Austinites and many other across
Texas, insured through Blue Cross
Blue Shield, could soon lose
in-network access to Ascension
Seat and facilities.
That's set to take effect on January
1st, unless the two sides
can agree on a new contract.
We're gonna talk about how that
could affect folks here in our
community. Plus, Austin has been
a testing ground for autonomous
vehicles, Zooks Robo
Taxis, Waymo's, oh my,
but Waymo has now issued
a software recall after videos
showed some vehicles passing stop
Austin ISD busses.
We're gonna have more about that
coming up on today's show.
Awesome.
And we're gonna take a listen back
to some of this year's KUTX
Artists of the Month.
That's up next here on Austin
Signal.
Howdy out there, thank you for
tuning in. This is Austin Signal,
and you're listening here on
community powered public radio.
This is KUT News 90.5
on the KUT app and online
at KUT.org.
Thank you for making us part of your
day. Got a lot to get into
today, so let's start the
show.
Folks with a Blue Cross and Blue
Shield insurance could be losing
in network access to some Austin
area facilities starting in 2026.
That is, unless a new contract
can be agreed upon before the new
year. KUT's healthcare reporter
Olivia Aldrich has the story over
at KUT.org, and she's
joining us now on Austin Signal
to tell us more about it.
Howdy, Olivia.
Hi Jerry.
So let's start simple enough.
Where is the dispute here?
Well, so obviously insurers
and hospital systems like this
negotiate all the time to, you know,
to strike a contract so that,
you know, care at that hospital
system or those clinics or by,
you know, a certain physician group
can be considered in network.
And for most people, that's what
will make it affordable if their
insurance says this, you know, this
this place is in network.
Right now they're negotiating their
hospital and facility agreements and
kind of what this means is that this
involves the reimbursement rates
that Ascension gets from Blue Cross
for the healthcare services that
Ascension doctors and staff are
providing at their facilities.
So from what we know, Ascension
basically feels that what Blue Cross
is bringing to the table isn't
enough to account for rising costs
of things like equipment, medication
costs, and you know, general
inflation.
And how many people do we know are
insured by Blue Cross Blue Shield
here in Texas? It's a big name, you
know, it's a lot of name
recognition. How many people are
insured through them?
Yeah, Blue Cross says it's something
like eight million people in Texas.
It's the state's largest insurer,
by a lot. So they have about a
quarter of the market share.
And that includes us here at KUT.
We get our benefits through Blue
Cross. It affects a lot of people.
Maybe that's why I have the name
recognition.
So let's talk about Ascension
Seaton. How many facilities do they
operate locally?
They have about twelve hospitals
that they operate and then dozens of
other, you know, primary care
clinics and specialty care clinics.
And so anybody who has a blue cross
blue shield would lose in network
access to those facilities, correct?
Yeah, and that doesn't include
emergency care.
Yeah, and that that brings me to my
next question. I is there any leeway
for folks who are going through
something big like a pregnancy or
some kind of life threatening
illness right now?
Yes, so if you're pregnant, if
you're getting again life
threatening illness or you're being
treated for an acute condition right
now, you may qualify for
what they're calling continuity of
care, which essentially just means
that you can kind of get a special
allowance to remain in network,
but you you shouldn't just assume
that that's going to happen.
Blue Cross is urging members to kind
of call the number on their
insurance card and speak
to someone about it if they think
they might qualify.
Okay, we talked a little bit about
Blue Cross Blue Shield.
What have we heard from Ascension on
this matter?
Yeah, I mean they again they say
what Blue Cross is offering just
doesn't account for their financial
realities and they're asking at
at this point Blue Cross to come to
the table with a new proposal that
does that. Of course Blue Cross says
it's it's looking out for its own
policy holders by trying to keep
costs lower on their end and they
both say they're negotiating in good
faith.
It seems like these sorts of
contract disputes happen a lot.
Not not just with insurers
and hospitals.
I was thinking recently of like
YouTube T V and Disney.
There's always this back and forth,
this c you know, finagling
of trying to figure out the deal.
Am I right? Are these sorts of last
minute contract negotiations
becoming more normal around here?
I mean, yes, we've we've seen this
happen a good bit in the last few
years, specifically with Blue Cross.
There have been a number of kind of
eleventh hour contract deals
that have been resolved.
That includes Ascension in 2023,
early 2023, they kind
of resolved you
know, a dispute like this at the end
of an extended deadline.
There was a similar situation with
Baylor Scott and White last year.
And generally, you know, we do
see these things get resolved
because it is a really big deal and
you know, it's it's
significant for both the hospital
and the insurer.
But obviously it's a nerve wracking
if you're, you know, a patient in
the situation waiting to see what
happens.
Yes, yes, yeah. I compared it to the
YouTube TV and Disney thing, but
obviously this is of much more
importance when you're dealing with
something like a life threatening
illness, a pregnancy, or y as
you said, just the uncertainty of
going into this time of the
year or going into whatever you're
going into with that uncertainty is
never a good thing.
Again, you can read more about this
story over at KUT
dot org. It is from Olivia Aldridge,
she is KUT's health care reporter.
Thank you for being on the signal.
Thanks for having me.
Austin has been a top testing
ground for autonomous vehicles.
On the streets, you might see the
Tesla Robo Taxi,
Amazon's Zooks.
I love saying that word.
And perhaps if you're on the road
right now, you're watching a Waymo
roll by those white cars
with the spinny thing on top.
Or maybe you might have seen videos
recently of Waymo's illegally
passing Austin ISD school
busses when they're stopped.
Now this has caused the company to
issue software recalls for its
fleet of vehicles.
For more about that, we're speaking
with Texas Standards Shelly Brisbin.
Shelley, welcome back to Austin
Signal.
Hey Jerry, thanks for having me.
So tell us w what does this software
recall mean?
I I I believe this is a voluntary
recall, yes?
Yeah, it's a voluntarily voluntary
recall, which means two things.
It means first of all that the
software for the Waymo vehicles that
are out there in Austin streets
right now is going to be updated,
but the actual recall process
is alerting the federal government
that there is a recall happening.
Hey, we're changing the software to
account specifically for
bad behavior, illegal behavior
around busses.
So are there any Waymo's coming off
the road? Is is the number changing
right now?
No. So far Waymo has not
taken any cars off the road.
As you mentioned it's voluntary
recall. The AISD actually
had asked Waymo to stop
running their vehicles during school
drop off and pickup hours, but Waymo
has so far not done that and they're
certainly are running in near the
elementary school in my neighborhood.
Okay. Have has this sort of software
recall happened in other cities
across the country?
Actually the school bus issue
specifically was first noticed
in Atlanta where Waymo also
operates. And there's a voluntary
recall there. There were also there
were incidents and videos showing
Waymo Waymo's either
passing school busses or not
s not going behind a school bus as
the law requires.
And so Atlanta and Austin are sort
of ground zero.
There's something like five
incidents reported in Atlanta.
There are actually more incidents in
Austin, although I think some of the
more serious ones seem
to have been caught on video in
Atlanta in any case.
And the the incidents in Austin, do
we know w when those occurred?
Have those all occurred over twenty
twenty five or has that just been in
the recent school year?
AISD says there have been at least
nineteen incidents this school year,
and a lot of what we know about
these incidents does come from
camera footage on the busses, and
AISD has captured that footage
itself.
Okay, so AISD has
raised an a a complaint in
this matter.
Can you tell us more w what does
that actually mean?
So they sent a letter to the
National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration, which is a federal
agency that supervises
traffic laws in the in a big picture
level, for for lack of a better
way to describe it.
And they've basically asked the
agency to undertake an
investigation of Waymo to find
out whether it's the software that's
at fault and why this is happening,
specifically since it relates to
school busses.
And so that complaint
with the video evidence went out.
There's a there's a letter that you
can find on the National Highway
NTSA website that
describes the school district
complaints.
And the district says
that even since the software
recall was announced by Waymo
in mid November, there have been
additional incidents and that's what
occasioned the letter that they
wrote to NHTSA on December
third.
So we have the Way Moses
private company and we have the
local school district, the Austin
ISD. Is there a reason that this
complaint went to the federal
government?
Well the N T T S
A, which is very hard to say.
That is the federal agency that
deals with traffic regulations.
Now the state regulations involving
Waymo's specifically and and
it all robotaxis, by the way,
have to do with whether there is a
driver in the car or not.
Waymo's do not require that because
they have a higher level of
autonomous driving software than,
say, the Tesla robotaxis, where they
have to have a a safety driver
in the front seat of the car.
And so those are the kind of
regulations that the state imposes.
You may remember that some years ago
the state legislature passed a law
that the that prevents local
governments like Austin's or like
AISD from imposing any rules
on robotaxis.
So most of the regulation is going
to come from either the federal or
the state government.
Okay, well I know that this
complaint was just lodged recently.
What happens next?
It sounds like, you know, you said
AISD asked Waymos to
take their cars off the road, but
you s have still seen them recently.
Where where do we go next?
Well, there is always the
possibility that either Waymo would
do another voluntary recall or that
NHTSA
would require them to take some sort
of further action.
The school district actually told
the American statesman that they
were pursuing their legal options.
I'm not certain what those were, but
I think the district is very
concerned and so it's it's a story
to continue to watch.
Okay, well we will continue watching
it here on Austin Signal.
We have been speaking with Shelley
Brisbane.
She has been covering autonomous
vehicles for Texas Standard.
You can find more of her work at
Texas Standard dot org.
Shelley, thank you for joining us.
Thank you.
All right, well, thank you for
spending part of your Tuesday here
with us on Austin Signal.
Just as a reminder, we're here every
weekday from 1 until 1:30.
And if you can't listen to the show
live, that's okay.
We are a podcast.
You can find us wherever you listen
to your shows.
And you can find more shows by
going to K U T.org
slash Signal.
Tonight at the Paramount in downtown
Austin, they're hosting a night for
Rich Brotherton, the awesome
musician, producer, and teacher
dealing with ALS.
Patty Griffin, Charlie Crockett,
and Lyle Lovett are joining in on
the celebration tonight.
And our old friend K U T X
DJ Jody Denberg is going to
be serving as the master of
ceremonies.
There might still be a ticket
or two out there to find, but
if you can't make it out tonight,
you can still hear more about Rich
from some of the people who know him
pretty well.
Austin Signal spoke with Andrea
McGee, Pat Byrne, and Scrappy
Judd Newcomb, who will also be
performing tonight.
You can hear more from them about
Rich and about their musical
connection. Again, K U
T.org slash
Signal.
Well, we're coming up on a break,
but after that, we are gonna talk
about K U T X's
artists of the month for 2025.
Your morning drive time host Taylor
Wallace is gonna be joining us.
That's up next on Austin
Signal.
Thank you for tuning in to Austin
Signal. We're nearing the end of
2025.
And we're gonna start taking a look
back at the year that was here in
Austin. Today we're talking about
some of the K U T X artists of
the month featured in twenty twenty
five. You can find write ups on
all the artists featured this year
over at KUTX dot
org. But right now to help us go
through a few of them, we're joined
by your K U T X morning drive time
host, Taylor Wallace.
Howdy, Taylor?
Hello, hi.
I'm gonna start off first with the
band. I love when an artist takes a
word and they you know take a letter
out, they add some punctuation, they
make things kinda funky.
So tell us about Jacuzzi, Taylor.
Jacuzzi was our July artist
of the month and it is I
call it art punk, but also cork
punk. That's that's a me word, not a
floating in the ether word.
So jacuzzi, they
are this duo of
Gorge Bones and Trey Razzle
Dazzle.
And they Gorge
especially has never been in a band
before. And you wouldn't guess it
from like, first of all, they're
they sound fantastic, but then to
see them live, they are
ostentatious.
I was just looking at the write up
at K U Text dot org.
They look like rock stars.
Yeah. So to hear that is very
surprising.
Yeah, they're fantastic and
they're playing this Saturday.
If you haven't had the chance to see
them yet, first of all, you can find
their MyKUTX guest DJ
set and their studio one A over on
our website.
But they are playing the holiday
hootin' nanny that we are supporting
this Saturday at Radio East.
So not only can you see Shannon and
the clams, Toon Yards and Rubble
Bucket, you can see Jacuzzi
as well.
Alright, well let's hear a little
bit from Jacuzzi right now.
Next is a band that we featured as
part of our hour-long Austin City
Limits music festival special
for Austin Signal.
For those who are not familiar, tell
us about Next of Kin and and the
kind of year that they've had.
Okay, Next of Ken has had a
gangbusters year.
Really? Their debut EP came out
back in May.
Not only one sold-out night at
Continental Club, two sold-out
nights. And it's a trio of Lily
Hickman of Florin Fauna, also
Madison Baker, and Kaylin
Trelongo.
They make up this trio, and it is
all about the harmonies.
It is queer country.
Their cover of The Chain by
Fleetwood Mac is transcendent.
And they played ACL Fest this
year. They also hooked up with
Austin FC and they got to model.
Austin FC did some sort of like
live music merch
line, and they got to model for
that. It's like a fashion show kind
of thing. Yeah, kind of, yeah.
And they also got invited by
Texas Monthly to do their like dig
through our archives series.
Cool. So all of that is exciting
on its head, and who knows what's
coming up. I foresee very
big things for this trio.
And we're presenting their New
Year's Eve show at Antones.
So all the info you can find that at
K U T X.org.
And they'll be joined by TC
Superstar Nane and Quentin
Arispe.
Okay, cool, let's hear a little
something from Next of Kin.
Yeah.
How right?
Yeah.
Come and find you
When you kiss in the curb
and bend from every bar
See the ugly truth
on its leg
one of my favorite things that K U T
X does is a lot of people on staff
get a chance to speak with the
artists. You actually got to do the
interview with Next of Ken.
What did you learn? What did you
enjoy about spending time with them?
Because I got to interview them and
they are like all on the same
wavelength, you know?
There are so they are so insane.
Agreed. And I think it's such a
testament to women
supporting women and women falling
in love with other women, not
romantically, but with their
music and their spirit.
And so all three of them had
been fans of each other's.
And then they all kind of got
together and just kind of became
like this immediate like sisterhood.
And it I think that translates
very, very well through their music.
And it seems like it's been very
organic for them, which is
wonderful.
Yeah, you know, I think kinda
naively I always assume that
everyone in a band must like each
other, but after speaking to them,
it was like, wow, they are really
their best friends.
They actually like each other.
Yeah, and it's so really cool.
You can hear some of their their
interactions, some of their bon from
that special ACL episode of
our show. That's at K U T.org
slash signal.
Okay, next up is September's Artists
of the Month.
Now, Taylor, anytime I tell somebody
that I work at K U T, they always
tell me how much they love K U T
X.
And the point was a band that
multiple people in the community
would come up to me and say, They
rock. The point rocks, I love them.
Who are they and why do they have
everyone so hyped?
Okay, well, let me tell you this.
We think Next of Kin had a
gangbusters year and the point said,
Hold my beer, which is takes nothing
away from Next of Kin.
But these guys went on tour with
Mdumakhtar earlier
this year. They played Levitation,
they played ACL Fest,
and they next year
are going on tour with St. Paul and
the Broken Bones.
And they, as the person at K
U T X who keeps up with all of the
shows for all the artists we're
playing, they keep me the most
busy. I would say on average,
I kid you not, four
local shows a month on average.
Like they are hot, hot, hot.
And they have a show this Sunday at
Antones where Adrian Quesada
will be doing a DJ set.
I'm leaving even mama,
but I don't know where to
go.
I'm even leaving
mama.
But I don't know where to
go.
Very, very cool.
Okay, lastly, Taylor, let me ask a
a more personal question.
What was your twenty twenty five
year of music like here in the
Austin scene?
How are you feeling about the local
scene as we move into twenty twenty
six?
I am very excited.
I think our whole class of 2025
paints a really good tapestry that
everything from RB,
hip hop, country, rock,
punk, it's all here and it's
all happening. And I really think
we've got several of our artists of
the month from this year
that really are not only great
Austin bands, but certainly have
breakout potential.
Aside from all of these, there's
just been so many other artists.
Like it's been a really fun year
to be in our artist of the month
Slack channel talk discussing it
because it's just overwhelming
with like how many awesome
albums and everything are coming out
month to month to month.
And so I am hotly
excited.
And if you want to kind of get an
early step into what Austin
in 2026 could look like, free
week is the first week of January,
as we all know, and we will be
having a free week show, the
announcement to come later this
week. But some of them might be some
of the artists that you'll have
heard about today.
And and even with that show,
it's a good it's a good mosaic,
sonic mosaic of who's
who and who you should love.
All right, well when that
announcement is made, we'll let you
know right here on Austin Signal.
We have been speaking with Taylor
Wallace, your weekday morning drive
time host for our sister station
KUTX, breaking down a few
of the artists of the month featured
as the twenty twenty five KUTX
artists of the month.
We're gonna have a link in our show
notes at KUT dot org
slash signal.
Taylor, thank you for your time.
Always a pleasure.
This is Austin Signal.
Thank you for making us part
of your Tuesday.
Well, if you weren't paying
attention yesterday, we had lots of
movement on the political front.
It was the last day to file
ahead of next year's midterms.
Colin Alrid dropped out of the race
for U.S. Senate, while Congresswoman
Jasmine Crockett joined
in. Locally, Democratic
State Senator Sarah Eckhart
announced that she is running for
Texas Comptroller.
The Austin area politician said
in October that she was running for
the newly drawn 10th Congressional
District after Republican rep
Michael McCall announced that he was
not going to seek re-election, but
things have since changed.
Eckhart said that as Comptroller,
she will stand up for public school
funding and fight fraud, waste,
and abuse in government spending.
You can read more about that over at
K U T.org.
You can also find more about Waymo's
voluntary software recalled
there. And so much more from
our KUT Newsroom.
And that is it for today's show
here on Austin Signal.
Thank you to KUT's Olivia
Aldridge, Texas Standard Shelly
Brisbin, and K U T X's
Taylor Wallace.
We hit the trifecta on today's
show. We couldn't do it without
all the help here.
And I couldn't do it without
managing producer Kristen Cabrera,
technical director Rayna Sevilla,
and our theme music is by
Rene Chavez.
Don't forget about our show, Dad
Jimmy Mass, and I'm your host,
Jerry Quijano.
Thank you for making Austin Signal
part of your day.
We really appreciate spending this
time with you. We'll be back
tomorrow at one o'clock, and
we'll talk to you then.