The Texas Health and Human Services Commission has released its best bets for how to meet the 5 percent budget reduction requested by Gov. Rick Perry and other state leaders.
Health care
In-depth reporting on public health, healthcare policy, hospitals, and wellness issues shaping communities across Texas, from The Texas Tribune.
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Health care
This Might Hurt: A Dose of Politics
Immunization advocates want to expand our vaccination database, but the well-educated, middle-class parents who oppose them are organized and driven — and could force lawmakers to take sides in the tussle between personal freedom and public health.
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Economy
The Last Time Around
How will lawmakers deal with a budget shortfall of at least $11 billion — and maybe several billion more — in the next legislative session? In all likelihood, by doing what they did in 2003, when things were almost this bad.
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Demographics
Democratic Gubernatorial Debate: Liveblog, Video, Audio
In their first and probably only televised debate, Bill White sounded experienced, as you’d expect of a three-term mayor of Houston, while wealthy hair care magnate Farouk Shami was more passionate, more animated, and much more prone to political mistakes.
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Health care
This Might Hurt
Advocates for vaccination records say a complete registry of shots would help the state navigate major health crises. Opponents say it would jeopardize patient privacy. Lawmakers like the potential cost savings, but they still aren’t sure where they stand.
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Criminal Justice
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
The death penalty and DNA testing in a 16-year-old triple murder in the Texas Panhandle. The second debate between the three Republican candidates for governor. Charter schools are having a hard time hanging on to the employees that matter the most: Teachers. The possibilities and perils of a switch to electronic medical records. A rundown of top races. Who’s giving to candidates, and how much? Social networks and politicians. Ballots: The slow reveal. And a new and highly requested feature makes its debut. The best of our best from January 23 to 29, 2010.
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Health care
Paperless Medicine: Training the eWorkforce
If doctors in Texas are going to start using electronic medical records, somebody has to teach them how to do it. The state’s universities are gearing up to teach the teachers.
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Health care
Paperless Medicine?
Three challenges stand between Texas and the era of electronic medical records: convincing doctors to use them, figuing out how to safely share and protect them and finding a way to pay for them.
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Health care
Barack and a Hard Place
Two very different Texans in the U.S. House of Representatives — Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, and John Carter, R-Round Rock — respond to the president’s State of the Union address.
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Health care
The Remedy
Should Congress salvage health care reform? How? Is it possible? Democrats in the Texas delegation sound off.