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The Department of Health and Human Services has approved one waiver expanding Texas' Medicaid managed care program, but has rejected another that bars certain providers, namely Planned Parenthood, from a family planning program.
Republican presidential candidates are often careful to not reveal during primaries how they would change health care in America, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry is no exception. But examining Perry's legislative record gives a glimpse into just what he'd change if elected.
State health officials, searching for solutions to Texas' budget shortfall, are eying neonatal intensive care units, which they fear are being overbuilt and overused by hospitals eager to profit from the high-cost care.
The Lone Star State isn't seeking to opt out of Medicaid anymore, but it's joining other states in pressing Washington for more flexibility in running the program.
Already facing a record budget shortfall, Texas has received more bad news: The portion of state Medicaid costs paid by the federal government is about to drop.
For years, the state paid private providers who care for people with disabilities to handle their clients' case management. But an 11th-hour change inserted into the budget last session stripped them of that responsibility, giving it instead to quasi-governmental Mental Retardation Authorities - and potentially creating a conflict of interest.
Faced with widening deficits, some conservative legislators in Texas and other states explore the "nuclear option" - quitting the state-federal health program for the poor.
The Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services' baseline budget request eliminates financing for some disabled people who are waiting to receive services in private homes, group homes or other community settings.
As a federal judge considers the constitutionality of Texas' 2003 medical malpractice reform - and Gov. Rick Perry campaigns for more lawsuit restrictions - the state Supreme Court has ruled that hospital injuries seemingly unrelated to doctor error can fall under Texas' stringent medical malpractice caps. Some legal observers say the decision is a perversion of legislative intent, but tort reform advocates contend the high court simply closed a huge loophole in liability reforms.
Texas' 13 state-supported living centers have been under intense monitoring since last year, when lawmakers agreed to a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department due to widespread abuse and neglect.
The biggest losers in federal health care reform - the country's physician-owned specialty hospitals - are on pins and needles. With a ban on new facilities, expansion plans quashed and doctor ownership curtailed, 70 such hospitals in Texas are plotting their next move.
Over the last five years, Texas physicians wrote Medicaid patients nearly 3.4 million prescriptions for antipsychotics.
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