SAN ANTONIO — Texas hospitals are now mandated to ask patients their legal status as part of Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order announced in August.
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) issued the guidance, noting “hospital providers must ask each patient during the hospital intake process whether the patient is (1) a citizen or an alien lawfully present in the United States, or (2) an alien not lawfully present in the United States.”
The directive calls for hospitals to report the data and the associated financial costs to HHSC. Abbott aims for the federal government to reimburse Texas for the care provided.
“Due to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ open border policies, Texas has had to foot the bill for medical costs for individuals illegally in the state,” Abbott said in a press release on Aug. 8.
Erica Schommer, a law professor at St. Mary’s University, said patients do not need to answer the legal status question. She also stressed specific information identifying patients would not be included in the data reported to the State of Texas.
“They could decline to answer the question,” Schommer said. “And so there really ought not to be a concern that somehow this information, a person’s name or address or identifying information on the intake forms would be shared with the state and they’d be flagged as being undocumented.”
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) released an updated “Know Your Rights” guideline as a reference for people to know about their federally protected right to access medical care.
"Access to medical care is not a privilege, it is a lawful right when a person is facing a medical emergency,” said LULAC legal advisor Gloria Leal. "These guidelines conform to those federal laws, and the governor's executive action requires the business, not the patient, to disclose information."
Leal believes it’s possible the executive order could deter some people from seeking out medical care.
“It is suspect that it is issued during an election period,” Leal said. “We are concerned that Hispanics, undocumented, the poor, will be subject to profiling or that they might be subject to unconscious bias by providers or staff.
The Texas Hospital Association released a statement in response to the executive order:
“The bottom line for patients is that this doesn’t change hospital care. Texas hospitals continue to be a safe place for needed care. On the particulars of implementation, all hospitals are different. Hospitals across the state are working on the backend to determine how to comply with the reporting guidance and meet the state’s deadlines.”
University Health in San Antonio also noted in a statement, “We are complying with the governor’s executive order, and have trained the hospital ER and inpatient registration teams.”