The latest health care news from The Texas Tribune.
Texas medical schools feel like the scorned children of the state’s education budget. Lost amid the pleas of parents to restore funding for public education, and the demands of college students to preserve financial aid, the state’s health care institutions say few seem to understand the drastic situation they face. Full Story
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If the House doesn't pass legislation that adds $2.6 billion to state revenue with a mix of delayed payments, increased penalties, government efficiencies and the like, the state budget won't balance and a special session will probably be required, House and Senate leaders said today. Full Story
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House and Senate negotiators have reached agreement on everything in the state budget except for public and higher education and a section of general provisions that can be used later to make sure the numbers in the budget balance. Full Story
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A contentious measure that would allow Texas counties to consider the income of a legal immigrant’s sponsor when determining if the immigrant is eligible for indigent health care passed the state House today. Full Story
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Don't stub out the statewide smoking ban bill yet. The bill's House and Senate authors say they've got a vehicle for the measure to be passed, and they're still hopeful Texas will be the first southern state to outlaw the habit in restaurants, bars and most public places. Full Story
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The ideas on what to do with the state budget are getting weirder and weirder. Full Story
The emails and memos written by administrators and doctors at Victoria's Citizens Medical Center about three of their colleagues of Indian descent are, at best, derogatory. At worst, they could be seen as racist — and they're the subject of a sweeping discrimination suit. Full Story
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Facing an estimated 28 percent reduction in funds to care for medically fragile children, in-home nursing companies say they could be forced to shut their doors, or else dramatically slash what they pay nurses. Full Story
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Texas' Women's Health Program may be circling the drain. Sen. Bob Deuell says he doesn’t have the votes in the Senate to bring up a bill to renew the family planning and preventative care program — and Rep. Garnet Coleman says his House bill is stuck. Full Story
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In their latest effort to remind Washington how much they hate federal health reform, House lawmakers gave early approval tonight to one measure to hold "Obamacare" at bay and deflected, at least temporarily, another that is directed at the individual mandate for health insurance. Full Story
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Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards, a native Texan and daughter of former Gov. Ann Richards, visited the Capitol on Wednesday to defend funding for womens' health services. Full Story
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House lawmakers gave an early OK tonight to a measure that would stop health insurance plans from requiring dentists to agree to discounted fees for services not covered by the policy. The bill has already passed the Senate. Full Story
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Texas hospitals have a pointed message for the lawmakers hashing out the final details of the 2012-13 budget: The proposed cuts hit them too hard. Full Story
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Dr. John Mendelsohn, the outgoing president of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, discusses the significance of budget cuts for his institutions, the value of public research and his advice for his successor. Full Story
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At a Capitol press conference this morning, Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and daughter of the late Texas Gov. Ann Richards, said her organization is under siege by GOP lawmakers. Full Story
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Advocates for the elderly and disabled are fighting a proposal in the Legislature that they say would reduce the wages of the personal care attendants who provide services through the Medicaid Community-Based Alternatives waiver program. Full Story
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Across the nation, U.S. House Republicans are getting an earful from their constituents about a GOP budget proposal to overhaul federal Medicare. But that message hasn’t made its way to Texas, where state lawmakers are still angling to take control of the program. Full Story
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House lawmakers have given an early okay to Rep. Lois Kolkhorst’s bill to ask Washington for a block grant to run Medicaid — the joint state-federal health care program for children, the disabled and the very poor — as Texas sees fit. Full Story
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It’s funny that you can win four statewide elections and still have people think you’re a goofball, in over your head. But maybe Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst’s fumbles leading to the Texas Senate’s budget vote give the lie to that. Maybe he’s goofy like a fox. Full Story
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The real rule of the Texas Legislature is that there are no rules when the rules get in the way. If the Senate needs to pass a budget and can't get a two-thirds vote to do so, and if there's a way to squint at the rules and do it with a simple majority, then that's what they'll do. Full Story