With Large Federal Rural Health Award, Promising Possibilities Abound for Texas
Many of us look at a new year as a new beginning – and if the year ahead is going to be better than the one preceding it, it’s good to start your journey with positives and reasons for optimism. Thanks to a historic investment from our federal government, Texas’ rural hospitals and communities are starting the year with 281…
Tested at Every Turn: A Look Back at THA’s Action-Packed Year
After this year’s regular session of the Texas Legislature adjourned in June, I wrote that – in my experience, at least – there had never been a legislative session like it before. Now that we’re about to close the final chapter of 2025, I can safely apply that truth on a broader scale: for Texas hospitals, there’s never been a…
Health Care Should be Exempted From Dramatic H-1B Visa Fee Hike
“Access to care” is a broad term heard a lot in our industry. Providing and improving it is always the aim, but there are many pieces to that puzzle – untold numbers of angular pieces involving patient, insurer and workforce factors. At the heart of that effort is bringing highly skilled medical professionals together with the patients who need their…
Let the Shutdown Be a Reminder: Hospitals Need Long-Term Certainty From Congress
At the start of this month, the federal government shut down for the first time in nearly seven years. This column is written in advance, and it’s possible that by the time you’re reading this, Democrats and Republicans will have ended their standoff and found at least a short-term funding solution to keep the government open. We at the Texas…
In This Special Session, We Stressed Why Hospitals Themselves Are Special
During the special session of the Texas Legislature that just wrapped up, we at the Texas Hospital Association once again had to focus on one of our highest-level – and highest-priority – points that we repeatedly come back to with lawmakers. That perennial message is this: Hospitals are unique, and so are their circumstances. A one-size-fits-all mandate or prohibition in…
Texas Needs Congress to Renew Soon-to-Expire Premium Credits
A fair number of times in this column’s history, you’ve seen me come back to Texas’ uninsured rate. It’s on our minds constantly at THA, because it’s the highest in the nation – more than 16%, at last accounting – and because good health coverage and good health care go hand in hand. We’re always looking to get more Texans…
After the Federal Mega-Bill, Our Lone Star Safety Net Remains Intact
It occupied our time and our minds as much as any issue can while sharing the stage with a state legislative session. For nearly six months, it consumed us. But we made sure it didn’t consume Texas Medicaid. When negotiations began in Congress early this year on a federal budget “mega-bill” that targeted Medicaid cuts as a major cost offset,…
In a Unique Session, THA Survives and Thrives
There’s never been a legislative session quite like this one. Granted, in saying that, I’m only speaking for my time at the Texas Hospital Association, which now covers 21 years and 11 regular sessions of the Texas Legislature. But I can tell you that never, during any of those past sessions, did we have the usual 140-day firehose coming from…
Congress Should Be Careful With Medicaid. Lives Are at Stake.
Since talk of a major congressional budget package began several months ago, our Texas Hospital Association has been stressing that Medicaid – the source of health coverage for more than 4 million Texans – couldn’t handle a seismic and sudden upset. Based on where things stand at this writing, we’ve made progress. But there’s a long way to go, and…
Texas Women – and Hospitals – Need the Certainty and Clarity of the Life of the Mother Act
There is nothing more central to the mission of a hospital than saving lives. If you want our Texas Hospital Association to throw our support behind a bill, the quickest route to opening that discussion is to tell us that the bill will save lives, and then show us how.