Healthcare

Texas Health and Human Services is asking the state Legislature for the funding to make more than 600 temporary eligibility worker positions into permanent jobs. The ask comes as Texas' backlog of Medicaid and Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, applications continues to grow.

Data shared by the state during stakeholder meetings reveals Texas' backlog of Medicaid applications grew by more than 209,000 between January and August – while the backlog for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, grew by more than 146,000. Advocates and state officials said new SNAP accuracy requirements might be the cause.

Texas Tech Physicians and UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company have reached a new agreement, which is retroactive to April 1 — when the previous agreement expired. Patients with questions about care they received while the contract was expired are encouraged to visit the Texas Tech Physicians website or call (806) 743-2898. The U.S. Senate’s Agriculture committee is scheduled to meet this morning to discuss its version of the U.S. Farm Bill. Harvest Public Media’s Emma George-Griffin reports the current version of the bill includes cuts that could affect funding for more than 50,000 farmers.

When Congress allowed Affordable Care Act tax credits to lapse, healthcare premiums spiked for millions of Americans — especially self-employed farmers and ranchers. That added cost is multiplying the stress on their already stretched balance sheets.

With the NFL not holding a supplemental draft this summer, former Texas Tech University quarterback Brendan Sorsby out of the NFL at least next April. Our Samantha Larned reports this comes after his lawsuit against the NCAA was dismissed. Meanwhile the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas says healthcare fraud cases are at an “all-time high.”

Priorities for Republican leadership last legislative session have either been stuck in the courts or left to linger in the state rulemaking process.

TORCH CIN, a physician-hospital organization representing 45 rural and community hospitals across Texas, announced Friday it will end its contracts with UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company over "unsustainable" reimbursement rates. The leader of TORCH CIN said the current rates pose an "existential threat" to rural hospitals.

A new report shows Texas leading the country in its rate of uninsured children under 6.

Starting today, crews from the City of Lubbock are beginning work on pavement repairs on University Avenue, between 50th Street and Loop 289. Meanwhile, contractors will also begin doing erosion repairs and adding infrastructure to the Lake 6 Dam on the south side of Lake Dunbar, shutting down traffic on the southern end of Canyon Lakes Drive near the dam. KERA’s Avery Escamilla-Wendell reports on a new analysis showing the uninsured rate for young Texas kids is the highest in the country – and it’s rising.

A new report from the Commonwealth Fund found Texas has worse racial and ethnic health disparities than other states in the Southwest.