The state’s child welfare agency faces a $40 million budget shortfall, a critical shortage of good homes for foster children and overwhelming caseloads for staff, agency leaders told state lawmakers at a hearing on Wednesday.
state agencies
Posted in
Health care
Texas Asks Feds for Short-Term Medicaid Funds
State health officials confirmed Tuesday they have asked the Obama administration to keep a 15-month lifeline of federal Medicaid money flowing into Texas to help hospitals treat uninsured patients.
Posted in
Health care
UnitedHealthcare Drops Obamacare Plans in Texas
UnitedHealthcare, a major health insurer, will no longer sell insurance on the Affordable Care Act marketplace in Texas next year, according to a letter filed with state regulators.
Posted in
State Government
Roundup: New Challenges for Ken Paxton, Sid Miller
In the Roundup: The state’s attorney general faces new securities fraud charges, the Texas agriculture commissioner is the subject of an investigation over a pair of state-paid trips and the governor works to reform an embattled child welfare agency.
Posted in
State Government
New Prison Rule Means Jailbirds Can’t Tweet
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has decided that prison inmates should not be allowed to have active social media accounts, even if friends or family on the outside run them.
Posted in
Health care
Texas Seeks Court Permission to Cut Therapy Budget
Texas should be allowed to move forward with cutting payments to therapy providers who serve children with disabilities, a lawyer for the state argued in appeals court Wednesday.
Posted in
Health care
Budget Cuts for Therapy Won’t Harm Kids, Judge Told
In-home therapy providers say they would be put out of business by deep budget cuts to a program for children with disabilities, but the chorus of voices disputing those claims grew a little louder on Tuesday.
Posted in
Health care
Abbott Names New Leaders at Embattled Child Welfare Agency
At a time of heightened public scrutiny of Texas’ embattled child welfare agency, Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday appointed new leadership of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.
Posted in
Health care
Caseworkers, Kids Trapped in Collapsing Foster System
The Texas foster care system has been throwing off increasingly desperate distress signals for months. It falls to caseworkers like 27-year-old Daniel Hernandez to try to keep it working.
Posted in
Health care
Emails Show Abbott’s Involvement at Child Welfare Agency
Six days after Gov. Greg Abbott took office, he faced the first death of a child under state care. Emails obtained by The Texas Tribune capture his staff’s efforts, and frustrations, trying to fix the state’s embattled foster care system.
