Skip to main content
Topics

Health care

The latest health care news from The Texas Tribune.

  • Whooping It Up

    By Ben Freed

    Cases of whooping cough spiked in Texas last year to their highest level since 1962. Ben Freed of KUT News reports on what's being done to prevent the spread of this disease. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail

  • 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 

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Ross Ramsey

    Ramshaw's question about an insurance company denying coverage for an infant vaccine prompts a reversal; Stiles' new app lets you poke through mid-year campaign reports on donations and spending; Ramsey finds foreshadowing of the state's big fall races in the campaign finance reports; Aguilar interviews Henry Cisneros about current politics; Dawson finds Texas environmentalists getting advice from an unexpected place; Galbraith on "demand response" that might cut the need for power plants and on the next wave of electric cars; Aguilar on increasing trade through Texas ports of entry; M. Smith on affirmative action battles in higher education; Titus on Mexican college students' drift from border universities to UT-Austin and Texas A&M; and Hamilton on controversy over private, for-profit colleges: The best of our best for the week of July 19 to 23, 2010. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman

  • A Shot in the Arm

    By Emily Ramshaw

    Most of Texas' health insurance companies have fully covered the costs of the infant vaccine Prevnar 13, which prevents deadly cases of bacterial pneumonia and meningitis. The exception has been Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, which has forced physicians to make up the difference or turn babies away. But no more: On Monday, the same day The Texas Tribune asked about the reimbursement gap, BCBS reversed course. It will now cover all costs associated with the vaccine. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Evan Smith

    Grissom's three-part series (here, here and here) on prosperity and peril along the U.S.-Mexico border, Hu on the Division of Workers' Compensation audit report, Stiles puts more than 3,000 personal disclosure forms filed by politicians, candidates and state officials online, M. Smith on attempts to curb the practice of barratry (better known as ambulance chasing), Ramsey interviews the chair of the Texas Libertarian Party, Hamilton on attempts to improve the success rates of community colleges, Galbraith on whether electric deregulation has helped or hurt Texans, Aguilar talks to a chronicler of the bloody narco-wars and Ramshaw on doctors who most often prescribe antipsychotic drugs to the state's neediest patients: The best of our best from July 12 to 16, 2010. Full Story 

    The best of our best from the week of July 12th.

  • 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 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Justyna Furmanczyk

  • High Prescribers

    By Emily Ramshaw

    A Houston psychiatrist who uses clinically controversial brain scans to diagnose everything from anxiety to marital discord. A Plano music therapist who believes his Peruvian pan flute tunes cure mental illness. And a Beaumont child psychologist reprimanded for continuing to prescribe to a proven drug abuser. These physicians have written more prescriptions for potent antipsychotic drugs to the state’s neediest patients than any other doctors in Texas. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Graphic by Jacob Villanueva

  • TribBlog: Broke and Broken

    By Elizabeth Titus

    Rural health advocates asked state lawmakers Wednesday to help pay for improvements to rural hospitals in up to 42 Texas counties. Without state help, they said, the rural hospitals have no hope of doing necessary renovations to catch up to federal and state hospital codes. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Jacob Villanueva

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Ross Ramsey

    Grissom, Hamilton, and Philpott on the Texas Democratic Party's state convention, the two-step, the forecast, and the ticket; Galbraith on the political and environmental battle between state and federal environmental regulators, and on a new age of nukes in Texas; Burnson on signs of the times in San Antonio; Ramshaw on hackers breaking into the state's confidential cancer database; Aguilar's interview with Katherine Glass, the Libertarian Party's nominee for governor; Acosta on efforts to stop 'Murderabilia' items that sell because of the association with killers; Ramshaw and the Houston Chronicle's Terri Langford on the criminal arrest records of workers in state-funded foster care centers; Hu on accusations that state Sunset examiners missed problems with workers compensation regulators because they didn't ask the right questions of the right people; Ramsey and Stiles on the rush to rake in campaign cash, and on political races that could be won or lost because of voter attraction to Libertarian candidates; and Aguilar's fresh take on South Texas' reputation for corruption. The best of our best from June 28 to July 3, 2010. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Todd Wiseman

  • TribBlog: Lawmakers to DFPS: Tell Us About Abuse

    By Emily Ramshaw

    The commissioner of the agency that oversees Texas foster children told lawmakers she regrets not telling them about a 2008 “fight club” involving developmentally disabled girls. She said the agency is moving quickly to address abuse and neglect inside Daystar Residential Inc. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Nick de la Torre / The Houston Chronicle

  • Con Jobs

    By Emily Ramshaw, The Texas Tribune, and Terri Langford, Houston Chronicle

    Criminal records don't always exclude job applicants from working with the most vulnerable foster care children, according to a Texas Tribune/Houston Chronicle investigation. At Daystar Residential Inc., where workers forced developmentally disabled girls to fight each other, dozens made it through the state's background check process in the last three years despite records of arrests. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Graphic by Jacob Villanueva

  • Down in the Valley

    By Julián Aguilar

    Last week State Rep. Tara Rios Ybarra, D-South Padre Island, was indicted on charges she engaged in Medicaid fraud — the second House member from South Texas to be indicted in less than a year. But their colleagues insist that such corruption isn't a regional thing, no matter what the stereotype suggests. Full Story 

    Tara Rios-Ybarra

  • Health Hacker?

    By Emily Ramshaw

    The FBI is investigating whether a hacker broke into the state’s confidential cancer database, possibly accessing personal information and medical records. Health and Human Services Commissioner Tom Suehs says state health officials notified his office in early May that a hacker was holding the Texas Cancer Registry hostage and demanding a ransom. Suehs says preliminary investigation results from the FBI indicate the threat may be a hoax but that if private records were compromised, health officials will quickly notify the people listed in the registry. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Jacob Villanueva

  • Signs of the Times

    By Forrest Burnson

    A quiet ideological battle is being waged yard to yard in affluent neighborhoods of San Antonio. It began with one side declaring "No socialism" in white letters on a black background. Some didn't like that message, so they changed it to read "No selfishness." Full Story 

    June 2010. The signs all over the Alamo Heights neighborhood.
    Credit: Forrest Burnson

  • Pulling the Democrats' Dance Card

    By Ross Ramsey

    Two years after Democrats’ complicated presidential primary process — the “Texas Two-Step” — had voters across the state frustrated and outraged, party officials will continue to wrangle this weekend over the fairness of its election system. Full Story