing American health care: slowing increases in health care spending, affordable health insurance and coverage for the uninsured and underinsured.

"One of the unique things I bring is a focus on health disparities," Rohack said. "People who have insurance don't get the care they should because of their race or ethnicity. It's a real problem in the U.S. and within Central Texas."

Rohack said he will work with the National Medical Association, an organization that advocates health care equality for black Americans, to add more minority students in medical education programs, increase jobs in health professions and provide equal access to quality care.

Dr. Josie Williams, immediate past president of the Texas Medical Association, said it is impossible to receive quality care with limited or no insurance.

"We have a shortage of physicians who have troble getting everybody seen, especially medicare and medicaid patients who can't afford insurance," Williams said. "It's difficult to see patients when you're overbooked and they can't pay."

Texas roots

Rohack, a cardiologist from Bryan, is the fifth Texan to lead the AMA, which entails a one-year presidency followed by one year as immediate past president of the association.

He served as president of the Texas Medical Association, and was chairman of TMA's Council on Medical Education.

A member of Scott & White Healthcare System since 1986, Rohack will continue to treat his current patients at Scott & White's Temple Clinic during his AMA presidency, but will not accept new patients.

Rohack also is a professor of internal medicine at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine in Temple and medical director for system improvement of the Scott & White Health Plan.

Dr. Andrejs Avots-Avotins, chairman of Scott & White's board of directors, has known Rohack since the late '70s when they were students at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

"He's the ultimate physician, always interested in government and politics and their relation to medicine," Avots-Avotins said. "The amazing thing about him, with all his experience, is that he remains a practicing physician. He doesn't forget what it's like to be a real doctor."

Health care's future

On May 11, Rohack and other officials in the public health sector met with President Barack Obama to discuss how the health care system can reduce unnecessary cost, achieve affordable insurance and provide greater choice of physicians for patients.

The United States will spend 20 percent of its gross domestic product on health care by 2017, according to the National Coalition on Health Care.

Eliminating administrative waste in the system will trim down unnecessary costs, but Rohack said affordable health care will require cooperation among the government, insurance companies, physicians and patients.

Dr. Susan Rudd Bailey, chair of the Texas delegation to AMA and president-elect of TMA, said Rohack's appointment could not come at a better time.

President Obama is pushing for a comprehensive health reform bill that would control rising costs, guarantee physician choice and ensure high-quality, affordable care.

"If (Rohack) can't do it, I'm not sure anyone can," Bailey said.

But Rohack believes he can. Like his alma mater defeating the all-white University of Kentucky team in the 1966 finals, Rohack thinks change is attainable in a health-care system aching for overhaul.

"The great thing about Americans is when we agree on a common goal, we work hard to achieve it," Rohack said. "In the '60s, (President) Kennedy said we would have a man on the moon by the end of decade, and America rallied around that goal. Affordable health care is a very important goal that we should all be willing to rally behind."

Contact Hayley Kappes at hayleyk@kdhnews.com or (254) 501-7559.