The latest Health And Human Services Commission news from The Texas Tribune.
If the state's health agencies have been willing — until found out — to let their own employees work in squalor, should the rest of us be asking more questions about how they're watching out for us? Full Story
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The Texas Tribune obtained a recording of a town hall meeting with Texas Department of State Health Services Commissioner John Hellerstedt and state workers nearly two weeks after they were relocated from the Austin State Hospital 636 building where a mold infestation had invaded their workspace. Full Story
Even after the Trump administration said it would reunify families separated under the now-paused “zero tolerance” policy, new data shows the number of children held in privately run shelters in Texas has continued to grow. Full Story
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Texas Department of State Health Services employees are being relocated from the Austin State Hospital 636 building where a mold infestation has invaded their desks, chairs, carpeting and keyboard hand rests. The news comes one day after The Texas Tribune reported the mold incursion. Full Story
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Workers have found mold infiltrating their desks, chairs and keyboard hand rests in the Austin State Hospital 636 building. The state has spent nearly $16,000 fighting the mold so far. Full Story
The new audit is yet another scandal at an agency plagued by contracting woes. Six of the commission's leaders have left in the last several months. Full Story
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The law at the center of the case is Senate Bill 8, passed in 2017, which requires the burial or cremation of fetal remains. Full Story
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Following the newspaper's investigation into failings and cutbacks in the state's managed care program, three Texas House committees will meet this month to discuss ways to improve the program. Full Story
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Anti-abortion advocates and state leaders, meanwhile, hope the rule will help the state power the right to distribute federal family planning dollars. Full Story
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Smith, executive commissioner for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, will step down at the end of May after weeks of intense scrutiny over how the commission handles contracts. Full Story
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Despite rising numbers, it's still not known whether the number of women accessing such services has returned to the levels that preceded massive budget cuts during the 2011 legislative session. Full Story
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The Texas Health and Human Services Commission's Office of the Inspector General is investigating how a former agency employee was mailed a box full of private client information. Full Story
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The State Auditor’s Office released a 30-page report on Monday showing the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and the Department of State Health Services bungled a contract with Genesis Systems Inc. Full Story
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Texas Health and Human Services executive commissioner Charles Smith said during a speech Thursday that his agency is working to improve how it handles contracts. Full Story
Texas House Speaker Joe Straus said that the House Appropriations Committee or the General Investigating and Ethics Committee should look into the Health and Human Services Commission’s practices for contract oversight. Full Story
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Texas Health and Human Services officials announced Monday that they are receiving $47.7 million to begin needed construction for existing state hospitals, some of which are more than a century old. Full Story
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Texas now has enough federal money to keep alive a health insurance program for more than 400,000 uninsured kids and pregnant women through the end of March, a state official said Friday. Full Story
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Five months after the death of a severely disabled woman in a state facility, three employees have been indicted on felony murder charges. Full Story
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Between courts and scandals, football and storms, rats of the literal and figurative varieties, state leaders have lately been forced to react to outside events instead of using their offices to set their own agendas. Full Story
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Texas’ rolls of cash assistance recipients under its TANF program have steadily shrunk over the last two decades. Some experts say the bureaucracy guarding the state’s safety net makes it difficult to access those benefits, even for Texans who fit the requirements. Full Story
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