SAN JUAN, Texas - La Unión del Pueblo Entero is advising members not to give information on their citizenship status if they seek help at an acute care hospital.
On August 8, Gov. Greg Abbott issued Executive Order (EO) No. GA-46, requiring the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to collect information from Texas hospitals on the costs expended to provide acute health care services to undocumented immigrants.
The EO required HHSC to direct Texas hospitals to starting collecting the data from Nov. 1, 2024. The hospitals are required to ask each inpatient and emergency room patient whether they are a citizen or alien lawfully present in the United States or an alien not lawfully present in the United States.
The EO requires the Texas hospitals, when collecting this information from patients, to inform the patient that response to such information request will NOT affect patient care in accordance with federal law.
LUPE Executive Director Tania A. Chavez Camacho said her group is providing important information to its members, in case they need care in an acute care hospital.
“Patient care will not be affected by the order,” Chavez said. “No person, regardless of immigration status, should forgo or delay seeking necessary inpatient or emergency care at hospitals due to Executive Order GA-46. Hospitals will continue to provide necessary health care services to all regardless of immigration status.”
Chavez pointed out that the order itself mandates that hospitals inform patients that their response to the question will not affect patient care.
“Patients are not required to respond and may decline to answer. The EO requires hospitals to ask the questions of patients, but patients may decline to answer.”
Chavez said LUPE is advising its members not to answer the question.
And she noted that patients seeking emergency Medicaid coverage in Texas (the TP 30 program) are required to respond to immigration status questions.
Chavez said a patient’s immigration status will not be reported to authorities under the EO.
“The EO does not require hospitals to report immigration status of patients to the state, lawful enforcement agencies or immigration authorities,” Chavez pointed out. “The EO only requires hospitals to collect information relating to the cost of providing care to persons not lawfully present in the United States.”
Chavez also explained that hospital physician and urgent care clinics will not ask immigration questions.
“The EO only applies to inpatient and emergency room services,” Chavez said. “Hospitals are not required to ask immigration status questions in hospital operated physician or urgent care clinics or other outpatient departments.”
Chavez gave examples to these. They could be physician clinics, like family medicine, internal medicine, OBGYN, urology, cardiology, gastroenterology, physical therapy, orthopedic etc.
Editor's Note: Here is a video recording of an interview the Rio Grande Guardian secured with Chavez on the subject of EO No. GA-46:
