Health Care Advocate: Feb. 29, 2024

Table of Contents AHA Stresses Impacts, Federal Urgency Following Optum Breach As hospitals nationwide keep tabs on the continuing impact of last week’s cyberattack on Optum’s Change Healthcare, the American Hospital Association is providing updates to its members and outlining the ramifications of the breach to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). AHA is posting updates on…

Health Care Advocate: Feb. 22, 2024

Table of Contents Optum Suffers Cyberattack; Hospitals Encouraged to Disconnect for Security The American Hospital Association has warned members about a cyberattack against Change Healthcare, which is part of Optum, a major health care technology provider. According to a story from TechCrunch, the attack started early Wednesday on the East Coast. While AHA has warned the FBI, the Cybersecurity and…

Health Care Advocate: Feb. 15, 2024

Table of Contents Prepare For the “Madness” Again, THA Lobbyist Tells Conference Goers Sketching out the challenging political environment that greeted hospitals in 2023, and detailing THA’s ambition to seize control of the narrative this year, THA’s senior vice president of advocacy and public policy recapped last year’s session of the Texas Legislature and looked ahead to what will be…

Health Care Advocate: Feb. 8, 2024

Table of Contents THA Urges Scrapping of Medicaid Cuts in Letter to Congressional Reps THA submitted a letter to the Texas congressional delegation this week reinforcing the association’s stance on potentially significant funding issues, asking for elimination of the pending Medicaid disproportionate share hospitals (DSH) funding cut, urging opposition to site-neutral payment cuts and advocating for preserving the current framework…

Honor Your Hospital’s COVID-19 Heroes on March 4

(Feb. 2, 2024) — The harrowing, lifesaving work of our hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic was as vital to our state’s health and well-being as it was arduous for everyone on the front lines. Beginning this year, our state is working to see that the heroics displayed at our facilities over those roughly three years will never be forgotten. I’m…

Health Care Advocate: Feb. 1, 2024

Table of Contents THA Asks Senate Committee to Study Prior Auth, Workforce Spotlighting nursing education and workforce shortages among many salient areas of study, THA released its list of recommended interim charges for the Texas Senate Health & Human Services Committee to take up before the 2025 legislative session. THA submitted its recommendations in four high-level categories: On workforce –…

Health Care Advocate: Jan. 25, 2024

Table of Contents Input From THA Shapes New Hospital-At-Home Rules After acting as the driving force behind a new state law allowing for hospital-at-home programs in Texas, THA helped shape the regulations on hospital-at-home services finalized last week by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC). Last Friday, HHSC adopted its final rules concerning Hospital at Home Application and…

Health Care Advocate: Jan. 18, 2024

Table of Contents THA Launches Movement to Boost Hospital Voices, Perception Determined to head off the misinformation and blameful rhetoric hospitals faced during the 2023 state legislative session, THA is going on the offensive with an effort to correct and wrest control of the narrative going forward, setting the tone for this membership-wide movement through its new Hospitals in Action…

Health Care Advocate: Jan. 11, 2024

Table of Contents AHA, THA Continue to Urge Congress to Stop Medicaid Cuts Despite the announcement of a top-line spending agreement in Congress to fund the government past two upcoming deadlines, THA and the American Hospital Association are staying vigilant when it comes to long-delayed Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (DSH) cuts, which would go into effect next week if lawmakers…

Health Care Advocate: Jan. 4, 2024

Table of Contents Court Upholds Ban on Enforcing Federal Abortion Guidance The federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the state of Texas in its lawsuit challenging the U.S. government’s enforcement of abortion-related emergency care guidance, issued in 2022 shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in its decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s…