The latest health and human services commission news from The Texas Tribune.
As Congress wrestles with the fine print of massive health care legislation, doctors in Texas say both their practices and their patients will be affected. Nathan Bernier reports for KUT News from Athens, about three hours northeast of Austin, where a doctor reveals the unique challenges of providing care in a small town. Full Story
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. Full Story
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The state is working to get poor Texans food stamps quicker, but it's not fast enough for many families, and too many children are getting their only hot meal at school, according to Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid. Full Story
Emergency medicine doctors say trauma victims must receive care within the “golden hour” to survive. But many rural Texas counties aren’t anywhere near hospitals that can handle complex injuries or illness. Full Story
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Roll your own political videos ... interactive travel maps of your federal and state legislators ... scary movies, to keep the kids out of the border's scary drug wars ... puttting dropouts back in class ... rates squeezing families out of home health care ... how many lobby and trade associations do teachers in Texas need? ... enjoying the silence before an expected two-month siege of political advertising ... the dean of Texas political writers gets shut out of the gubernatorial debates ... and we have an interactive database of the state's best and worst public schools. The best of our best for a short news week, from December 19 to 26, 2009. Full Story
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Families of disabled Texans fear an increase in home nursing rates could force them to cut services for their loved ones. Full Story
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The home health care cuts that Congress will likely make to fund federal health care reform will take an extra large swipe at Texas. Full Story
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Benjamin Ligums was born with a rare degenerative brain disease that left him immobile, non-verbal and legally blind. His family has found a second home at Baylor's Transition Medicine Clinic, which specializes in treating profoundly disabled young adults. Full Story
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When kids with disabilities transfer from children’s Medicaid to the adult program, they lose services, health care and medical expertise. A few committed doctors and social workers are stepping in to ease the transition. Full Story
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The Texas Departments of Family and Protective Services and State Health Services are launching a "Room to Breathe" campaign to educate parents about the dangers of co-sleeping, a controversial subject that they appear to be approaching with caution. Full Story
First Lady Anita Perry is speaking out against new breast cancer screening recommendations made by a federal task force last month. Full Story
State health officials are considering lifting a requirement that Texas emergency rooms have a physician on-site at all times — as long as one can get there within 30 minutes. Full Story
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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. Full Story
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Speaker Joe Straus has given committees their assignments for the next year. Full Story
Tired of waiting for the state to provide swine flu vaccine locations, The Dallas Morning News took matters into its own hands. Full Story
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State contractors – many of whom get paid top dollar to advise Texas agencies – are largely immune from reporting conflicts of interest. Full Story
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State agencies are spending tens of millions of dollars every year on information technology contract workers, employees who aren’t on the state payroll – but whose pay often dwarfs those who are. Full Story
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Gov. Perry made a timely announcement today: He's proposing initiatives to improve mental health programs for veterans. Full Story
A bill lawmakers passed to prevent doctors and attorneys from so-called "ambulance chasing" faces a constitutional challenge from — who else? — a chiropractor and a lawyer. Full Story
States are struggling mightily to fund Medicaid services in one the deepest recessions in recent history, according to a 50-state health care study released by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. States, many of them strapped by budget shortfalls, overwhelmingly reported being saved by the federal stimulus package, and said without it, they would have been forced to make serious cuts in Medicaid eligibility. Full Story
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