"Health & Medical News"

A Texas law that went into effect on Sept. 1 allows police to write tickets for misdemeanor marijuana possession rather than arresting and imprisoning offenders, but so far few jurisdictions appear to be embracing the law, the Dallas Morning News reported Dec. 31.

Lawmakers hoped the law would help ease jail overcrowding, but only one county?  has adopted it, and officials in others say they don’t have procedures for processing the misdemeanor citations and don’t plan to develop any.

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Washington — Thirty-three states plan to increase their Medicaid payment rates for doctors in 2008. Many also are poised to expand eligibility and to use the program to cover more of the uninsured.

Next year will mark the third consecutive year during which at least two dozen states raised Medicaid physician reimbursements, according to an annual 50-state survey of Medicaid directors. It was released in October by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Management Associates, a health research and consulting firm.

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