Many new moms in Texas don’t know they qualify for a year of Medicaid, doctors say
“Now that we have this coverage, what do we do to make sure women can get it?,” one health advocate said. Full Story
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![Patients wait to be seen at the People's Community Clinic in Austin, which provides state-subsidized women's health services to low-income women on July 15, 2020.]()
Credit: Callie Richmond for The Texas Tribune -
Texas school districts asked to return $16 million in federal funding for special education services
The request comes after an audit found Texas improperly billed the federal government for reimbursements related to Medicaid-eligible students. Full Story
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![Students backpacks hang off the back of their chairs in an empty classroom at Blanco Vista Elementary School in San Marcos on Monday August, 23, 2021.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for the Texas Tribune -
State agency to ask lawmakers for $300 million to fix “significant neglect” in Texas’ Medicaid enrollment system
The request, which includes hiring more staff and updating the online application system, comes as applicants must wait for months to receive approval for benefits. Full Story
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![A Texas Health and Human Services client application on April 24, 2018.]()
Credit: Pu Ying Huang for The Texas Tribune -
What could happen to Texas’ Medicaid program under Trump
State leaders have shown a decadeslong antipathy toward the health insurance program. If Trump makes severe reductions, it’s unlikely leaders would have the political will to make up any lost federal funds with state money, experts say. Full Story
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![A hospital bed]()
Credit: Maria Crane for The Texas Tribune -
Texas’ 90,000 DACA recipients can sign up for Affordable Care Act coverage — for now
Those enrolled in the federal program shielding them from deportation can enroll through Jan. 15, but a lawsuit and Trump’s anti-immigration stance threaten to eliminate eligibility. Full Story
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![Victoria Elizondo, a DACA recipient and chef-owner of Cochinita & Co., poses for a portrait at he restaurant on November 8, 2024, in Houston, Texas.]()
Credit: Danielle Villasana for The Texas Tribune -
Texas is slashing $607 million in Medicaid funding from program for students with disabilities
School officials say the state decision to cut federal money likely will hurt their ability to recruit and retain critical staff for students with disabilities. Full Story
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![Dana Altamirano reads “The Wild Robot” to fourth graders at West Avenue Elementary School in Waco, on April 5, 2024.]()
Credit: Greta Díaz González Vázquez for The Texas Tribune -
In South Texas congressional race, Monica De La Cruz and Michelle Vallejo spar over health care
The topic is playing a major role in one of Texas’ only competitive congressional races this year as the competitors debate Medicare, abortion and expanding coverage. Full Story
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![Democratic challenger Michelle Vallejo, left, and Republican U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Edinburg.]()
Credit: The Texas Tribune -
Despite warnings, Texas rushed to remove millions from Medicaid. Eligible residents lost care.
Texas officials acknowledged some errors after they stripped Medicaid coverage from more than 2 million people, most of them children. A ProPublica and Texas Tribune review of records shows that these mistakes and others were preventable. Full Story
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![Micaela Hoops with her children at their home in Sherman, Texas. Hoops’ three sons lost insurance after she misunderstood the state’s deadline and failed to submit their renewal for the first time in three years. When the North Texas mother discovered her error, she frantically reapplied, putting her children at the back of an ever-lengthening waitlist.]()
Credit: Danielle Villasana for ProPublica and the Texas Tribune -
Even as state mental health spending rises, private psychiatric hospitals struggle to stay open
Texas hasn’t increased Medicaid rates for inpatient health care at private hospitals in 16 years, falling behind other states. Full Story
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![The Nix Health behavioral health center in San Antonio closed in 2019.]()
Credit: Bonnie Arbittier/San Antonio Report -
What Texas can learn from crisis mental health care in Arizona
Texas officials look to Arizona cities when creating crisis mental health centers. Full Story
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![A view of downtown Tucson skyline against the Santa Catalina Mountains in Tucson, Arizona on Dec. 13, 2023.]()
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Cook Children’s sues Texas over potential Medicaid contract loss
For years, Cook’s Children, two other children’s hospitals have administered Medicaid health coverage plans. Canceling their contracts would put jobs and coverage at risk, they say. Full Story
![A Texas Health and Human Services client application on April 24, 2018.]()
Credit: Pu Ying Huang for The Texas Tribune -
Medicaid management system in Texas and other states is plagued by errors
Deloitte-run systems have generated incorrect notices to Medicaid beneficiaries, sent paperwork to the wrong addresses, and been frozen for hours at a time, a KFF Health News investigation has found. Full Story
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![DiJuana Davis, with daughter Treasure Woodard, at home in Nashville, Tennessee. Davis is a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit contesting the state’s Medicaid eligibility process. She and her children lost their coverage in 2019 after Tennessee launched a Deloitte-built eligibility system. William DeShazer for KFF Health News]()
Credit: William DeShazer for KFF Health News -
As disabled Texans wait for services, low caregiver wages worsen staffing shortages
Caregivers got a raise from state lawmakers last year but many still leave for other higher-paying state jobs. Full Story
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![Laura Lemkowitz assists Jose Montelongo into the Center for Health Care Services van during their weekly volunteer service with Meals on Wheels.]()
Credit: Scott Ball/San Antonio Report -
State’s premature release of bid proposal info touches off new battle over $116 billion in Medicaid contracts
The early release of documents meant a single competitor got an early look at the other bidders’ playbooks before final winners were announced. Full Story
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![Sonia Wood, a Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, treats a patient at Carousel Pediatrics in Austin, Texas on Nov. 8th, 2012.]()
Credit: Spencer Selvidge for the Texas Tribune -
Texas families could lose at-home nursing under stricter Medicaid rule
Some children who receive private duty nursing, a more continuous type of medical care in their homes, could lose their ability to live at home if an HHSC rule change goes into effect. Full Story
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![JaReen Williams adjusts an iPad for her sixteen year old daughter, Lydia, as Lydia navigates to one of her comfort shows, Charlie Brown, in preparation for her triweekly treatment by a nurse on Friday, April 12, 2024, in Katy.]()
Credit: Annie Mulligan for The Texas Tribune -
Proposed changes to state Medicaid plans could shake up health coverage for 1.8 million low-income Texans
The move, which has not been finalized, would drop three large health plans run for two decades by nonprofit children’s hospitals. Full Story
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![Texas Children’s Hospital and other buildings in the Texas Medical Center in Houston on June 26, 2020.]()
Credit: May-Ying Lam for The Texas Tribune -
Years ago, Texas hustled to get kids on state health care. Now it’s kicking them off.
Texas’ recent unwinding of Medicaid and CHIP has been criticized, dropping more than a million people eligible for the health insurance programs. Decades ago, Texas officials got kids health insurance in record time. Full Story
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![August Johansen looks through the glass door of the birthday venue while cradling a balloon on Dec. 9, 2023. He had inoperable brain cancer and depended on Medicaid to pay for full-time home nursing care from a private agency to help his mother take care of him throughout years of health crises. But in December, he became one of 810,000 children dropped from Texas’ Medicaid program in the previous five months, but was reinstated through his mother's efforts.]()
Credit: Azul Sordo for The Texas Tribune -
A woman’s fight to escape the hospital shows Medicaid’s limits for disabled Texans
Staffing shortages and mismanaged care can delay when Texans on some Medicaid programs are discharged from hospitals. This can cost the state more and take a toll on patients and caregivers. Full Story
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![Kaitlyn Cunningham sits in her wheel chair in the hallway of Cedar Park Regional Medical Center in Cedar Park, Texas on Mar. 13, 2024. Cunningham and her mom Kathy Cunningham would walk down the hallway to look outside of the hospital windows at the birds.]()
Credit: Maria Crane for The Texas Tribune -
Federal complaint faults Texas Medicaid software glitches for removal errors
Health care advocates have asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Deloitte software errors they say disenrolled qualified Medicaid participants. Full Story
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![A general view of the Deloitte Australia building in Parramatta, Sydney, Thursday on Aug. 10, 2023.]()
Credit: AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts via REUTERS -
Under Ken Paxton, Texas’ civil Medicaid fraud unit is falling apart
After the chief of the attorney general’s Civil Medicaid Fraud Division was forced out last year, two-thirds of attorneys have quit the unit, leaving it at its smallest size since Paxton took office. Full Story
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![Nearly two-thirds of the lawyers for Texas’ Civil Medicaid Fraud Division have quit under Attorney General Ken Paxton, which former staffers say will leave the elite unit less equipped to weed out fraud and abuse in the Medicaid system.]()
Credit: Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune