The latest health care news from The Texas Tribune.
Dr. Thomas Royer, president and CEO of the Christus Health System, says that if an error occurs at the hospital, the patient should be financially reimbursed — but not with limitless settlements. He has blogged a response to Sunday's Texas Tribune/New York Times article on the effects of tort reform on the safety of Texas emergency rooms. Full Story
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A class-action suit being filed in U.S. district court today alleges that thousands of Texans with severe mental and physical disabilities are confined in nursing homes with no access to rehabilitative care. Full Story
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The prevailing theory among Republicans, at least publicly, is that their House herd of 101 will always move together as one, and there will be peace and harmony in the land and all that. Full Story
The tort reform state lawmakers passed in 2003 made it more difficult for patients to win damages in any health care setting, but none more so than emergency rooms, where plaintiffs must prove doctors acted with "willful and wanton" negligence. Tort reform advocates say the law is needed to protect ER doctors operating in volatile environments. But medical malpractice attorneys argue the threshold is nearly impossible to cross. “You’d have to be a Nazi death camp guard to meet this standard,” says one. Full Story
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Ramsey on what a GOP supermajority means, Ramshaw on a crime victim not eligible for crime victims' compensation, M. Smith on grave matters and state regulation, Hamilton on the college pipeline at San Antonio's Jefferson High, Hu on a senator's anticlimactic return, Grissom on the coming closure of juvenile lockups, Aguilar on the return of residents to their drug-war-torn Mexican town, Galbraith on next session's energy agenda, Philpott on the legal fight over federal health care reform and Stiles on the travel expenses of House members: The best of our best from Dec. 13 to 17, 2010. Full Story
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A federal court's ruling on Monday declaring parts of federal health care reform unconstitutional elicited plenty of reaction in Texas, which is part of a separate attempt to repeal the new law. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports. Full Story
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New Yorker writer Atul Gawande put McAllen's medical providers on the defensive in a 2009 article, claiming the region's health care was among the most expensive in the U.S. In a new blog post, Gawande seems to backtrack — at least in part. Full Story
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A Virginia federal district court judge's ruling today that the individual mandate portion of the Obama health care law is unconstitutional is a "huge victory" for Texas, Attorney General Greg Abbott said in a phone interview. Full Story
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That steady drip, drip, drip in the biennial Scare the Speaker thing has been plugged for the moment. Scratching around for other amusements, we came upon a congressional map for Texas showing who's got too few and too many people in their congressional districts. Full Story
Galbraith on wood chips and green energy, Aguilar on why conservatives might get the appeal of medical marijuana, Philpott on an effort to uncloak the hidden costs of government, Ramshaw and Galewitz of Kaiser Health News on federal plans to send less money to Texas for Medicaid, Aaronson visualizes who's currently covered by Medicaid and how the billions are spent, E. Smith's interview on higher ed and the "speaker drama" with Dan Branch, Hamilton on the costs of a losing football season, Grissom on Hispanic farmers' reaction to a federal settlement in a widespread discrimination case, Hu on what's ahead for Democratic legislators after an electoral drubbing, Chang on the rise of hepatitis B among Asian-Americans and M. Smith on the cuts likely for Texas classrooms in the wake of a record budget shortfall: The best of our best from Dec. 6 to 10, 2010. Full Story
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One in 10 Asian-Americans has hepatitis B, a rate that is 20 times higher than the rest of the population — and is surely pronounced in Houston, which has the fourth-largest Asian population of any U.S. metropolitan area. But state public health officials struggle to get funding for vaccinations and outreach. Full Story
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Already facing a record budget shortfall, Texas has received more bad news: The portion of state Medicaid costs paid by the federal government is about to drop. Texas’ Federal Medical Assistance Percentage, a mathematical formula linked to a state's per-capita personal income, will fall more than 2 percentage points in late 2011, equivalent to a $1.2 billion hit. Only two states — Louisiana and North Dakota — will face a bigger percentage drop. And that’s after federal stimulus funds that have been artificially enhancing this match dry up in the spring, another blow to cash-strapped state Medicaid programs in Texas and across the nation. Full Story
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Maybe Dan Branch is right. Asked whether there's a race for speaker, he called it more of a "Speaker Drama" and said Joe Straus (to whom he's pledged) appears to have the thing locked up. Full Story
M. Smith and Butrymowicz of the Hechinger Institute on charter schools and public schools making nice in the Valley, Ramsey's interview with House Speaker candidate Ken Paxton and column on the coming budget carnage, Hu on the Legislature's disappearing white Democratic women, Grissom on the sheriff who busted Willie Nelson, Hamilton talks higher ed accountability with the chair of the Governor's Business Council, Aguilar on the arrest of a cartel kingpin, Ramshaw on the explosive growth in the number of adult Texans with diabetes, Philpott on state incentive funding under fire and Galbraith on the greening of Houston: The best of our best from November 29 to December 3, 2010. Full Story
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Texas cannot walk away from Medicaid, and Gov. Rick Perry agrees, Health and Human Services Commissioner Tom Suehs said this afternoon, hours after releasing the agency’s long-awaited report on the feasibility of dropping out of the federal matching program. Full Story
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The effects of Texas dropping out of the federal Medicaid program would be sweeping and to some populations devastating. But that doesn’t mean the current system is workable for Texas, according to a long-awaited report released today by the state’s Health and Human Services Commission. Full Story
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The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons may continue its lawsuit against the Texas Medical Board, despite a lower court's ruling, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decided today. Full Story
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Warren Jeffs has made it to Texas. The embattled leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints — the polygamous Mormon breakaway sect whose Eldorado ranch was raided by child welfare officials in 2008 — will stand trial in San Angelo for allegedly sexually assaulting a child. Full Story
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The number of adult Texans with diabetes is expected to quadruple over the next three decades, a massive spike that demographers and health care experts attribute to the state’s aging population and obesity epidemic. Full Story
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Ask House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, and he'll tell you: The budget he and his fellow finance types will put forward in a few weeks confirms fears that carnage is looming. "We're making huge cuts," he told a Tea Party group last week. Full Story
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