Measure to limit lawsuits advances in the Legislature
Forth Worth Star-Telegram
A bill limiting frivolous lawsuits — a top priority of Gov. Rick Perry — was among a slew of measures moving closer to becoming state law Tuesday as the Legislature ground through more than 100 bills. Other bills moving forward are intended to reduce healthcare costs and toughen penalties for cockfighting.More

Family practice residencies take a big budget hit
Texas Tribune, May 23, 2011
The residency programs that train Texas family physicians will take a big hit under the education budget agreement lawmakers unveiled. In addition to across-the-board cuts to formula funding, special programs to attract family practice residents saw even bigger trims.More

Governor signs sonogram requirement for abortion
Houston Chronicle, May 24, 2011
Flanked by anti-abortion activists, Gov. Rick Perry on Tuesday celebrated passage of a law that requires doctors to conduct a sonogram before performing an abortion. Perry said the measure will save "countless lives" by discouraging women from getting an abortion. The Texas Medical Association said lawmakers should not interfere with the doctor-patient relationship. More

Opinion: The GOP's Medicare headache
The Washington Post, May 23, 2011
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the architect of his party's radical plan to turn Medicare into a voucher program, gave a lesson Sunday in stating the obvious: "I don't consult polls to tell me what my principles are or what our policies should be." Republicans with less disdain for public opinion might want to check out the height of the cliff from which Ryan would have them leap.More

Texas end-of-life bills appear dead
Texas Tribune, May 23, 2011
For the third session in a row, legislation covering end-of-life care in Texas appears, well, dead. Rep. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, confirmed that none of the standalone "treat to transfer" bills to prevent hospitals from withdrawing treatment for dying patients have a shot. But there are always amendments, he said.More

New residency program comes to Central Texas
YNN Austin, May 24, 2011
A new medical residency program is coming to town thanks to a $2 million grant from Emergency Service Partners. The facility is the first of its kind for Central Texas. Doctors at University Medical Center Brackenridge said starting an emergency room residency program will change the way Seton's ERs operate. "I think it'll raise our game," Seton Emergency Medicine Physician Todd Berger said.More

Commentary: The doctor won't see you now
Houston Chronicle, May 22, 2011
Columnist Patricia Kilday Hart writes, "I grew up a few miles from the world-renowned Texas Medical Center, which probably explains why I have to fight complacency about the availability of first-class medical care in Texas. In my life experience, getting an appointment with a competent doctor has been as easy as picking up the telephone. But the bubble I inhabit is not the norm now for many Texans, and it will soon burst for all of us. Texas has a deficit of physicians that is being exacerbated by our political leaders in Austin."More

Family planning programs face steep cuts, elimination
Texas Tribune, May 23, 2011
The state's family planning budget is getting increasingly thin. Senate Finance Committee Chair Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, said Monday afternoon that budget negotiators will likely adopt a 2012-13 family planning budget that is "pretty close" to the House's proposal — $37 million for low-income women under the Department of State Health Services — compared to the $100 million proposed by the Senate. Meanwhile, Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville, and Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, agree that the Medicaid Women's Health Program, operated under the Health and Human Services Commission with a 9 to 1 federal match, is likely dead.More

Potential savings from a state smoking ban may keep measure alive
The Associated Press via Austin American-Statesman, May 23, 2011
After years of losing efforts to ban smoking in Texas public places, supporters might have found their winning move. In a legislative session dominated by searing debates over a strained state budget, a provision banning smoking in most bars and restaurants has been tucked neatly into a crucial spending bill. Previous sessions have seen proposed bans beaten down by arguments favoring the rights of business owners and smokers not to have the government meddling in their affairs.More

Texas House approves health collaboratives
The Associated Press via WTAW-AM, May 25, 2011
The Texas House has approved a bill to create new health care collaboratives to cut costs and improve efficiencies. The creation of a new type of health care organization is intended to encourage insurers, hospitals and doctors to work together to create collaboratives. The collaborative would collect payments from consumers in return for providing health care and also set fixed costs for medical procedures.More