When Hollywood – and one of TV’s preeminent creators of this decade – came to Faith Community Hospital in Jacksboro to film part of a new series debuting this month, the facility pulled off a notable feat: switching between medical setting and television filming location with little warning. Over a handful of days last February and May, Taylor Sheridan –…
Caring for the entirety of a large state with a large uninsured population requires a huge collective effort by Texas hospitals – one that runs in the billions of dollars each year. Charity care – free or discounted care for patients who are unable to pay – is a perennial staple in a state where 5 million people don’t have…
In the broadest sense of the word, Texas hospitals equal health. Not just in the obvious, medical sense – tied to health care facilities’ mission to keep Texans living and thriving – but also economic health. Hospitals net jobs from Lubbock to Laredo. They generate millions in economic activity from Midland to Mount Pleasant. For reasons that certainly include healing…
After this November’s election, a busy “lame duck” session will likely revisit site-neutral payments, pending deep Medicaid cuts and many more issues on hospitals’ radar.
When the Texas Hospital Association pushed for key steps to protect health care workers from violence during last year’s state legislative session, it was trying to reverse a long-standing pattern of troubling incidents driving nurses and others out of the profession – a regrettable status quo that had worsened since the COVID-19 pandemic. But hand in hand with that aim…
Last week, the Texas Hospital Association’s Communications team brought together its counterparts from dozens of hospitals and systems around the state in a first-of-its-kind Texas Hospital Communicators Summit. Over the course of two days, communications professionals shared insights, listened to presentations from THA, the American Hospital Association and other experts, and strategized with their fellow attendees on a collaborative path forward.
Out of all the ways the Texas Hospital Association pushes for better health care in Texas, HOSPAC – the only political action committee that represents all Texas hospitals – may be the most tangible and impactful route to positive change. In a crucial election year – as HOSPAC awaits the results of next week’s Texas primary to see where its…
Three years of saving lives, elevated personal risk and unprecedented professional stress left hospitals across Texas staggering for footing as the COVID-19 pandemic, by most standards, finally dissipated to a memory. But the onslaught of the pandemic was just a prologue. What Texas hospitals got in 2023 as a reward for their service – from a coalition of health insurance…
The unique challenges of caring for populations tucked among open fields and rough two-lane roads haven’t lessened in the 12 years since National Rural Health Day came into being. In fact, in Texas, the need for this day – commemorated on the third Thursday of each November – may be more acute than ever, with more than a quarter of…
To allow Texas hospitals to continue protecting their patients and their environments against COVID-19, the Texas Hospital Association had to get creative. Early in the Texas Legislature’s third special session of 2023, it became clear – despite THA’s best efforts – that there would be no route to fully exempting hospitals from Senate Bill 7 by Sen. Mayes Middleton (R-Galveston),…
