Managed care plans would be required to offer more mental health services to Medicaid recipients under a bill tentatively approved by the House on Friday.

Medicaid providers would have clearer due process rights during fraud investigations under a measure the House gave tentative approval to on Wednesday.

UPDATED: The Texas Senate on Monday approved legislation that aims to tackle Medicaid fraud.

One lawmaker is getting much of the credit for restoring family planning funding to the House budget without the usual floor fight: state Rep. Sarah Davis, R-West University Place.

UPDATED: U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, and his twin, San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro, will hold their own event at the Capitol on Monday to promote the Medicaid expansion provision of federal health reform.

About 50 Texas farmers markets take SNAP benefits, WIC benefits or both. The programs are not well utilized, but proponents say it's important to provide as many healthy food options as possible for Texans who use nutrition benefits.

News that the federal government has negotiated with Arkansas to allow that state to use billions of dollars in Medicaid funds to buy private health insurance for the state's poorest residents has some Texas Republicans intrigued. 

UPDATED: Looking to save Texas millions of Medicaid dollars, the Senate Health and Human Services Committee heard four hours of testimony on a proposed redesign of long-term care services for disabled Texans.

The Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday opened its discussion on how to finance the state's health budget by considering the impact of cost containment initiatives and how to proactively curb Medicaid fraud. 

After complaints from lawmakers about its earlier list of Texas Women’s Health Program providers, the state health agency has replaced its list online. The new list has 965 fewer doctors and clinics.

Democratic legislators are questioning whether the Texas Women’s Health Program has an adequate network of health care providers in light of a state agency’s decision to pull the list of providers from a state website.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Sen. Jane Nelson on Wednesday discussed new Senate proposals that target Medicaid spending. The plans would institute quality-based payment reforms for long-term care services and measures to catch fraud and abuse.

The Health and Human Services Commission says the Texas Women’s Health Program has a greater capacity to serve impoverished women than its predecessor, a joint state-federal program that ended after the state excluded clinics affiliated with abortion providers. 

State officials are optimistic about the new Texas Women’s Health Program, which launched this week amid a long-running legislative fight. But at least one state lawmaker thinks there’s a problem with the program’s list of providers.

Texas could be the next state to face legal action from a pharmaceutical company that sells a drug designed to prevent pregnant women from delivering premature babies.

The rates of elective surgery for Medicare patients vary dramatically depending on which part of the state Texans live in, according to new research from the Dartmouth Atlas Project, which analyzes medical referrals, procedures and health care costs across the nation.

The federal government will halt funding for Texas’ Women’s Health Program on Dec. 31, the country’s Medicaid director wrote in a letter to state health officials the day after her boss, President Obama, was re-elected.

Full video of my 10/31 TribLive conversation with Dr. Kyle Janek, the state's executive commissioner of Health and Human Services.