BY John Hawkins   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 the state Capitol accompanied by another, equally important blast of...

BY John Hawkins, President and CEO, THA   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 the future of Medicaid funding in...

By: John Hawkins, President and CEO, THA   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.   Saving lives is the very reason THA is supporting one of the most consequential – and...

By John Hawkins There’s a lot of talk about government efficiency these days. Whether it’s in Washington, D.C., at the Texas Capitol or on your television, right now there’s no missing it. Much of it centers on financial concerns: whether our tax dollars are being used in a lean and worthwhile manner. But other times, realizing efficiency might be simpler than that; for example, it might be just a matter of making sure everyone has...

BY John Hawkins, President and CEO, THA   Typically, policy disagreements we at the Texas Hospital Association have with other advocates involve reasonable minds presenting differing viewpoints with a credible basis. But here and there, it feels like we’re arguing against believers in a flat Earth – situations where we’re in the position of using settled, established science to fight junk science and dubious anecdotal information.   Increasingly, that’s the vibe around vaccines. Despite all...

By John Hawkins, President & CEO, THA   It’s not uncommon for the Texas Legislature to lay an unusual issue at our feet, something that’s never been a point of contention in our work at the Capitol. In the first days of the Legislature’s 89th session, which kicked off on Jan. 14, we find ourselves addressing something we don’t normally touch on with lawmakers: bollards.   While “bollards” isn’t a widely recognized word, they are...

BY John Hawkins, President and CEO, THA   Figuratively, we in the health care world call it the “safety net”: the hospitals that care for vulnerable patient populations and the mechanisms that allow them to provide that care. But like any literal safety net, it has to be checked and reinforced in order to make sure it will still do the job it’s intended to do: serving Medicaid patients and those who are uninsured.  ...

BY John Hawkins   We’re now past the general election, and Texans across the state have cast their ballots, laying the foundation for the 89th Texas Legislature. We now know who will hold the 181 seats at our Capitol, meaning we’re one step closer to determining the next chapter of health care in Texas.   With a clear layout of the new Legislature that will begin its work on Jan. 14, 2025, the countdown has...

BY John Hawkins   It’s a tricky thing to set up any program – government-run or otherwise – to attack big health care problems on a grand scale. A lot of factors come into play to make such a program work, and once you’ve found the right formula, it’s important to make sure any tweaks won’t dilute its quality – or worse, render it ineffective or unworkable.   Out of the many programs that have...

Special to Medical Journal – Houston By John Hawkins, President/CEO, Texas Hospital Association Earlier this month, the Governor’s Task Force on Health Care Workforce Shortages held its final meeting ahead of a report it’s scheduled to issue by Oct. 1. The task force is aimed at addressing workforce shortages in our industry, identifying additional pathways to grow our supply of needed professionals and removing existing barriers in the state’s health educational programs. Here at THA,...