The Texas Medical Board has approved controversial new rules on the adult stem cells, sparking worries that Texans could pay tens of thousands of dollars for injections that have not yet been proven safe or effective.

The Texas Medical Board is poised today to decide on controversial guidelines for the adult stem cell industry, which is likely to prove lucrative.

Lawmakers and health care advocates gathered today to kick off the state's first annual Minority Cancer Awareness Month, designated in the last legislative session to bring awareness to racial disparities in cancer survival. 

After months of deliberation — and input from Gov. Rick Perry — the Texas Medical Board on Friday gave preliminary approval to a set of rules on adult stem cells in Texas that are less stringent than those originally proposed. 

Legislators and abortion opponents cheered the Susan G. Komen for the Cure's original decision to cut funding for Planned Parenthood.  

Root and Tan on the restoration of the Governor's Mansion and on the Perrys' expensive replacement digs, E. Smith's TribLive interview with three freshman legislators in El Paso, M. Smith on tough financial standards for local school districts, Ramshaw and Murphy on Texas docs paid by drug companies, yours truly on new congressional and legislative redistricting maps, Hamilton on the biggest competitive endeavor in Brownsville's schools and Aguilar on how border mayors feel about military equipment in their cities: The best of our best content from November 21 to 25, 2011.

After a fierce fight, the state’s leading physician groups won a change in legislation backed predominantly by Texas chiropractors that could have prevented one health care licensing agency from challenging the ruling of another in court.

The House Public Health Committee put its stamp of approval this morning on a much-watered-down version of Rep. Fred Brown's Texas Medical Board bill, a measure designed to protect doctors from unfounded complaints. 

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons may continue its lawsuit against the Texas Medical Board, despite a lower court's ruling, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decided today.

In the closing days of his last term in the Texas House, former state Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, used his legislative authority to obtain confidential records from the Texas Medical Board, The Texas Tribune has learned. His reason? To defend doctors who he believes were wrongly the subjects of misconduct investigations by the board, which licenses the state's physicians.

When a family member dies, accessing bank accounts and collecting on insurance policies requires proper paperwork. Despite a state mandate to process death certificates in a timely fashion, however, doctors are dragging their heels, funeral directors say, leaving survivors in the lurch. 

As lawmakers on the Sunset Advisory Commission prepare to publicly review the Division of Workers' Compensation on Tuesday, the Commissioner and his former physician fraud investigator are waging a war of words in their letters to lawmakers.

Former employees of the Division of Workers' Compensation at the Texas Department of Insurance say their higher-ups have failed to sanction or remove dozens of physicians accused of fraudently overbilling and overtreating patients, costing insurers millions of dollars. The allegations of stalled enforcement action have sparked an inquiry by the State Auditor’s Office, records show.

That’s right — they’re not from Texas. Newly licensed physicians enlisting to treat the state’s Medicaid and Medicare patients are more likely to have been trained at international medical schools, according to a review of state medical licensing data.

When a West Texas sheriff criminally charged a nurse who reported an unethical doctor to the Texas Medical Board, it sent shockwaves through the nation’s nursing community. But her acquittal has done little to calm the furor.

It’s no time to be an advocate for rural health care. Rural lawmakers say they're consistently outnumbered and under-represented — and that redistricting will only make matters worse.