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…

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…

Health Care Advocate: Dec. 21, 2023

Table of Contents THA Urges HHSC to Minimize Risk in CHIRP, QIPP Programs In comments to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) on rule proposals for key payment programs, THA submitted recommendations that will safeguard key Medicaid supplemental funding streams for Texas hospitals and nursing facilities. On the Comprehensive Hospital Increase Reimbursement Program (CHIRP), HHSC proposed to create…

Health Care Advocate: Dec. 14, 2023

Table of Contents House Passes Bill Repealing Medicaid Cuts; THA Still Opposed to Site-Neutral Provisions The sweeping Lower Costs, More Transparency Act – a federal bill with provisions that THA both strongly supports and vehemently opposes – passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Monday, about three months after hospital-industry concerns led lawmakers to shelve it. The bill, which the…

Health Care Advocate: Dec. 7, 2023

Table of Contents THA Engages D.C. Lawmakers on Lower Costs, More Transparency Act THA was in Washington, D.C. last week to discuss key issues with the Texas congressional delegation, with a top-line focus on the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act, which has been scheduled for a vote by the U.S. House of Representatives next week. The bill is the collective…

Health Care Advocate: Nov. 30, 2023

Table of Contents AHA Says Medicare Advantage Plans Aren’t Adhering to 2024 Rules The American Hospital Association is pushing Medicare to make sure that Medicare Advantage (MA) plans adhere to federal rules for calendar year 2024, sending a letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) highlighting certain MA plan policies that AHA believes run afoul of the…