An effort by the Texas Hospital Association leading up to passage of the government funding bill this month may have saved billions of dollars in funding cuts.
The association's CEO says they worked for months by speaking with members of Congress as well as the Governor's office to protect what would have been billions in lost funding for Medicaid in Texas.
Texas Hospital Association CEO John Hawkins says they were able to get local tax programs for local hospitals grandfathered in protecting about $7-billion and $3-billion elsewhere.
"Thus, we successfully protected approximately $10-billion of Texas Medicaid Funding that was on the line in those final days," Hawkins said in a letter.
The Texas Hospital Association says four million Texans are serviced by the state's Medicaid program.
"The bottom line is that Texas Medicaid - and the hospitals that make its care possible - have not suffered the hit that was initially feared," Hawkins said.