House lawmakers passed the Senate version of long-awaited health care reform on Sunday night. And Texas leaders were quick to fire off on it.

Texas' senior care industry — still reeling from federal Medicare cuts — may face another financial blow, as the state considers reducing Medicaid provider rates to balance the budget in the face of a $10 billion-plus shortfall.

Early returns show the four-way scrum for the Texas House seat of outgoing state Rep. Dan Gattis, R-Georgetown, isn't as close as some had predicted. Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Charles Schwertner is way up.

The number of Texas physicians who use electronic medical records has been on the rise for the last four years, according to a Texas Medical Association study.

Three challenges stand between Texas and the era of electronic medical records: convincing doctors to use them, figuing out how to safely share and protect them and finding a way to pay for them.

In rural counties, recruiting doctors is the single biggest health care challenge. Twenty-seven counties have no primary care physicians.

Should Texas medical schools be responsible for relieving the state’s primary care shortage? Advocates for family physicians think so. They want state lawmakers to reward medical schools that groom young doctors for family medicine — and penalize those that don’t.