BY John Hawkins, President/CEO, Texas Hospital Association   As back-to-school season begins and new federal guidance creates confusion, staying up to date on vaccines protects families and communities alike   Back-to-school season brings a flood of to-dos for parents and students. Beyond school supplies and bus routes, a layer of new confusion has been added to the list. A new executive order from the Trump administration established a “gold standard” for childhood vaccine recommendations, changing...

BY John Hawkins, President/CEO, Texas Hospital Association Charity Care and Community Benefits are vital to the health of Texans, and our hospitals exceed expectations when it comes to care. Texas leads the nation in uninsured residents – but it also leads in stepping up for them. That’s not a coincidence. It’s a choice our hospitals make every day, and one worth defending. Charity care and community benefits are essential to the well-being of our state,...

Special to Medical Journal – Houston By John Hawkins, President/CEO, Texas Hospital Association Businesses and families are flocking to Texas, adding nearly 400,000 new residents in 2025. To keep our great state healthy, we need a healthcare system that can keep up. Texas needs to add roughly 2,100 to 2,700 healthcare workers monthly just to keep up with population growth. The stakes are clear: When there aren’t enough people to provide care, patients wait longer,...

BY John Hawkins, President/CEO, Texas Hospital Association   It is time to treat behavioral health with the same urgency and importance as physical health – and ensure coverage reflects that reality.   Texas is in the midst of a mental health crisis. We can no longer idly stand by as the current system fails to meet patient needs across the Lone Star State. Texans deserve the highest quality of care, not to struggle accessing basic...

BY John Hawkins, President/CEO, Texas Hospital Association   It’s no secret that the cost of health care has spiraled, and patients and hospitals are feeling the strain. As the cost of care continues to dominate headlines, several misconceptions have emerged about what is actually driving those increases.   Outpatient payments — more commonly known as facility fees — have taken the brunt of this scrutiny. Critics often portray them as unnecessary charges designed to pad...

BY John Hawkins   At Austin’s most well-known building, plenty of important work happens when most of Texas isn’t paying much attention.   In even-numbered years, when the Texas Legislature isn’t in session, our state lawmakers still have plenty to do at the Capitol – and so does the Texas Hospital Association. That’s when legislative committees study specific topics – known as interim charges – that lay the groundwork for what’s to come when the...

BY John Hawkins   We’re all hearing a lot about affordability these days. In these polarized times, one of the few things most of us can agree on is that too many things are too expensive.   When people get specific about the things they pay too much for, health care expenses are as likely to come up as just about anything. Naturally, many of those complaints are tied to what people are paying for...

BY John Hawkins   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 an historic investment from our federal government, Texas’ rural hospitals and communities are starting the year with 281 million reasons to believe in a better future.   Just before...

BY John Hawkins, President and CEO, THA   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 year like this before.   From...

BY John Hawkins, President and CEO, THA   “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 care. To many hospitals, H-1B worker visas...