Four years after Texas gave up millions of dollars in federal Medicaid funds so it could ban Planned Parenthood from participating in a family planning program for low-income women, the state is asking the Trump administration for the money back. … Read More
On Tuesday, May 2, Dr. Juan D. Villarreal D.D.S. was honored by the U.S. Small Business Administration Lower Rio Grande Valley District at a luncheon celebrating Small Business Week. He was presented with the SBA’s 2017 Entrepreneurial Success Award at … Read More
From Texas Health and Human Services: The 14-day comment period for the Texas Health Steps Dental Therapeutic Services policy ended March 28, 2017. HHSC solicited and received comments on proposed revisions to the policy from various stakeholders. A summary of comments … Read More
WASHINGTON — In a stunning reversal of momentum, Republicans salvaged long-held ambitions to unwind former President Obama’s 2010 health care law, passing a major overhaul in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday afternoon. Republicans found legislative success on Thursday … Read More
Texas is known for being an alluring place to live: a can-do attitude, economic growth, robust cities with expansive opportunity, and vast outdoor adventures are but a few of the reasons so many Americans choose to become Texans. However, the … Read More
Last week, the Texas Association of Health Plans (TAHP) announced that it was working with the Texas Medical Association (TMA) to speed up credentialing for Medicaid providers by selecting Aperture, LLC, as the statewide Credentialing Verification Organization (CVO). Here is … Read More
The following is an interview done with Dr. Juan D. Villarreal, author of “Truth Decay: How Government Corruption Caused a Political Scandal Victimizing Texas Dentists and How It Could Happen to You!,” published by TDMR. The book has now been available … Read More
Governors are analyzing the House Republican bill to restructure Medicaid and phase out the Obamacare expansion of the program, and they don’t like what they see. That prompted four Republican governors from Medicaid expansion states—John Kasich of Ohio, Rick Snyder … Read More
If you’re poor and you want to keep your health insurance, you may have to go to work. That’s the message from Republican lawmakers who Monday night released a series of changes to their plan to overhaul the Affordable Care … Read More
A new report shows more doctors accepting Medicaid patients in the fourth year of coverage under the Affordable Care Act, which the U.S. House of Representatives this week slated to vote on the law’s replacement. A little more than half, … Read More
Can you imagine a Texas Medicaid budget half of what it was last year? Is it possible for Medicaid patients to get a next-day appointment with their doctor? What if Austin, rather than Washington, controlled “Texas Medicaid”? Texas, can you … Read More
AUSTIN (KXAN) — As GOP leaders unveil and move their replacement plan for the Affordable Care Act through Congress, millions of Texans will be watching. Hundreds showed up Monday to protest changes to Medicaid by making it a “block grant,” … Read More
TDMR recently had the opportunity to interview the current president of the Texas Dental Association, Dr. Rita M. Cammarata. Dr. Cammaratta, despite her extremely busy schedule, graciously consented to answer several questions that we posed to her via email. Her … Read More
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans on Monday released their long-awaited plan for unraveling former President Barack Obama’s health care law, a package that would scale back the government’s role in helping people afford coverage and likely leave more Americans uninsured. … Read More
Yesterday, the Sunset Advisory Commission introduced both a House and Senate bill to adopt their proposed changes to legislation affecting the State Board of Dental Examiners. HB 2990 was introduced as authored by Sunset member state Rep. Cindy Burkett while … Read More
The chief budget writer in the Texas House on Friday proposed using $1.4 billion from the state’s savings account to pay bills coming due for a wide array of the state’s health and human services programs. The proposal from state … Read More
Another bill affecting Medicaid providers of all stripes was introduced yesterday by state Rep. Sergio Muñoz Jr. from District 35 in the Rio Grande Valley. Rep Muñoz, Jr. is a second term representative who was a member of the Government … Read More
HB 2558, am act relating to capitation payments under a contract with a health maintenance organization for the provision of dental care services, has been introduced into this legislative session this week by State Rep. Dr. Tom Oliverson out of … Read More
All 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Congress are all having the same nightmare. It is called Medicaid. Now there is a chance to turn bad dreams into great, big happy ones. Texas is in a unique position to … Read More
U.S. President Donald Trump’s first budget proposal will spare big social welfare programs such as Social Security and Medicare from any cuts, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in an interview broadcast on Sunday. Mnuchin said Trump would use his first … Read More
Jeff Leston, the founder of Castlestone LLC, has provided TDMR with his take on how to improve government healthcare plans such as Texas Medicaid to reduce waste, fraud and abuse. Castlestone is a company created to use the infrastructure of … Read More
How to deal with Medicaid expansion has become the latest sticking point in Republicans’ effort to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. While most lawmakers acknowledge it’s a major source of tension, there appears to have not been any decisions made … Read More
For the last several years, TDMR has provided contact information on its website for reporting Medicaid fraud, waste and abuse to both state and federal healthcare authorities. From the links provided on practically every page of our website, anyone could go … Read More
Lee College’s Center for Workforce and Community Development will host two free health care fraud prevention seminars on Feb. 28. “We’re excited to offer both a morning and evening presentation to the public. It’s an important topic, and we want … Read More
AUSTIN—Pointing to significant taxpayer savings and more efficient care, the Texas Association of Business (TAB) today urged the Texas Legislature to allow for the transition of the Medicaid prescription drug benefit to private health plan management to occur as scheduled. … Read More
TDMR received a notice yesterday from the Health and Human Services Inspector General office that Inspector General Stuart Bowen will be hosting, along with Sen. Chuy Hinojosa, a “Rio Grande Valley Medicaid Integrity Symposium.” The event is to take place … Read More
It’s light on details, but so far the Trump administration has proposed one big change to how we pay for health care in the U.S. President Trump wants to turn the federal Medicaid program into a block grant system. This … Read More
House Bill 1420 was introduced into the legislation session yesterday by House Representative Mando Martinez. The bill is captioned as “Relating to the imposition of a late payment penalty against Medicaid managed care organizations that fail to timely pay certain … Read More
As Texas House and Senate leaders gird for a high-stakes fight over the state budget, a preliminary round of that showdown is taking shape over whether to partially undo cuts to a Medicaid program that reimburses therapists who serve low-income … Read More
Poor Americans insured by Medicaid will pay more out-of-pocket toward their healthcare services under proposals favored by Dr. Tom Price, Donald Trump’s pick to be U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. During the first of two committee hearings he … Read More
States may receive their Medicaid funding in block grants under President Donald Trump’s plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, one of his advisers reported this weekend. White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, appearing on Sunday Today, said that moving the … Read More
The administrator of five Houston-area home health agencies pleaded guilty today to conspiring to defraud the State of Texas’ Medicaid-funded Home and Community-Based Service and the Primary Home Care Programs of more than $7.8 million. These programs provide qualified individuals … Read More
Did you know that HHS, formerly HHSC, has a Managed Care Inquiries and Complaints mailbox? It does. It also has a person to field those inquiries and complaints. That person is Dr. Marguerite Laccabue, MPH, DDS, Dental Director of the Office of … Read More
AUSTIN – The leaders of the Texas Legislature appear to be unwilling or unable to hire a state auditor, an unprecedented situation that has deprived residents of their most powerful government watchdog for more than a year. Lt. Gov. Dan … Read More
Last Thursday, Texas Health and Human Services held its Biannual Managed Care Stakeholder Meeting in Austin. The meeting was primarily hosted by Jami Snyder, the Associate Commissioner for the Medicaid & CHIP Services Department of HHS. During the open discussion … Read More
Back in December, TDMR asked dentists to take an online survey to ascertain their views on Texas Medicaid dental managed care. We now have these results which are provided below and can be downloaded. Limitation of survey results Before we … Read More
The statistics are encouraging: In the half a year since the state expanded access to Medicaid, doctors in Louisiana have diagnosed 1,770 cases of high blood pressure, 728 cases of diabetes and more than 90 cases of cancer.That’s good news. … Read More
Democrats and their enablers in the media are hyperventilating about the GOP’s drive to cap federal Medicaid funding with a series of “block grants” to the states as part of their replacement plan for Obamacare.”25 million people could lose health … Read More
Progressives have already homed in on Republican efforts to privatize Medicare as one of the major domestic political battles of 2017. If Donald J. Trump decides to gut the basic guarantee of Medicare and revamp its structure so that it … Read More
Sen. Lois Kolkhorst asked a pertinent question to Inspector General Stuart Bowen this past September, “Are you auditing MCOs for fraud?” The question came in the context of a hearing being held by the Senate Committee on Health and Human … Read More
