Texas hospitals prepare to gather data on treating non-citizens
DALLAS - On Nov. 1, hospitals in Texas will have to start asking patients if they are United States citizens.
The move comes after an August executive order by Governor Greg Abbott.
The data must be reported to the state no later than March 1, 2025, and continue to be reported quarterly.
Abbott says he wants to know how much taxpayer dollars are going to providing care to non-citizens.
"Executive Order 46 will certainly be complied with," said Stephen Love with the DFW Hospital Council. "They're working within their own teams, their legal counsel, their people to do the registrations, whether it be in the ER or outpatient on how they were going to capture this information."
Texas leads the nation in uninsured residents, and most of them are citizens.
The Texas Hospital Association says one out of every six Texans do not have health insurance.
Texas hospitals provided $3 billion in uninsured care that is not reimbursed.
"Increased expenditures for Texas hospitals providing medical care to individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States imposes burdens on the Texas healthcare system, including by predictably increasing the costs of medical care for all Texans," reads the executive order.
Love wants everyone to know that the order does not mean hospitals will refuse care to non-citizens.
"[Gov. Abbott] made it clear we still need to treat them if it's an emergency situation. So this is not designed in any way to say that that should influence whether you treat the patient or not," he said.
The order came at a time where illegal border crossings were high.
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Governor Abbott posted on social media that Texans should not have to foot the bill for healthcare provided to migrants who are in the country illegally.
Since this summer, crossing numbers in Texas have dropped significantly. Primarily, due to Abbott's Operation Lone Star and an executive order from President Biden.
Love says hospitals on the DFW Council support Medicaid expansion, something Texas lawmakers have refused to do.
"Medicaid expansion would not solve all the problems. But Steven, it would go a good way towards helping many people that are uninsured," he argued.
FOX 4 reached out to the governor's office to see if he had any comment ahead of Nov. 1.
Gov. Abbott's team says they stand by their original statement that he will fight to ensure Texas is compensated.