Texas hospitals must begin asking patients if they are lawfully in the country and tracking the cost of treating people without legal status on Friday, according to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive, which deepens the state’s confrontation with the Biden administration over immigration.
Critics fear that the change would scare people away from Texas hospitals, despite the fact that patients are not compelled to answer the questions in order to obtain medical care.
The rule is similar to a program implemented last year in Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has been a vocal critic of the federal government’s handling of illegal crossings along the US-Mexico border.
Texas hospitals have spent months planning for the move and have attempted to reassure patients that it will not alter their level of care.
According to Abbott’s executive order issued in August, hospitals must ask patients if they are U.S. citizens or lawfully present in the country.
Patients have the freedom to withhold information, and medical staff must advise them that their responses will not affect their care, as required by federal law.
Hospitals are not required to start submitting data to the state until March.
An early copy of a spreadsheet created by state health officials to manage data lacks fields for entering patient names and personal information.
Providers will complete a breakdown of inpatient and emergency care patient visits, indicating whether they are lawfully present in the country, citizens, or not.
The reports will also include costs for Medicaid, or the Children’s Health Insurance Program, generally known as CHIP, as well as charges for patients who do not have insurance.
“Texans should not have to shoulder the burden of financially supporting medical care for illegal immigrants,” Abbott said when he announced the policy.
Florida passed a similar bill last year. Health care activists argue that the law has made immigrants in need of emergency medical care scared, resulting in fewer people seeking help, even from facilities that are not subject to the statute.
Florida’s early data is, as the state admits, restricted. The data is self-reported.
According to Florida’s state report, anyone can reject to answer, which nearly 8% of persons admitted to the hospital and around 7% of those who went to the emergency room did between June and December 2023.
Fewer than 1% of those who visited the emergency room or were admitted to the hospital stated that they were in the United States “illegally.”
Immigrant and healthcare advocates have worked to educate the Texas people about their rights. In Florida, groups used text messages, posters, and emails to spread the news.
However, supporters say they haven’t seen anxieties subside in almost a year.
The Texas Hospital Association provided counsel to health care practitioners in addition to legislative directives.
“The bottom line for patients is that this doesn’t change hospital care. Texas hospitals continue to be a safe place for needed care,” said Carrie Williams, spokesperson for the hospital association.
