The latest health care news from The Texas Tribune.
Benjamin Ligums was born with a rare degenerative brain disease that left him immobile, non-verbal and legally blind. His family has found a second home at Baylor's Transition Medicine Clinic, which specializes in treating profoundly disabled young adults. Full Story
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When kids with disabilities transfer from children’s Medicaid to the adult program, they lose services, health care and medical expertise. A few committed doctors and social workers are stepping in to ease the transition. Full Story
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The Texas Departments of Family and Protective Services and State Health Services are launching a "Room to Breathe" campaign to educate parents about the dangers of co-sleeping, a controversial subject that they appear to be approaching with caution. Full Story
First Lady Anita Perry is speaking out against new breast cancer screening recommendations made by a federal task force last month. Full Story
Pending food-stamp applications have soared in Texas — from about 38,000 a year ago to more than 65,000 in October. Two-thirds of those people had waited longer than the federally mandated 30 days, and nearly half had waited more than 60 days. Full Story
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If you're checking off the boxes for gubernatorial candidates, Thursday belonged to Gov. Rick Perry, who filed for reelection before noon on the first day he was allowed to do so. Full Story
It was a political week, with a full-court press from our staff on Bill White's switch to the governor's race and all of the fallout; the moves during the first week of filing for political races; Philpott's look at Republicans challenging Republicans; Hu's latest in the popular Stump Interrupted series; Ramshaw on emergency rooms, family doctors, and child protection; Stiles and Grissom mapping payday lending locations juxtaposed with family income data; Rapoport on the state budget and education; Thevenot on KBH's plans for schools; and Hamilton on the power (or not) of political endorsements. The best of the best from November 28 to December 4, 2009. Full Story
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A shortage of a particular sort of medical care could have a far-reaching effect on the state’s economy — in a very unexpected way. Full Story
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Representatives from medical schools and the Seton hospital network were in Austin this week to talk about increasing education opportunities in Texas. The meeting with civic and business leaders focused on expanding graduate school capacity — with the hope it could increase healthcare access in Central Texas. But a shortage of medical care could have a far reaching effect on the state’s economy — in a very unexpected way. Ben Philpott is reporting for KUT News and the Texas Tribune. Full Story
State health officials are considering lifting a requirement that Texas emergency rooms have a physician on-site at all times — as long as one can get there within 30 minutes. Full Story
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Should Texas medical schools be responsible for relieving the state’s primary care shortage? Advocates for family physicians think so. They want state lawmakers to reward medical schools that groom young doctors for family medicine — and penalize those that don’t. Full Story
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Marjan Bolouri, a Dallas native and Baylor College of Medicine graduate, decided to do her residency in radiology at UC-San Francisco. In an interview on Texas' primary care shortage, she discusses whether she ever considered family medicine — or will return to practice in Texas. Full Story
Removals of Texas children from abusive homes have reached their highest point since the 2008 polygamist sect raid, when hundreds were taken into custody in a single day. Full Story
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Balancing the next state budget may be more a political exercise than a technical one. Full Story
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Things are picking up. Full Story
Multi-part stories from Ramshaw and Grissom and Stiles on mental health services for detained immigrants and on payday lenders who provide exorbitantly priced credit to people with nowhere else to turn... Twitter, word clouds and the race for governor — a Stiles joint... Farouk Shami is in and Hu was there to watch... Philpott went to Bastrop for a gather of Republican governors... Rapoport finds a State Board of Education that's trying to control itself... and we have the skinny on legislative races that are likely to be competitive (only about 5 percent of the races on the ballot). It's the best of The Texas Tribune from November 14 to 20, 2009. Full Story
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As lawmakers in D.C. hammer out a health care reform bill, physician-owned specialty hospitals — a quarter of which are in Texas — face an uncertain fate. Full Story
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Texas Institute for Surgery President Debbie Hay and Dan Waldmann, Tenet Healthcare's vice president for government relations, offer competing views on proposed restrictions on physician-owned specialty hospitals. Full Story
Speaker Joe Straus has given committees their assignments for the next year. Full Story
Andre Osborne was so over-medicated in the Willacy Immigration Detention Center that he fell off of the top bunk of his bed, badly injuring his face and eyes. Full Story