CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — On Friday Oct. 11, district judge Laurie Eiserloh of Travis County Court blocked the Texas Health and Human Services from finalizing contracts that would affect Texans who receive Medicaid, STAR and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
The court issued a temporary order that stops the Texas Health and Human Services Commission from finalizing a managed care contract. This contract would negatively affect healthcare for more than a million children and families in Texas.
The parties who brought legal action for the temporary injunction were Cook Children's Health Plan, Texas's Children's Health Plan, Superior Health Plan INC, and Wellpoint Insurance Company.
The CEO of Driscoll's Health Plan Craig Smith said that what these four healthcare providers did helped out the entire state.
If these contracts were not blocked, that would mean the beneficiaries would have to be placed on a new plan by next year.
For over two decades the Driscoll Health plan has been providing healthcare for many families across the Coastal Bend. Barbara Garza's family is one of the nearly 200,000 families that benefit from Driscoll in South Texas.
"Driscoll Health Plan has been great to us," Garza said.
Jasmine Garza, her four-year-old daughter, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, which affects her ability to control her muscles.
As KRIS 6 News reported before back in March the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) announced its intent to exclude DHP from serving Medicaid population starting in September of 2025.
"My first thoughts were, what are we going to do for our appointments, how are we going to pay for them, is there still going to be aquatic therapy for her, or horseback riding, you know all the little extras that Driscoll does help us with adds up," Garza said.
But Smith said there is good news—for now.
"The judge ruled that the state could not move forward and blocked the state's ability to sign contracts as it intended because of a number of statured and regulatory violations," he said.
The court found 13 violations in the procurement process, click here to view all violations.
"That really created an unfair process but in the courts words it really threatened the health and wellness of beneficiaries with just unprecedented disruption," he added.
Garza said the thought of having to change providers is scary because she has all of her three girls on DHP. She added that Driscoll has always been there for her.
"She (Jasmine) is doing really good, she is almost 37 pounds now, she is walking with the help of her therapist at Driscoll she does OT speech and PT and even feeding therapy," she said.
So what does this mean for families who are currently on the DHP.
"It means there are no changes the Driscoll Health Plan will continue to operate as it has been and as to the foreseeable future the judge has placed an injunction on the state until the merits of the trail could be heard until next November," Smith said
