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...

By: John Hawkins, President and CEO, THA   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 Hospital Association hope that occurs.   But...

BY John Hawkins, President and CEO, THA   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 our state – whether driven by...

BY John Hawkins, President and CEO, THA   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 covered – and preserve anything that’s...

BY John Hawkins, President & CEO, THA   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, we at the Texas Hospital Association...