Responding to an audit critical of the state’s network of health agencies, as well as the embattled Medicaid fraud investigative unit, a panel of state lawmakers this week endorsed an overhaul of the state’s umbrella health agency, the Health and Human Services Commission.
As part of a once-a-decade review of the agency, the Sunset Advisory Commission took the first steps this week to mash together five similar but separate agencies into one behemoth agency, a popular idea among lawmakers who examined the audit Wednesday and many health advocates and industry lobbyists who testified Thursday.
The Sunset Advisory Commission staff conducted a yearlong review of the Health and Human Services Commission, the all-encompassing apparatus that spends $34.5 billion a year in its management of Medicaid, the foster care system, services for people with disabilities and public health, to name a few.
via Overhaul of massive Texas health agency moves forward | www.statesman.com.