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Health And Human Services Commission

The latest Health And Human Services Commission news from The Texas Tribune.

  • Matching Medicaid

    By Emily Ramshaw, The Texas Tribune, and Phil Galewitz, Kaiser Health News

    Already facing a record budget shortfall, Texas has received more bad news: The portion of state Medicaid costs paid by the federal government is about to drop. Texas’ Federal Medical Assistance Percentage, a mathematical formula linked to a state's per-capita personal income, will fall more than 2 percentage points in late 2011, equivalent to a $1.2 billion hit. Only two states — Louisiana and North Dakota — will face a bigger percentage drop. And that’s after federal stimulus funds that have been artificially enhancing this match dry up in the spring, another blow to cash-strapped state Medicaid programs in Texas and across the nation. Full Story 

    Patients are shown checking out in 2010 at the People's Community Clinic in Austin, a safety-net clinic that serves Medicaid recipients and the underinsured.
    Credit: Callie Richmond for The Texas Tribune

  • Diabetic Shock

    By Emily Ramshaw

    The number of adult Texans with diabetes is expected to quadruple over the next three decades, a massive spike that demographers and health care experts attribute to the state’s aging population and obesity epidemic. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Evan Smith

    Hu on the Perry-Bush rift, Ramshaw on the adult diaper wars, Ramsey's interview with conservative budget-slasher Arlene Wohlgemuth, Galbraith on the legislature's water agenda (maybe), M. Smith on Don McLeroy's last stand (maybe), Philpott on the end of earmarks (maybe), Hamilton on the merger of the Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Texas Education Agency (maybe), Aguilar on Mexicans seeking refuge from drug violence, Grissom on inadequate health care in county jails and my conversation with Houston Mayor Annise Parker: The best of our best from November 15 to 19, 2010. Full Story 

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  • Diaper Change

    By Emily Ramshaw

    Call it a bad case of adult diaper drama: Incontinence product vendors are facing off against the state comptroller’s office over plans to competitively bid underpads, catheters and other supplies for Texas Medicaid patients. Full Story 

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    Credit: Richard Richards

  • The Opt-Out Option

    By Emily Ramshaw, The Texas Tribune, and Marilyn Serafini, Kaiser Health News

    A week after newly emboldened Republicans in the Texas Legislature floated a radical cost-saving proposal — withdrawing from the federal Medicaid program — health care experts, economists and think tanks are trying to determine just how possible it would be. The answer? It’s complicated. But it’s not stopping nearly a dozen other states, frantic over budget shortfalls and anticipating new costs from federal health care reform, from exploring something that was, until recently, unthinkable. Full Story 

    The waiting room at People's Community Clinic in Austin, TX in November 2010.
    Credit: Callie Richmond

  • Closing for Good?

    By Tristan Hallman

    A barrage of abuse scandals, a federal investigation and the shrinking state budget could be just what disability advocates need to achieve a longtime goal: fewer state institutions and more community-based living services for developmentally disabled Texans who can’t care for themselves. Full Story 

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    Credit: Samantha Mesones

  • A Hole in the Safety Net

    By Emily Ramshaw

    Advocates say the Department of Aging and Disability Services’ baseline budget request eliminates financing for more than 13,000 people — the majority waiting to receive Medicaid waiver services. Agency officials will only say that an “unknown number” of people already receiving the services could lose them. It's unclear if lawmakers can make these cuts without risking losing federal funding; federal health care reform requires states to maintain coverage at the same level it was when the Affordable Care Act became law in March. Full Story 

    Barbara Cullison does her daughter Audrey's hair. Audrey, who is autistic, risks losing her Medicaid waiver services because of state budget cuts.
    Credit: Wenjing Zhang

  • Good Money After Bad?

    By Emily Ramshaw

    In the wake of high-profile incidents of abuse, state health officials want to boost payments to Texas' institutions for the disabled by $25,000 per patient per year. But the proposed Medicaid rate change has drawn the ire of Texas’ disability community, which wants to see the facilities shuttered rather than propped up. Full Story 

    Austin State-Supported Living Center.
    Credit: Todd Wiseman

  • Food Fight

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    Last week, Republicans loudly complained about a just-approved bill that would send $830 million in federal education funds to Texas with strings attached. But as Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports, Democrats have their own reason to balk. Full Story 

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  • The Biggest Losers

    By Emily Ramshaw

    As the reality of health care reform sinks in, physician-owned specialty hospitals are on edge. Some are scouring the law for loopholes; others want to sell out to corporations. Full Story 

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    Credit: Todd Wiseman

  • Banned Parenthood?

    By Emily Ramshaw

    State Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville, wants Planned Parenthood's clinics out of the state’s Women’s Health Program, which provides family planning services — but not abortions — to impoverished Medicaid patients. He says a 2005 law should exclude them already. But for years, the state’s Health and Human Services Commission has allowed those clinics to participate, for fear that barring them might be unconstitutional. Deuell has asked Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to clear up the matter, hoping it will free up the agency to push Planned Parenthood out. Full Story 

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    Credit: Jacob Villanueva

  • An Itchy Situation

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    The American Academy of Pediatrics recently said that children should not be kept out of school if they get head lice — the opposite of what Texas law requires. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune has this report. Full Story 

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  • TribBlog: Family Planning Quandary?

    By Emily Ramshaw

    Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville, wants the attorney general to decide whether a Texas family planning rule — one that bans the state's Women's Health Program from contracting with clinics that "perform or promote" abortions — is constitutional. Full Story 

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  • Access and Accommodation

    By Nathan Bernier, KUT News

    Today is the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which has been hailed as a Bill of Rights for people with disabilities. Nathan Bernier of KUT News talked to one of the architects of the legislation, Dr. Lex Frieden, a professor of at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston who has been partially paralyzed since 1967. "Life has changed signficantly," Frieden says. Full Story 

  • Baby Bump

    By Sarah Acosta

    At a hearing today, the Department of Family and Protective Services will consider stricter caregiver-to-child ratios for child care centers — but improved care for Texas toddlers could also mean less income for child care providers and higher tuition for families. Full Story 

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    Credit: Justyna Furmanczyk