Subject: Health Care Issues

• Passing a Buck to the Smokers

  January 5, 2007

• Into the Ashes: Cosmos Cafe, RIP

  November 30, 2007

• Fraternity Hazing Suit Settles

  July 14, 2008

• Foster Kids In Texas Get Lots of Meds

  August 4, 2008

• No Smoking Ban In West U Bar (Note Single, Not Plural)

  August 15, 2008

• Texas Continues To Shine At Being Uninsured

  August 26, 2008

• Smoke Toys: BBQ Pits by Klose

  August 28, 2008

• Gloom And Doom For Uninsured Texas Children

  November 3, 2008

• How Could Anyone Criticize Texas' Anti-Smoking Campaign?

  Here’s yet another list that Texas finds itself at the bottom of: the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids’ report of how states have been spending (or not spending) the money they’ve been receiving from the landmark 1998 multi-billion dollar settlement with Big Tobacco. Texas comes in at 46, spending $12.6 million on tobacco prevention and cessation programs, compared to the estimated $2.06 billion collected each year from settlement payments and tobacco taxes. The Centers for Disease Cont

  November 19, 2008

• Study Finds That Houston Hispanics Like Beer. Next Up: Are Baseballs Round?

  A study done for the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research (Motto: "You Don't Want To Come To Our Office Parties") has revealed a shocking truth: Hispanics like beer. More than 5,000 Hispanics were interviewed in Miami, New York, Philly, LA and right here in Houston to determine this. "Currently, there is not much information about beverage preference among Hispanics and how that differs across national groups," says Raul Caetano, a UT professor who worked on the study and w

  November 20, 2008

• Texas Receives A Gentlemen's C For Its Emergency Rooms

  The bright side of the latest report by the American College of Emergency Physicians is that Texas did not get a failing grade in its efforts to provide emergency-room access and care to residents.On the other hand, we're not making the Honor Roll or anything.ACEP gave Texas a C, placing it 29th among the states in terms of ER care.How do we suck? Let us count the ways.

  December 9, 2008

• Press Picks

  November 17, 1994

• Hard Habit to Break

  December 1, 1994

• Letters

  December 29, 1994

• Local Scientists Say The Superbugs Are Coming To Get Us

  Listen up people - we have run out of options. At least when we come to superbugs, if University of Texas Medical School researchers Dr. Barbara E. Murray and Dr. Cesar Ariasare to be believed. The two study infectious diseases for a living, so they should know. Their article in a recent New England Journal of Medicine called antibiotic-resistant bugs "a super-challenge," and was riddled with gloomy warnings and predictions about super bugs kicking the shit out of us. Oh, wait, they didn't say i

  February 2, 2009

• R.I.P., Eleanor Tinsley

  Eleanor Tinsley, who served on the City Council for 16 years, has died.She was big on two things -- getting Houston's billboards taken down, and trying to stop cigarette smoking anywhere and everywhere, it seemed.The elegantly coiffed Tinsley -- she always looked like the Dallas-native Baylor alum she was -- is perhaps best known now as being the namesake of Eleanor Tinsley Park near downtown.We seem to recall drunk smokers coming up with obscene lyrics to "Eleanor Rigby" at bars around town whe

  February 10, 2009

• Holistic Touch

  July 17, 1997

• Statewide Smoking Ban For Bars: Coming Soon?

  Photo by Daniel KramerIt's been tried before, but this time there may be some possibility of a statewide smoking ban in Texas.Two bills address the subject, (one by Houston's Rodney Ellis) and the Texas Restaurant Association has announced it can support a ban.Although the TRA says it has "some concerns" with the bills, it is not fighting a ban: The Texas Restaurant Association Board of Directors voted to support the statewide smoking ban that would level the playing field and reduce the c

  February 25, 2009

• City Says Smoking Ban Has Had No Impact On Bars

  Photo by porcelaingirlTwo years ago, Houston City Council approved a smoking ban for local bars. This week, it was announced that the city had spent $12,000 to measure the impact of the ban.Their conclusion? It had no impact on bar sales whatsoever. "It's reassuring that we did the right thing. We protected workers who often don't have a say in where they can work," Mayor Bill White told KHOU.Carolyn Wenglar, owner of venerable downtown bars La Carafe and Warren's, begs to differ."It hasn'

  February 26, 2009

• Bar Patrons

  October 1, 1998

• Methodist Hospital Gets Hit For Medicaid Fraud

  Seal courtesy DOJUsually when the Justice Department announces the settlement of a Medicaid-fraud case, it's a small-time operation dealing with wheelchairs or even adult diapers.Not today.Today they've nabbed a nearly-$10 million settlement out of Methodist Hospital here for defrauding the federal program.The US Attorney's office announcement said: The government alleged that, between January 2001 and August 2003, Methodist improperly inflated charges for inpatient and outpatient care to make i

  March 26, 2009

• Smoking, Metal Detectors, Drug Sweeps and Houston Pavilions

  The Ban and Business

  March 12, 2009

• Fighting Cancer

  Who says Texas isn't battling cigs?

  November 27, 2008

• David Sedaris

  Humorist returns on the heels of his latest release, When You Are Engulfed in Flames

  October 16, 2008

• The Deal sisters bring back the Breeders

  Role Playing

  May 1, 2008

• Somerville, Smoking and Chicken Fried Porn

  December 13, 2007

• The Smoking Ban

  Has it been good for Houston? A dozen local music figures sound off

  November 29, 2007

• Up in Smoke

  The ban's arrival, from a Catbird's seat

  September 13, 2007

• Mail Call

  Lights Out

  September 13, 2007

• Smoked Out

  Will "self-enforcement" be enough for Houston's expanded smoking ban to work?

  August 30, 2007

• How to Hide Your Weed

  February 1, 2007

• Up in Smoke

  City Hall and the Greater Houston Restaurant Association once again threaten the right to light up in bars

  September 7, 2006

• Puff Piece

  Thank You for Smoking's satire falls short of incendiary

  March 30, 2006

• Letters

  June 9, 2005

• Letters

  June 2, 2005

• Letters

  May 26, 2005

• Got a Light?

  All kidding aside, why smoking may be good for Houston

  May 12, 2005

• Breaking the Birthday Binge

  April 7, 2005

• Reefer Madness

  The government says Clayton Jones shouldn't smoke marijuana. He says it's the only thing that keeps him from blowing his brains out.

  September 30, 2004

• Best Veggie Burger

  September 23, 2004

• Best Democrat

  District 147 State Representative Garnet Coleman

  September 26, 2002

• Con's Con

  A contained experiment in Medicaid finally gets uncovered

  June 6, 2002

• Rx for Failure?

  MHMRA restricts Medicaid services at mental health clinic pharmacies

  August 2, 2001

• Letters 09-14-2000

  Blowing Smoke, Pay to Play, Ill Will

  September 14, 2000

• Lucky Strikes Back

  A tobacco company takes to the streets to reassure marginalized smokers

  August 31, 2000

• Live Free and Die

  Smokers' rights activist Dave Pickrell thinks his freedom is being stubbed out cigarette by cigarette. He's fighting to stop that, coughing all the way.

  August 31, 2000

• Dangerous Deficits

  Mental health cuts may come back to haunt the public

  August 19, 1999

• Old and In The Way

  December 16, 1993

• Houston Firm Can Stop Your Smoking Habit -- Online!!

  Teh Internets can solve almost any problem, it seems, from having to pay for music and news to bringing down Islamofascist dictatorships. Now smoking has apparently joined the list. A small Houston company that runs interactive pay-sites to help with compulsive hair-pulling and skin-picking disorders (called trichotillomania) recently made the jump to nicotine addiction. Think self-help book meets Choose Your Own Adventure meets Rosetta Stone -- at least from what we can tell from the tutorial

  June 26, 2009

• Houston Is Epicenter Of Big Medicare-Fraud Sweep

  ​Houston is at the center of a big sweep against Medicare fraud announced today by the feds. A grand jury here issued indictments involving more than $16 million in fraud, and agents went out today and arrested 32 people in Houston, New York, Boston and Louisiana.Sayeth the feds: The Strike Force operations in Houston have identified the primary fraud schemes as those related to false billing for "arthritis kits," power wheelchairs and enteral feeding supplies.According to the indictments, the

  July 29, 2009