Bill Requiring Texas Hospitals to Report the Citizenship Status of Patients Killed in House

A Republican-backed measure that would have forced Texas hospitals to report each year how many undocumented immigrants they treat failed to make it through the House Tuesday night following a successful parliamentary challenge from a Democratic lawmaker.

Last year, Gov. Greg Abbott ordered hospitals to begin asking and counting patients who were lawfully in the United States, following a similar move by Florida.

Late Tuesday, the Texas House was set to vote on state Rep. Mike Olcott’s House Bill 2587, which would have codified Abbott’s order into law {snip}

But state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, successfully blocked the bill, by raising a “point of order” because the caption describing the bill did not reflect what the bill was about.

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Last year, Abbott became the second governor in the nation to order hospitals receiving Medicaid funding for a head count of patients they treated who were not lawfully in the United States. Last month, the state reported that Texas hospitals spent nearly $122 million for the month of November on patients who were not lawfully in the United States.