Texas Legislators Move to Expand HIV Screenings
from The Houston Chronicle, Feb. 17, 2009
Legislators from two Texas cities with the highest incidence of HIV in the state took steps Tuesday to make screenings for the virus a part of routine doctor visits. Democratic Sen. Rodney Ellis, of Houston, and Rep. Yvonne Davis, of Dallas, filed legislation requiring doctors to offer the screenings during regular checkups. Patients would then have the choice to opt out of the screening. The legislation would put Texas in line with 2006 recommendations by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calling for routine, voluntary HIV screenings for patients as young as 13. More

Kelsey-Seybold Group Opts Out of Medicare Coverage
from The Houston Chronicle, Feb. 17, 2009
The Houston area’s largest private physician group will no longer treat patients who pay for services through traditional Medicare. Kelsey-Seybold Clinic stopped accepting the government health insurance program for older Americans on Jan. 1 and asked patients to switch to one of three private Medicare Advantage plans or find new doctors elsewhere. Dr. Spencer Berthelsen, Kelsey-Seybold chairman, said the clinic opted out of traditional Medicare because reimbursements have fallen below the cost of providing care. More

Advocates Optimistic About Texas Smoking Ban
from The Dallas Morning News, Feb. 17, 2009
It's not the prospect of a statewide smoking ban that worries Charles Nolet, who owns two cigarette-friendly Denton bars. It's the fear that it won't be strong enough. "If it's strict, and everybody has to comply with it hard core, we'll all get by," Nolet said. "If there are gray areas where some of our competitors can still smoke, that's what will kill us." Nolet's unease represents progress for supporters of a statewide smoking ban, who have long found bar and restaurant owners as vehemently opposed as tobacco companies. More

Health Care Politics: Threading the Needle
from The Dallas Morning News, Feb. 16, 2009
Texas is looking at a pot of new federal health care dollars -- between $5 billion and $6 billion -- that's as big as the stimulus bill's bonanza for public schools. The General Accounting Office estimates Texas should receive $5.45 billion in new Medicaid money from the stimulus package over the next couple of years. And Monday, state social services czar Albert Hawkins told House budget writers that there's nearly $400 million more a year of federal matching money available for the Texas Children's Health Insurance Program. A CHIP reauthorization bill passed by Congress and recently signed by President Obama provides the additional money, if Texas chooses to tap it. More

‘Balance Billing’ Can Leave Patients Stuck With Unexpected Medical Bills
from The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Feb. 15, 2009
Phil Heidelberger did what savvy patients are supposed to do. When he needed a cardiac procedure in 2007, the semi-retired Fort Worth salesman confirmed ahead of time that his doctor and the hospital belonged to his health insurer’s network. That way, he’d be sure to avoid the extra expense that comes with treatment at outside facilities. Here’s what Heidelberger didn’t know until it was too late: The anesthesiologist who assisted on his case didn’t have a contract with the health plan. It’s a distinction that could cost him a whopping $1,005. More

Austin’s Center Officials Sharply Criticized on Autism
from The Austin American-Statesman, Feb. 13, 2009
A special master's decision sharply criticized Austin's Andrew Wakefield for his work in suggesting a link between autism and a common measles vaccine, and lambasted Dr. Arthur Krigsman, Wakefield's colleague at the Thoughtful House Center for Children on Bee Cave Road. The two men figured prominently in a case in which thousands of parents sought compensation from the federal government claiming the vaccine had caused their children's autism. Though Wakefield's theories were, in essence, on trial, only Krigsman testified. More

Dallas Amputee Wins $17.7 Million Verdict: Texas Law Reduces it More Than Half
from The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Feb.18, 2009
A Dallas jury has awarded $17.7 million to a hospital patient who lost his limbs after developing a severe infection — but the man can only collect less than half of that money under Texas’ medical malpractice law. The jury’s award: $6.72 million in economic damages, including money for Fritzgerald’s ongoing medical care; and $11 million for his pain and suffering. That $11 million instantly plunged to $250,000, because of a state law that has restricted so-called noneconomic damages to that amount since 2003. Fritzgerald’s case marked one of the few instances in which the law has come into play. More

U.S. to Compare Medical Treatments
from The New York Times, Feb. 15, 2009
The $787 billion economic stimulus bill approved by Congress will, for the first time, provide substantial amounts of money for the federal government to compare the effectiveness of different treatments for the same illness. Under the legislation, researchers will receive $1.1 billion to compare drugs, medical devices, surgery and other ways of treating specific conditions. The bill creates a council of up to 15 federal employees to coordinate the research and to advise President Obama and Congress on how to spend the money. More

Some Texas Doctors Fight Planned Corpus Christi Coke-Fired Power Plant
from Environment News Service, Feb. 17, 2009
Coastal Bend medical doctors, health care professionals, and others from all walks of life are seeking a contested case hearing as a part of their fight against the Las Brisas coke-fired power plant proposed for the Gulf coast port city of Corpus Christi. In 2007, the Texas Medical Association passed a resolution stating their concerns about mercury emissions into the environment and another resolution calling for a moratorium on old technology coal plants and emissions from all existing and any future coal plants. More