The latest Health And Human Services Commission news from The Texas Tribune.
Fewer Texans will receive food stamps in December than in November, but the number is still up overall since 2005 as the national recession continues. Our updated interactive map allows you to explore the number of food stamp recipients in your county and the economic impact of the program. Full Story
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The number of Texans receiving food aid has increased by nearly 1.4 million in the last four years. Use this interactive to see the percentage of each county's population that receives food assistance and the economic impact of the federal funds. Full Story
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The state's family planning reductions hit the Planned Parenthood Association of Hidalgo County especially hard. In September, the association shut down four of its eight health clinics and laid off half of its staff. Anti-abortion advocates argue the state should not "subsidize the abortion industry." The Trib's Thanh Tan and Justin Dehn report from Hidalgo County. Full Story
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As the U.S. grapples with rising health care costs and a system that rewards doctors and hospitals for how sick their patients get, not how healthy they become, Texas providers are experimenting with new payment and care delivery models. Full Story
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Gov. Rick Perry vehemently opposes forcing Americans to carry health insurance — yet his home state leads the nation in the size of its uninsured population and ranks near the bottom on almost every measure of coverage. Full Story
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We'll be liveblogging throughout the weekend from The Texas Tribune Festival's health and human services track — which includes panels on the fight over federal health reform, whether Texas can cure cancer and what effect tort reform has had statewide. Full Story
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Responding to cases of abuse and even death in Texas' residential treatment centers, a mental health organization is funding a program to better train direct-care workers. Full Story
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DAY 5 of our month-long series on the effects of new state laws and budget cuts: The Rio Grande Valley’s longest-running helicopter ambulance will be permanently grounded this fall — and state budget cuts were the final straw. Full Story
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Along the Texas-Mexico border, colonias residents tell identical stories: of migrating with dreams of safety and prosperity, of getting swindled into buying worthless land, of sticking it out so their children will get educated. And of getting sick. Full Story
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Conditions have clearly improved in Texas' colonias since devious developers first established them for migrant workers in the 1950s. But many efforts have fallen short, the result of bureaucratic nightmares and a spiral of confusion and fees. Full Story
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Companies that provide intensive in-home care to patients who might otherwise be in nursing homes could face big cuts under a cost-saving budget proposal the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) will consider today. Full Story
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A glitch in the federal health reform bill that would make many middle-class Americans eligible for Medicaid could cost Texas nearly $90 million a year by 2017, according to a state analysis. Full Story
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Children on Medicaid under the age of three will not be prescribed powerful anti-psychotic drugs without a special authorization, under new rules the state Health and Human Services Commission implemented last week. Full Story
The Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services said today that the personal data of about 4,900 current and former state employees may have been exposed in a security breach. Full Story
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State lawmakers have fired back against a Federal Trade Commission letter suggesting Senate Bill 8 — a key piece of Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst's health reform push — violates antitrust laws. The measure is expected to come up for a vote in the House on Tuesday. Full Story
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For the third session in a row, legislation covering end-of-life care in Texas appears, well, dead. Full Story
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The residency programs that train Texas family physicians will take a big hit under the education budget agreement lawmakers unveiled today. Full Story
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The budget that state lawmakers are poised to accept attempts to eliminate wide variations in what hospitals are paid by Medicaid for performing the same procedures on similarly sick patients — a sweeping change in how Texas hospitals are funded. Full Story
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The Federal Trade Commission is warning that one of the key health care reform bills trumpeted by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, could substantially harm consumers. Full Story
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Texas medical schools feel like the scorned children of the state’s education budget. Lost amid the pleas of parents to restore funding for public education, and the demands of college students to preserve financial aid, the state’s health care institutions say few seem to understand the drastic situation they face. Full Story