The Weekly Insight: April 2

Weekly Insights
April 2, 2018
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Texas Insight’s Recent Reports

  • Texas Senate: Senate Health and Human Services Part III: The Senate Health and Human Services Committee met to address several charges. This report covers the following: Study efforts by the Department of State Health Services and the Texas Department of Insurance to increase health care cost transparency, including a review of the Texas Health Care Information Collection (THCIC) system, and the Consumer Guide to Healthcare. Recommend ways to make provider and facility fees more accessible to consumers to improve health care cost transparency, increase quality of care, and create a more informed health care consumer base.
  • Texas House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations: Article II Subcommittee: The Appropriations Subcommittee on Article II met to hear invited and public testimony on the following issues related to interim charge 18: Monitor the agencies and programs under the Committee’s jurisdiction and oversee the implementation of relevant legislation passed by the 85th Legislature. In conducting this oversight, the Committee will also specifically monitor: d) Implementation of therapy rate increases and policy changes at HHSC; e) HHSC’s use of appropriated funds to expand Texas’s inpatient psychiatric infrastructure; f) Ongoing impact of critical-needs funding at DFPS.
  • Texas House of Representatives: Select Committee on Opioids & Substance Abuse: Parts ONE and TWO: The Select Committee on Opioids and Substance Abuse met to consider Charge #1: Study the prevalence and impact of substance use and substance use disorders in Texas, including co-occurring mental illness. Study the prevalence and impact of opioids and synthetic drugs in Texas. Review the history of overdoses and deaths due to overdoses. Also, review other health-related impacts due to substance abuse. Identify substances that are contributing to overdoses, related deaths and health impacts, and compare the data to other states…
  • Trauma-Informed Care in Texas: Part II: To expand on some of the recent issues raised in postings on gender disparities in poverty and the effects of violence, TI offers a new series on trauma-informed care (TIC) and its use and promise in Texas. TIC programs are those that incorporate knowledge of the impact of trauma and traumatic stress into policies and programs of systems of care, such as the child welfare system, schools, criminal justice systems and the healthcare system.

Federal Healthcare Policy Reports

  • Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI): Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) is a federal social insurance program that provides monthly cash benefits to nonelderly disabled workers and their eligible dependents, provided the worker paid into the system for a sufficient number of years…
  • Department of Health and Human Services: FY2019 Budget Request: This report provides information about the FY2019 budget request for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The report begins by reviewing the department’s mission and structure. Next, the report offers a brief explanation of the conventions used for the FY2018 estimates and FY2019 request levels in the budget documents released by the HHS and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)…The report concludes with a breakdown of the HHS request by agency, along with additional HHS resources that provide further information on the request. A table of CRS key policy staff is included at the end of the report.

Federal Healthcare News