The latest Health And Human Services Commission news from The Texas Tribune.
While Texas already has some of the strictest eligibility requirements in the country for welfare benefit applicants, some lawmakers plan to try again next year to add required drug screenings or testing to the process. Full Story
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The center had pledged in August to take legal action if the new fetal remains rules were adopted. Full Story
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The rules will prohibit hospitals, abortion clinics and other health care facilities from disposing of fetal remains in sanitary landfills, allowing only cremation or burial. Full Story
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Health workers and first responders hoped Texas might be awarded $1 million to buy an anti-overdose drug, but state officials never submitted the grant application. Full Story
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Taking in grandchildren can keep them out of the state's foster care system, but Texas often doesn't help grandparents who step up to do it. Full Story
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Gov. Greg Abbott and other state officials are largely silent on why they haven't fulfilled their vow to cut off funds to women's health programs offered to poor Texas women by Planned Parenthood. Full Story
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The state government has been stable for long enough that those in charge should get tagged with what that government is doing wrong. Full Story
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The state health commission has begun advertising for someone to fill a new executive job overseeing “women’s education services” — including abstinence education and counseling on alternatives to abortion. The position could pay six figures. Full Story
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A significant cut to the amount of money Texas pays therapists who treat children with disabilities was finally cleared to take effect when the Texas Supreme Court on Friday declined to hear a lawsuit over the budget cut's legality. Full Story
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Despite intense outcry from the medical community and reproductive rights advocates, Texas isn't budging on a proposed rule to require the cremation or burial of fetal remains. Full Story
State Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, on Thursday proposed creating an "MD Anderson of the brain" on the site of the troubled Austin State Hospital. Full Story
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Cuts in the state's payments to therapy providers who see children with disabilities remain tied up in court, but Texas officials said Thursday they have made about $58 million in cuts from other parts of the health care budget. Full Story
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Comments by high-ranking Texas Republicans indicate that the state’s long-running tug-of-war with the federal government over Medicaid expansion is unlikely to change course. Full Story
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State regulators have opened the public comment period on some proposed changes they hope will improve standards at day care centers around Texas. But advocates say the agency is missing one important item: better caretaker to child ratios in day cares. Full Story
Hospitals in the Dallas-Fort Worth region were overpaid by $27 million in federal funds to provide health care for the uninsured, according to a new order from the Obama administration, which is threatening to take the money back. Full Story
Advocates for the uninsured are hoping the threat of Zika will spur Republican leaders to consider a massive expansion of subsidized health care to the low-income Texans they say are most vulnerable to the disease. Full Story
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A group led by an anti-abortion advocate received $1.6 million in state funding from a program recently created to help women find health care services paid for by the state. Full Story
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A lot can happen when you're distracted by presidential politics. The past week offered a few relatively local reminders of why politics matters. Full Story
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Texas officials announced on Wednesday they would allow Medicaid to pay for mosquito repellent for women in the hopes of preventing the Zika virus. Full Story
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Weeks after Texas health officials quietly proposed rules that would require the cremation or burial of fetal remains, Gov. Greg Abbott is raising political funds off his administration's new effort to regulate abortion providers. Full Story
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