Its the second largest area of funding in the state.
- Feds restore billions in halted payments to Texas hospitals, but the fight over uninsured care continues.
Federal health officials on Friday restored $7 million a day in funding to Texas hospitals after stopping it six months ago over concerns about how the state pays for health care for uninsured Texans.
Until last September, Texas had tapped this funding, which comes through what is known as the 1115 Medicaid waiver, to reimburse hospitals for patients who use Medicaid. Most states are able to get these dollars by matching the federal dollars from their general revenue.
But Texas had come up with its own mechanism known as the Local Provider Participation Funds, in which private hospitals set up taxing districts and sent that money through local and state governments to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
- Analysis: Texas gets a respite on Medicaid, but not a cure for the uninsured.
Texas got some breathing room when the federal government decided last week to continue sending Medicaid money for health care for some of the state’s residents without private insurance.
Texas is one of a dozen states that hasn’t expanded its Medicaid program under the federal Affordable Care Act. It’s a financially attractive federal match — the state would get roughly 90 cents for every dime invested — that has been the bane of Republicans in Texas from the moment of its inclusion in what some of them still refer to as Obamacare.
It’s also the state with the highest number of uninsured residents: 4.9 million, according to the latest American Community Survey data for 2020 from the U.S. Census Bureau. That was 17.3% of the population — also the highest in the country.
Texas found a way to bring in more Medicaid money without signing up for expansion. As The Texas Tribune’s Karen Brooks Harper described it, “Texas had come up with its own mechanism known as the Local Provider Participation Funds, in which private hospitals set up taxing districts and sent that money through local and state governments to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.”
- Texas health providers are suspending gender-affirming care for teens in response to GOP efforts.
Leading medical organizations across the country say gender-affirming care is the best way to provide care for transgender children. It primarily involves choices around name, pronouns and clothing that align with a child’s gender identity. It can eventually include puberty blockers and hormone treatment. Surgical care is rarely, if ever, performed on teenagers.
But in response to the Texas GOP’s recent efforts to limit scientifically backed gender-affirming care, LGBTQ advocates say hospitals, insurance companies and pharmacies across the state had already started restricting critical treatment for fear of legal consequences.
Health care providers worry they could lose their medical licenses if they don’t abide by Abbott’s directive.
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy told the Tribune that Abbott’s directive has had a chilling effect on health care practitioners, hospital systems and clinics.
“What’s happening right now is the state inserting itself between doctors, patients and families,” Murthy said. “That runs counter to the integrity of the doctor-patient relationship.”
