Post by pavel on Apr 7, 2016 17:26:08 GMT -6
As the summer launch date for Texas’ retooled state-funded women’s health programs approaches, family planning providers and advocates want to know why services like hypertension and postpartum screenings have so far been left off the lists of proposed benefits.
The Health and Human Services Commission released draft rules for the new Healthy Texas Women (HTW) and Expanded Family Planning Programs in early April, detailing the services that each program will cover. The redesign comes four years after the Legislature cut family planning funding by more than two-thirds and then created a complicated, and less effective and efficient, web of services in the wake of lawmakers’ ouster of Planned Parenthood as a safety net provider.
According to the draft rules, the new Healthy Texas Women (HTW) program — a consolidation of what is now the Texas Women’s Health Program and the Expanded Primary Health Care program — will cover birth control, lab testing, vaccines and breast and cervical cancer screenings. The Expanded Family Planning Program will cover the same services, plus prenatal care.
For the last eight months, the Women’s Health Advisory Committee (WHAC) — made up of family planning providers, advocates and physicians — has been working with the agency to retool the safety net ahead of the programs’ July 1 launch.
Read more: www.texasobserver.org/what-will-texas-new-repro-health-safety-net-look-like/
The Health and Human Services Commission released draft rules for the new Healthy Texas Women (HTW) and Expanded Family Planning Programs in early April, detailing the services that each program will cover. The redesign comes four years after the Legislature cut family planning funding by more than two-thirds and then created a complicated, and less effective and efficient, web of services in the wake of lawmakers’ ouster of Planned Parenthood as a safety net provider.
According to the draft rules, the new Healthy Texas Women (HTW) program — a consolidation of what is now the Texas Women’s Health Program and the Expanded Primary Health Care program — will cover birth control, lab testing, vaccines and breast and cervical cancer screenings. The Expanded Family Planning Program will cover the same services, plus prenatal care.
For the last eight months, the Women’s Health Advisory Committee (WHAC) — made up of family planning providers, advocates and physicians — has been working with the agency to retool the safety net ahead of the programs’ July 1 launch.
Read more: www.texasobserver.org/what-will-texas-new-repro-health-safety-net-look-like/