By Ted Shaw, President/CEO, Texas Hospital Association As COVID-19 vaccines continue to flow to patients across the state, Texas health care providers have another reason to be hopeful for the future. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently approved a monumental 10-year extension of a Medicaid waiver that provides critically needed stability to the health care safety net in Texas. Last year, Texas hospitals incurred more than $4.6 billion in uncompensated care costs. Then,...

By Ted Shaw, President/CEO, Texas Hospital Association With the new year comes new opportunities and a renewed focus on our goals for the future. COVID-19 vaccination is underway, and Texas hospitals hope for a healthy future. But herd immunity is just one part of ensuring a healthy future for Texas residents. Texas hospitals have several public policy priorities for the 87th Texas Legislature, which recently convened in Austin for its 140-day legislative session. Reducing the...

By Ted Shaw, President/CEO, Texas Hospital Association Almost a year ago, COVID-19 was a deadly disease at arm’s length from the United States – an issue overseas we watched and hoped would stay boxed in and contained. We expected limited impact on health and human life. Today, COVID-19 is our central focus as we head into the holidays. In 2020, we faced shortages of staff, testing supplies and personal protective equipment. We fought desperately for...

By Ted Shaw, President/CEO, Texas Hospital Association   Texas is leading the case that landed the Affordable Care Act in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court. The state argues that the ACA is unconstitutional because the U.S. Congress eliminated the penalty for not complying with the individual mandate—the part of the law that requires people to maintain a minimum level of health insurance. For a state with the most uninsured residents in the nation...

By Ted Shaw, President/CEO, Texas Hospital Association The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are deep and wide-ranging. From our health to our pocketbooks, there are few people this public health and economic crisis has not touched. The pandemic certainly created new challenges. And in some cases, it exacerbated existing ones. We now have the chance to use innovation and ingenuity to solve new challenges and triumph over the old ones. Accessing necessary medical care has...

By Ted Shaw, President/CEO, Texas Hospital Association Beyond the changes to our day to day lives, the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a reckoning throughout the country’s health care infrastructure. The pandemic has upended who can access care and how it’s delivered and paid for. Millions are newly uninsured, while others are choosing to delay necessary care. With COVID-19 impacting people of color at alarmingly disproportionate rates, health disparities and the social determinants of health are...

By Ted Shaw, President/CEO, Texas Hospital Association   As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, health care experts moved quickly to reinforce ways to mitigate disease spread. Good hygiene, social distancing, face coverings, and staying home are important precautions to minimize risk COVID-19. They also are important safeguards to help fight seasonal influenza. Fighting the flu will be paramount this upcoming flu season, as COVID-19 continues to sicken our communities and tax health care systems and infrastructures....

By Ted Shaw, President/CEO, Texas Hospital Association Hospitals and health care workers prepared for the spread of COVID-19 early on. They consulted and implemented expert infection control procedures. They found ways to safely reuse personal protective equipment when masks where in short supply. They have adjusted patient areas to separate potentially infectious individuals from the general population. Direct care staff have taken the appropriate precautions to protect themselves from contracting COVID-19 so they can continue...

By Ted Shaw, President/CEO, Texas Hospital Association   Hospitals consistently are confronted with new situations, emergencies and events—often unique and unlike those they have encountered before. In 2014, a Dallas hospital treated the country’s first case of Ebola. During Hurricane Harvey, hospitals statewide rushed to respond to and heal those impacted by the state’s most damaging and expensive hurricane to date. Months later, the Texas First Baptist Church shooting would kick off a string of...

By Ted Shaw, THA president/CEO   Public health emergencies and disasters often are defined by their impact on human health. When Hurricane Harvey dumped 50 inches of rain in the Houston area and forged a path of destruction across the Texas Gulf Coast in 2017, 20 hospitals were forced to close or evacuate. More than 5,300 Texans were cared for during both the rescue and recovery efforts. The storm displaced hundreds of thousands of Texans...