The latest health care news from The Texas Tribune.
Disability rights advocates gathered at Gov. Rick Perry's campaign headquarters today to demand a meeting with the governor to discuss improving care and living conditions for disabled Texans. Full Story
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Texas lawmakers and hospital administrators took a hard look Tuesday at the state Medicaid waiver recently OK'd by the Obama administration. Full Story
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The conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation today wrapped up its annual legislative primer, which has become a must-attend for state Republican leaders. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports on how the group is already working to influence next year's legislative session. Full Story
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Texas abortion providers were hoping they'd have a few more weeks to start abiding by a state law requiring them to play the heartbeat of the fetus and describe its image on a sonogram before performing the procedure. They're not going to get it. Full Story
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Texas has already joined the two-dozen other states challenging the constitutionality of federal health care reform before the U.S. Supreme Court. Now, 27 Democratic state lawmakers have signed on to try to defend it. Full Story
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A panel of federal appellate judges has authorized Texas officials to enforce a controversial abortion sonogram law while its constitutionality is being challenged in court. Full Story
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The bellwether conservative group is running ads attacking the lieutenant governor, who hopes to succeed Kay Bailey Hutchison in the U.S. Senate. Full Story
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Texans will close out 2011 with more questions than answers, from the outcomes of redistricting and Gov. Rick Perry's presidential bid to the effects of lawmakers' multibillion-dollar budget cuts. Here’s hoping 2012 brings some resolution. Full Story
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In the spirit of TribWeek and TribMonth, we present TribYear. Ten of our best stories of 2011. Full Story
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As it has since the Trib's launch in 2009, data continued to reign supreme on the site in 2011. Today, we take a look at the 10 most-visited data apps since Jan. 1. Full Story
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In Texas, where mental health professionals are already hard to come by, another issue has exacerbated the situation in the state's growing minority populations: finding treatment providers who understand the communities' cultural and language differences. Full Story
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The Lone Star State is getting bigger. Texas had the largest population growth of any state between April 2010 and July 2011, according to figures released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. Full Story
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Root's scoop on Rick Perry's working retirement, Aaronson maps poverty in Texas, Aguilar on a voting rights warning shot from the U.S. Attorney General, Galbraith on the disclosure of chemicals used in fracking operations, Grissom on the drop in executions, Hamilton and M. Smith on UT-Austin President Bill Powers' rough year, Murphy and Tan and Dehn on the shortage of psychiatrists and Ramshaw on the federal refusal to exclude operators like Planned Parenthood from family planning programs: The best of our best content from December 12 to 16, 2011. Full Story
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The federal government has granted Texas permission to move almost all of its Medicaid patients into managed care in an effort to save money. But as Carrie Feibel of KUHF News reports, hospitals will now have to do more to show how they spend — and prove they deserve — state money. Full Story
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The Tribune's Thanh Tan speaks with a Texan living with anxiety and depression, the executive director of the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health at UT-Austin, and the head psychiatrist for Austin Travis County Integral Care to find out the reasons behind the state's shortage of mental health providers. Full Story
While more Texans are being diagnosed with mental illness every year, experts say there aren't enough psychiatrists or behavioral health professionals to meet growing demand. Use our video and interactive county-by-county maps to find out why. Full Story
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The federal government's rejection this week of a state request to exclude certain providers — namely Planned Parenthood — from the Women's Health Program came as a victory to some family planning advocates, and a travesty to others. Full Story
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The state's finances are in better shape than previously believed, the state comptroller said Monday, with a new projection showing $1.6 billion more than lawmakers expected, even after the state covers part of the its Medicaid shortfall and restores some cuts to state agencies and universities. Full Story
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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has turned down Texas’ request to run a family planning program that excludes some providers — namely Planned Parenthood. But it approved Texas' request for a waiver to expand Medicaid managed care. Full Story
Some cuts to Medicaid reimbursement rates will take effect on Jan. 1, putting Texas’ Medicaid spending on par with that of many other states. But as Jessica Mahoney of KUT News reports, providers of physical, occupational and speech therapy worry many could be left without services. Full Story
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