5th Circuit Court orders federal judge removed from Texas foster care lawsuit
U.S. District Judge Janis Jack, the state’s de facto foster care czar, has been overseeing the case since 2011. Full Story
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![U.S. District Judge Janis Jack administers the U.S. oath of citizenship to more than 100 area residents representing 25 countries in 2008 aboard the USS Lexington. Jack was the first woman federal judge to serve in Texas south of San Antonio. July 5, 2008.]()
Credit: Courtesy of Todd Yates/Corpus Christi Caller-Times -
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.]()
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Maternal deaths surged in Texas in 2020, 2021
Even excluding deaths related to COVID, Texas’ maternal mortality rate spiked, reversing two years of improvement. Full Story
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![A woman gets a sonogram in an Austin clinic.]()
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Families and advocates for disabled Texans pushing for caregiver pay raise
A state Medicaid program pays caregivers of intellectually and developmentally disabled individuals living in community-based homes. Families, advocates and providers want lawmakers to increase that hourly pay. Full Story
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![Marisa Luparello, at right, gives her son Blaine his medicine before they leave for his group home, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in Manvel. (Antranik Tavitian / Houston Landing)]()
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Appeals court to weigh reimposing fines for Texas foster care failures, removing judge on case
Texas Health and Human Services could face $100,000-per-day fines for violating a judge's orders. The state wants the judge off the case. Full Story
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![A caseworker's badge hangs off her neck as she prepares to assist on a case for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) in June 2018.]()
Credit: Pu Ying Huang for The Texas Tribune -
Texas funnels millions to anti-abortion groups with little oversight
Texas leads the nation in funding for crisis pregnancy centers. But they’re riddled with waste, a ProPublica and CBS News investigation found. Full Story
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State’s move to bump federal judge from longtime foster care lawsuit caps years of battles
A federal judge has taken the Texas’ foster care system to task for 13 years. Reforms have been made. Now armed with private legal fire power, the state wants the judge off the case. Full Story
![U.S. District Judge Janis Jack administers the U.S. oath of citizenship to more than 100 area residents representing 25 countries in 2008 aboard the USS Lexington. Jack was the first woman federal judge to serve in Texas south of San Antonio. July 5, 2008.]()
Credit: Courtesy of Todd Yates/Corpus Christi Caller-Times -
Fight over trans medical care is at the core of leaked Houston health records case
A doctor says the government wants to punish him for calling attention to wrongdoing. Advocates say the families of trans kids are the ones at risk. 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 -
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
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![A Texas Health and Human Services on April 24, 2018.]()
Credit: Pu Ying Huang for The Texas Tribune -
State rejects health insurers' pleas to halt plan that will shake up coverage for 1.8 million Texans
Affected Texans who receive Medicaid coverage would be shifted to new insurers next year if the state health and human services agency sticks to its plan. It’s now up to the executive commissioner to make a final decision. Full Story
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![An empty emergency room at Goodall-Witcher Hospital in Clifton on August 3, 2021.]()
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“Grateful to be alive”: Clubhouse programs take pressure off overwhelmed Texas mental health hospitals
Thousands of people are discharged from Texas mental health hospitals yearly, and so-called step-down programs like clubhouses can help them integrate back into the community. Full Story
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![AUSTIN, TX - MAY 29: Austin Clubhouse member Jonathan Denhart poses for a portrait at Hyde Park Christian Church in Austin, Texas on May 29, 2024. Photo by Montinique Monroe for the Texas Tribune]()
Credit: Montinique Monroe for The Texas Tribune -
Texas revamps Narcan distribution following delays, unpredictable supply
Texas has tapped more than $45 million in federal funds to get the overdose-reversing drug into the hands of law enforcement, members of the public. But the program has been plagued by supply issues, delays and lack of communication. Full Story
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![Narcan nasal spray at an opioid educational training class with Callie Crow, the founder of Drew's 27 Chains, on March 31, 2022, in Caddo Mills.]()
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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.]()
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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 -
Texas passes on $450 million summer lunch program for low-income families
The USDA estimates the families of 3.8 million children could have received $120 per child to cover summer lunches if the state participated in the new $2.5 billion program launching this summer. Texas is one of 15 states opting out. Full Story
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![Siblings Stacy Hurd, 11, Angelica Hurd, 5, and Sheniya Hurd, 8, eat a free meal together at Jarvis Christian College in Hawkins, one of more than 70 sites the East Texas Food Bank sponsors in the summer.]()
Credit: Laura Skelding for The Texas Tribune -
Search the newly updated Government Salaries Explorer
The Texas Tribune’s database of Texas state employees’ compensation is updated to represent salaries as of January 1. Full Story
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![Government Salaries Explorer]()
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Nearly 1.7 million Texans lose Medicaid as state nears end of “unwinding”
Texas has booted the most people from Medicaid of any state in the country. A majority of those removed lost their health insurance coverage because of procedural reasons. Full Story
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![Dr. Rose Okoro, a nurse practitioner, who owns Daystar Family Clinic in Katy, is shown on May 12. 2014. She says she has struggled to treat a greater number of Medicaid patients because of state regulations.]()
Credit: Michael Stravato for The Texas Tribune -
“The first child is the one that pays the most”: How one family carved out Medicaid coverage for a rare treatment
Gabe Nolasco was born without a vital immune system gland. His family spent years in quarantines and advocating to state insurance so they could keep him alive. Full Story
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![Gabe Nolasco makes a spider web gesture, mimicking his favorite superhero, Spider-Man. In his left hand, he holds onto Thymie, an orange plush thymus, in the yard in front of the Ronald McDonald House at Cook's Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas on Dec. 2, 2023. Gabe Nolasco, 4, is currently recovering from a thymus transplant as treatment for his congenital athymia.]()
Credit: Julius Shieh/The Texas Tribune -
“How long can we keep this up?” Food banks are under pressure from Texas’ high level of food insecurity
Inflation, stagnant federal funding for food programs and high housing costs mean that demand at food banks still hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels. Full Story
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![Volunteers from left to right, Evelyn McMillen, Leigh Cox and Victor Surita help to package orders of groceries at El Buen Samaritano food pantry in Austin, Texas on Nov. 14, 2023.]()
Credit: Julius Shieh/The Texas Tribune