Special to the Bulletin
U.S. Rep. Chip Roy has introduced legislation that would require hospitals participating in federal health care programs to ask patients about their citizenship or immigration status and report aggregate data to the federal government.
Roy, a Republican whose 21st Congressional District includes Bandera County and portions of the Texas Hill Country, announced the Illegal Alien Patient Reporting Act on Tuesday, July 14. According to Roy's office, the legislation is intended to provide information on the cost of hospital care for people who are not lawfully present in the United States.
Under the proposal, hospital admission, registration or other intake forms would be required to ask patients or their authorized representatives to indicate the patient's immigration status.
Categories outlined in the bill include U.S. citizens or nationals, lawful permanent residents, nonimmigrants lawfully in the country and others with lawful status, as well as people who are not lawfully present in the United States.
The bill would also require intake forms to state that a patient's response would not affect the care they receive.
The legislation says immigration status would not be reported to law enforcement except in certain circumstances involving patients suspected of or charged with criminal or immigration-related offenses.
Hospitals would be required to submit quarterly reports to the U.S. departments of Health and Human Services and Homeland Security.
The reports would include the number of patients in each immigration- status category and the number who declined to answer. The bill would prohibit federal rules from requiring hospitals to disclose patient names or other personally identifying information in those reports.
Hospitals that failed to meet the reporting requirements could be excluded from participation in federal health care programs, according to the bill.
'For years, Americans have watched overcrowded emergency rooms, rising health care costs, and strained hospital resources while being kept in the dark about the potential billions of taxpayer dollars spent on health care for those who are in the country illegally,' Roy said in a statement.
Roy said the legislation would provide 'transparency and accountability' by collecting information on what he described as the fiscal impact of providing health care to people in the country illegally.
The bill would also direct the secretary of Health and Human Services to submit an annual report to Congress containing aggregated hospital data and information on uncompensated care costs for patients not lawfully present in the country.
The report would examine the effect of those costs on hospitals' ability to provide services and their funding needs.
The proposal comes as Texas already requires certain hospitals to collect information related to patients' citizenship or immigration status.
Gov. Greg Abbott issued Executive Order GA-46 in August 2024, directing hospitals to ask patients during the intake process whether they are U.S. citizens or lawfully present in the country.
Hospitals must report certain patient and cost data to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. State guidance says patients must be notified that their response will not affect their care.
Unlike the Texas requirements, Roy's legislation would establish reporting requirements for hospitals participating in federal health care programs nationwide.
Federal law generally requires Medicare-participating hospitals with emergency departments to screen and stabilize patients with emergency medical conditions regardless of their ability to pay or immigration status. Patients are also not required to answer immigration-status questions to receive emergency care, Newsweek reported.
Supporters of Roy's proposal, including several organizations that advocate for stricter immigration enforcement, said in statements released by his office that the legislation would provide additional information about uncompensated hospital care and its cost to taxpayers.
Immigrant and patient advocacy organizations have raised concerns about similar reporting requirements, arguing that questions about immigration status could discourage some patients from seeking medical treatment.
In Texas, advocacy groups have emphasized that patients may decline to answer immigration-status questions, while state guidance says a patient's response cannot affect care.
The legislation would have to advance through Congress and be signed by the president before becoming law.
.png)
