Lawmakers will consider ways to improve the state’s preparedness for public health emergencies. Dallas County officials identified shortfalls in the system last fall when the country’s Ebola case was diagnosed.
Charles Schwertner
Posted in
Health care
Arkansas Medicaid Plan Offers Mixed Lessons
Early on, supporters of Medicaid expansion pointed to Arkansas as an example of how Texas might go about helping insure its poor. But lately, the neighbor’s grass doesn’t look quite as green.
Posted in
Energy
The Brief: Dec. 16, 2014
The Tribune’s Jim Malewitz tries to get at, in a piece also published in Politico Magazine, the root causes that spurred the town of Denton to approve a ban on fracking last month.
Posted in
Health care
Video: A Bid to Attract More Mental Health Workers
A bill filed Monday could create a financial incentive for students to become mental health care providers. Senate Bill 239 would create a loan reimbursement program for certain licensed mental health workers who assist the underserved.
Posted in
Health care
Sunset Commission Backs Bid to Consolidate State Health Agencies
With the endorsement Wednesday of the Sunset Advisory Commission, legislators are set to move forward with a consolidation of the state’s five health agencies into a single health commission with seven divisions.
Posted in
Politics
The Brief: Dec. 10, 2014
Gov. Rick Perry, in an exit interview with The Associated Press, said he didn’t plan to make a decision on a second run for the White House “until the middle of next year.”
Posted in
Health care
Feds Have New Leverage in Medicaid Showdown
Next session, lawmakers will have 29 billion reasons to reconsider Medicaid expansion. That’s how many federal dollars the Obama administration could hold hostage in exchange for some solution for 1 million uninsured Texans.
Posted inState Government
Perry Says Feds Should Screen for Ebola
Gov. Rick Perry is calling on the federal government to screen people for Ebola and set up “quarantine stations” at U.S. points of entry.
Posted in
Health care
Liveblog: Health Care at The Texas Tribune Festival
We’re liveblogging the sessions from the 2014 Texas Tribune Festival’s Health Care track. The sessions include panels on mental health, the Affordable Care Act, medical education and women’s health.
Posted in
Health care
“Three-Strikes” Proposal Spurring Debate over Nursing Home Regulation
Legislators in 2015 are poised to take up a proposal that would have the state close nursing homes that rack up high-level federal violations on three separate days over a two-year period.