CEO Messages

Texas hospitals are mission-driven organizations dedicated to healing patients. However, they are also businesses that have to worry about their financial health – which is not guaranteed. And unlike any other business, cutting off a vital source of operating revenue will lead to devastating consequences for the health of the communities they serve.

Everyone needs and deserves medical care. Texas hospitals understand that as well as anyone. And in a state with the country’s highest uninsured rate, where charity care and indigent care are a fact of life – from the Panhandle to Port Isabel, from El Paso to Houston – our hospitals fulfill that need.

Every piece of financial certainty our hospitals can get these days is appreciated – especially for the facilities that treat the most vulnerable Texans. For the rest of this year, at least, our safety-net hospitals have a sense of certainty that’s been a long time coming.

It seems that every month, the threat becomes greater and greater for hospitals across the country: the possibility that bad actors can disrupt the hospital’s operations – or effectively bring them to a halt – without the offenders leaving their couch.

Last month, our hospitals finally realized a major legislative goal when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) approved Texas’ state plan amendment to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage for mothers to one year.

New Year’s resolutions are all about taking a step forward – improving yourself or something about the world around you, whether striving for big changes or more modest ones. Here at the Texas Hospital Association, our New Year’s resolution is an ambitious one: set the record straight and make sure the contentious year our hospitals faced in 2023 won’t be…

Like most people, we were hoping it was all over. But once again, we rose to make our case – and protected Texas hospitals and health care. Months after the 88th regular session of the Texas Legislature ended – successfully for health care on many fronts, thanks to fierce THA advocacy – Gov. Greg Abbott called for the third extra…

With no major federal or state offices up for grabs, it’s likely most people aren’t thinking of this as an election year. But in fact, it is – and for health care champions, there’s one issue on the ballot particularly worth your participation, one that could potentially shape Texas’ health care landscape for a long time to come.

COVID-19 is back. And while it may not become a public health emergency this time – knock on wood – its resurgence serves as a timely note of caution.

For some time, rural hospitals – the facilities in our state facing the greatest threat to their existence – have needed help. This year, in several key ways, the Texas Legislature provided a helping hand. But there remains work to do.