{"id":423581,"date":"2025-12-04T07:01:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T07:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/423581\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T07:01:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T07:01:12","slug":"stephanie-muth-named-texas-health-commissioner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/423581\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephanie Muth named Texas health commissioner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephanie Muth, the former commissioner<\/a> of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, has been named Texas\u2019 next health commissioner. Her first day will be on Jan. 3.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Gov. Greg Abbott announced that he has appointed Muth to take over Texas Health and Human Services Commission after the agency\u2019s current head Cecile Erwin Young announced her retirement this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cStephanie Muth is a dedicated public servant who brings over 25 years of experience working in state government and at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission,\u201d said Abbott.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Muth left DFPS at the end of July after helming the agency that oversees child protective services and the foster care system since 2023. Since her departure, Muth started her own consulting firm, and she serves as a senior fellow with Meadow\u2019s Mental Health Policy Institute.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She has worked in state government for over 25 years and held senior executive-level positions at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission for more than 15 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Young, who was appointed during one of the state\u2019s earliest and worst waves of COVID-19 cases, gave no reason for the retirement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis agency impacts every Texan, and I have been honored to serve the people of this state alongside our dedicated staff,\u201d she said in a news release<\/p>\n

Young took the helm of the health and human services department with nearly 37,000 employees in August 2020, as it navigated the COVID-19 pandemic<\/a> and ongoing criticism of its contracting procedures<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Under Young\u2019s leadership, some regulatory requirements<\/a> for care were changed to reduce the burden on medical providers across the state, and federal funds<\/a> were secured during the pandemic to create a safety net for hospitals.<\/p>\n

Young has also overseen the expansion, renovation, and construction<\/a> of 11 state psychiatric hospitals. <\/p>\n

Before taking over as head of the health agency, Young worked at several state agencies and began her work at the Health and Human Services Commission in the early 1990s after the Legislature created it. <\/p>\n

When Young took over the state\u2019s health agency, it was in the midst of years of shifting leadership. <\/p>\n

Courtney Phillips led the commission for just over a year before leaving<\/a> to take the top job at Louisiana\u2019s health agency in 2020. And in 2018, contracting scandals<\/a> forced several top agency officials, including former Commissioner Charles Smith, to step down. <\/p>\n

Abbott said Young\u2019s almost four decades of service for Texas are unmatched, and she leaves a remarkable legacy. <\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout her leadership at Texas Health and Human Services and her career as a public servant, she demonstrated her commitment to excellence and integrity, and remained focused on caring for Texans and helping them thrive,\u201d he said in a news release. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stephanie Muth, the former commissioner of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, has been named Texas\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":423582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5026,210,197564,1141,1142,3170,197565,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-423581","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-greg-abbott","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-health-and-human-services-commission","11":"tag-health-care","12":"tag-healthcare","13":"tag-medicaid","14":"tag-state-agencies","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115660016016263021","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}