File – Night view of the emergency department illuminated red sign at a hospital in Walnut Creek, California, March 15, 2022 (Photo: Gado/Getty Images)
Austin, Texas – Texas hospitals have seen tens of thousands of patients who spent millions of dollars in care, as information about their patients’ immigration status needs to be collected.
What we know:
Gov. Governor Greg Abbott signed an executive order in August 2024 requiring Texas Hospitals to gather information about “patients that are not legally present in the United States.”
The hospital began gathering information on November 1, 2024 and was required to report the data to Texas Health and Human Services by March 1, 2025.
On Monday, the House Committee on Public Health heard testimony about Fort Worth Republican Rep. Mike Alcott’s bill that would make Abbott’s executive order a law.
Victoria Grady, a provider finance director for the Texas Health and Human Services Committee, said the bill would help provide hospitals with clarity on how and what data they will submit.
“We are not currently requesting them to submit it to us electronically,” Grady said. “We have received some submissions by mail from several hospitals, so we are re-entering the numbers they sent in our spreadsheet.
Grady said 558 of the 600 hospitals that need to send data have met the March 1 deadline. That data has not been published.
“We could say that the number of visits was thousands, tens of thousands, and the cost was millions,” Grady said. “We need to finalize the data by the end of the weekend.”
Alcott said the bill would help us understand the percentage of uncompensated care given to those who were not legally admitted to the country.
“A small rural hospital is struggling financially,” Alcott said. “Is it all for illegal immigration? No. How much is it for? I don’t know the answer to that.”
Alcott said 181 rural hospitals have been closed since 2005.
The other side:
Immigration rights advocate Priscilla Lugo argued that the bill would harm victims of human trafficking. She said 28% of human trafficking victims are being watched for medical care while being trafficked.
“Texas should not be a place where abused people can’t step into hospitals and get the care and intervention they need,” Lugo said.
Alcott said the bill does not include immigration enforcement.
“I would like to emphasize that this bill does not have a single component of immigration enforcement,” Alcott said.
No insurance in Texas
The Texas Hospital Association estimates that about one in six Texans do not have health insurance. That would be around 17% of Texans who don’t have medical insurance. It’s well above the US average of 8%.
In 2023, THA said $3.1 billion in medical care had not been reimbursed.
The Alcott bill was left pending by the committee.
Source: Information regarding House Bill 2587 comes from the Texas Legislature. Information on non-citizen costs and visits at Texas Hospital comes from testimony during a session of the House Committee on Public Health on April 22. Information about Texas uninsured is from the Texas Hospital Association.
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