Mounting Medical Bills a Factor in a Rise in Local Bankruptcies
from The Fort Worth Star Telegram, Oct. 9, 2009
 Tirra Jones finally started to hate the mailbox. Every day, it seemed, would bring a new round of medical bills, reminders of more than $200,000 in debt she couldn't pay for more than a half-dozen hospital and emergency room visits, repeated ambulance calls, surgery, radiologists, lab work, doctors and anesthesiologists. "When you get sick, what are you supposed to do?" Jones said recently. "You can't say, 'I want to keep my credit, so I'm not going to the hospital.'"
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Physician Misconduct Often Tolerated by State Medical Board, Analysis Finds
from The Dallas Morning News, Oct. 11, 2009
Seven years ago, after a scathing series of stories in The Dallas Morning News, the Texas Medical Board promised to crack down on bad doctors. Patient endangerment would be dealt with severely. And sexual misconduct, one official said, would become "intolerable." It hasn't turned out that way.
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Good Medicine for Austin
from The Austin American Statesman, Oct. 12, 2009, 2009
University of Texas System regents are expected to grant approval to a plan to expand medical education and research in Austin through a partnership involving the system, its UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and the Seton Family of Hospitals.
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Providers Nationwide Watch Medicare Experiment Here
from The San Antonio Express News, Oct. 13, 2009
In an experiment taking place here and being closely watched across the country, Medicare is studying whether it can cut the cost of expensive procedures by letting everyone - patients, doctors, hospitals - share in the savings. To do that, the federal government has given participating hospitals the green light to do something they're normally forbidden by anti-kickback laws to do - give doctors some of the money they squeeze from the system.
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Tort Reform Could Save Health Care $54 Billion, Says CBO
from Politics Daily Blog, Oct. 12, 2009
As Congress wrangles over the skyrocketing cost of health care reform, the Congressional Budget Office has determined that reforming the medical malpractice insurance system, a.k.a. "med-mal reform" or tort reform, could save $54 billion over 10 years.
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Health Care Story Ranks Texas 46th
from The Dallas Morning News, Oct. 8, 2009
Health care in Texas ranks among the worst in the nation, dragged down by large numbers of uninsured and by the nation's most porous safety net, according to a scorecard and analysis released by the health care-oriented Commonwealth Fund.
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Perry: Obama Health Care Reform Plan Would Bankrupt Texas
from The Rio Grande Guardian, Oct 8, 2009
Gov. Rick Perry says the health care reform legislation working its way through Congress would, as currently written, bankrupt Texas. Perry made his remarks at the University of Texas at Brownsville in response to a reporter's question about a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau which shows that 54.4 percent of working age people in Hidalgo County and 49.5 percent of working age people in Cameron County lack health insurance.
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Shapleigh: Perry Advising on Health Care is Like Bernie Madoff Advising on Family Savings
from The Rio Grande Guardian, Oct 13, 2009
"Rick Perry advising on health care is like Bernie Madoff advising on family savings. Now that responsible leaders are crafting responsible solutions, failed leaders like Rick Perry need to let real leaders get to work," said state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso. Shapleigh said the truth is that Texas stands to benefit more than any other state. By any measure, Texas is now "the ground zero of health care in America," he said.
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'Shockingly Wide' Health Gaps Among States
from USA Today, Oct. 7, 2009
A new "scorecard" lists "shockingly wide variations" among the states when it comes to the health of their residents, says the president of the Commonwealth Fund, which compared such factors as access to care, insurance coverage and avoidable hospital admissions. "The differences we see among the states translate to real lives and real dollars," Karen Davis said Wednesday at a news conference.
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Health Care Tug of War Puts Patients In the Middle
from The Washington Post, Oct. 9, 2009
One February morning, a courier arrived at the front desk of Bayonne Medical Center, trying to get to a patient's bedside. His mission: to deliver a letter from New Jersey's dominant health insurer warning that the patient would face a huge hospital bill if he did not leave right away.
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Opinion: Federal Unfunded Mandate Expands a Broken System
from The Tyler Morning Telegraph, Oct. 9, 2009
There is a way for Congress and the Obama administration to claim - truthfully - their health care reform plan doesn't increase the federal deficit. That's by shoving the costs onto the states, through an unfunded mandate to expand Medicaid spending at the state level. Such a move could cost Texas billions of dollars.
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Children with Flu-like Symptoms Crowd Doctors' Offices
from The Corpus Christi Caller, Oct. 8, 2009
Some pediatricians say as many as 80 percent of their patients this week have flu-like symptoms or upper respiratory infections. The Corpus Christi-Nueces County Public Health District reported the number of people treated for flu-like symptoms jumped from 400 to 800 in the past two weeks, said interim health district director Annette Rodriguez.
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Health Center Merger Studied
from The Houston Chronicle, Oct. 12, 2009
A group of experts dubbed "academic rock stars" by one observer will study the pros and cons of merging the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio with UTSA. The move, announced Monday to the UT System Board of Regents, comes after lawmakers this year approved a bill that gives a path to elite status - and the potential for millions in funding - for emerging research institutions, including UTSA.
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Cornyn Opposes Healthcare Bill in Committee Vote
from The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Oct. 13, 2009
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, voted "no" as expected on the healthcare overhaul bill in the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday, complaining about the "hyperpartisan process" and the bill's "reckless spending."
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Senate Finance Passes Health Care Bill; Snowe the Lone GOP Supporter
from The Hill, Oct 13, 2009
The Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday voted 14-9 to approve its healthcare bill, attracting the support of Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and moving Congress one step closer to passing President Barack Obama's top domestic priority. The White House hailed the Finance panel's action, noting that Congress has done more to advance healthcare reform this year than it has in decades.
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Is There a Doctor on the Line?
from The Texas Tribune via Texas Weekly, 2009
Emergency medical technicians and entry-level nurses could be cut out of the telemedicine equation under a proposal the Texas Medical Board is considering. The change would prohibit anyone but doctors, physicians' assistants and advanced practice nurses from presenting patients for care via long-distance videoconferencing – a move rural hospitals and prison doctors adamantly oppose.
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