Department of State Health Services

Texas Department of State Health Services employees are being relocated from the Austin State Hospital 636 building where a mold infestation has invaded their desks, chairs, carpeting and keyboard hand rests. The news comes one day after The Texas Tribune reported the mold incursion.

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Workers have found mold infiltrating their desks, chairs and keyboard hand rests in the Austin State Hospital 636 building. The state has spent nearly $16,000 fighting the mold so far.

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The law at the center of the case is Senate Bill 8, passed in 2017, which requires the burial or cremation of fetal remains.

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Poland and Texas have comparable populations, conservative governments and stringent anti-abortion policies. But they differ significantly in how health care is delivered for women — and in the role they allow midwives to play in the  childbirth process.

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The State Auditor’s Office released a 30-page report on Monday showing the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and the Department of State Health Services bungled a contract with Genesis Systems Inc.

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Some of the state’s top health experts released a report in the medical journal Obstetrics & Gynecology on Monday that used a new method for counting — and found that the number of women who died dropped from 147 to 56.

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More than 4,000 Texans have died from flu-related illnesses this season, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. 

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U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra ruled Monday afternoon that Texas cannot move forward with the rule, citing that the Texas Department of State Health Services’ arguments “lack merit.”  

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While Texas' infant mortality rate is lower than the national average, a new study shows wide variations in rates across different areas of the state and among different racial groups.

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A group of parents is asking the state to test all babies for spinal muscular atrophy, the most common genetic cause of infant death. They hope that a treatment newly approved by the FDA will bolster their cause.

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Texas and a coalition of 40 other states have served subpoenas or other requests to eight companies that manufacture or distribute prescription painkillers, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Tuesday.

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House lawmakers tentatively approved a series of bills Monday aimed at helping Texas curb its unusually high rate of women dying less than a year after childbirth.

 

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Both chambers passed bills on Tuesday aimed at curbing postpartum depression and the alarming rise in Texas mothers dying less than a year after giving birth.

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House lawmakers on Monday voted to streamline how courts work with the state's child welfare agency to protect abused and neglected kids — and laid out concrete reasons children can be removed from their homes. 

 

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Senate Health and Human Services Committee members heard emotional testimony from reproductive rights and anti-abortion advocates on Wednesday over Senate Bill 8, Senate Bill 415 and Senate Bill 258.

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U.S. District Court Judge Sam Sparks ruled Texas cannot require health providers to bury or cremate fetuses, delivering another blow to state leaders in the reproductive rights debate.

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Reproductive rights advocates have expressed concern that Texas lawmakers will take bolder steps in the upcoming session to defund abortion providers and dismantle access to abortion, birth control and other sexual health services.

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In a report released Thursday, Texas House Select Committee on Mental Health members wrote that mental health “is absolutely one of the most critical areas of concern” facing the state.

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U.S. District Court Judge Sam Sparks announced Wednesday that he was delaying the start date of the state's fetal remains burial rule for another three weeks. State officials had originally scheduled the rule to go into effect on Dec. 19.

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Here’s a look at the top health and human services storylines The Texas Tribune tracked this year.

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