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  • John Hawkins

    View all posts John M. Hawkins is president and chief executive officer of the Texas Hospital Association. He is the organization’s sixth CEO since its inception in 1930. A longtime advocacy veteran, Hawkins has more than 35 years of experience in legislative, leadership and policy circles and has deep knowledge of health care and hospital funding issues. As CEO, he represents the Texas hospital industry locally and nationally and helps ensure hospitals have the resources they need to deliver the highest quality health care to all Texans.

Articles by John Hawkins

May 19, 2022
4 min read

It’s Our Duty to Unite Against Workplace Violence

Health care workers have dealt with endless challenges in recent years, especially after two years of COVID-19 patient care and the resulting burnout and fatigue. As hospitals and health systems face severe staffing shortages, the burden on those workers remaining grows more profound. Amid the mounting pressure and strain, health care workers must contend with, one concern is entirely preventable and must be addressed in a comprehensive and meaningful way. Workplace violence simply cannot be tolerated to any degree within a health care setting. With last month designated as Workplace Violence Awareness Month and June 3 called out by the American Hospital Association as Hospitals Against Violence day, now is the time to highlight what we as organizations and individuals must do to ensure safe, secure work environments for our dedicated health care workforce.
April 25, 2022
4 min read

DPP Approval: The First Step in Securing Texas’ Safety Net

Hospitals around the state are breathing a collective sigh of relief following the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ approval of three directed payment programs in late March. These vital DPPs raise reimbursement rates closer to the cost of providing care to Medicaid enrollees and amount to $5.3 billion a year in payment enhancements to Texas providers. But for nearly seven months, the programs were left pending as CMS and the State of Texas remained in a deadlock over negotiations regarding the programs’ funding methods — leaving the state’s health care providers wondering if they were rapidly heading toward a financial cliff. The Texas Hospital Association is grateful CMS took a step in the right direction by issuing approval of the DPPs, but we also recognize that more work is needed to ensure the lasting viability of the Texas health care safety net.
March 17, 2022
4 min read

Workforce Shortages Threaten Patient Care

Hospitals have grappled with health care workforce shortages long before the pandemic, but two years of providing COVID-19 care have strained provider resources and staff like never before. Health care workers serving on the frontlines of one COVID-19 variant surge after the next are profoundly burned out and exiting hospital employment in record numbers. Some are leaving the field altogether, while others are trading full-time work for more lucrative travel positions. Without policies designed to build and sustain a robust health care workforce, this exodus of skilled professionals from hospital employment could threaten providers’ ability to care for patients.
February 17, 2022
4 min read

Critical Funding Remains in Limbo as Pandemic Wears On

While much of our attention lately has been focused on the COVID-19 pandemic and related challenges, another crisis has been quietly brewing with the potential to drastically impede health care delivery across Texas. Since last fall, supplement payment programs that raise hospitals’ Medicaid reimbursements closer to the actual cost of care either expired or are still awaiting federal approval. Months have now passed without Medicaid providers receiving these desperately needed funds, as negotiations between the state and federal authorities remain at an impasse. Additionally, the 10-year Medicaid 1115 waiver extension was rescinded last April, and its future remains uncertain. The stress on hospitals responding to the ongoing pandemic is significantly compounded by this absence of funding and lack of clarity over the future of vital payment programs.
January 18, 2022
4 min read

Despite Workforce Challenges, Frontline Workers Bravely Tackle Another Surge

Hope was on the horizon as we inched closer to the end of 2021. Powerful tools like vaccines, masks, boosters and testing capabilities were ubiquitous, and the general public was deeply educated about how to protect themselves. A new year brought hope for a new health care environment that perhaps would largely leave COVID-19 in the rearview mirror. But, as the holidays unfolded, so did another serious wave of infections due to the omicron variant. And once again, health care workers and hospitals found themselves under siege as COVID-19 hospitalization trajectories went straight up in Texas and across the nation.