Collin Leadership Policy Summit 2022: Area Experts Discuss the Future of Health Care in Texas and Collin County

Labor shortages, health care costs, lessons learned from the pandemic, recent and future legislation, and insurance changes were among the many topics discussed at the Future of Health Care panel discussion at the inaugural Collin Leadership Policy Summit held at the Collin College Frisco Campus in November.

This panel included State Representative Candy Noble, President and CEO of the DFW Hospital Council W. Stephen Love, FACHE and CEO of Medical City Plano and Medical City Frisco Dr. Jyric Sims, and Senior Vice President of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas Shara McClure, with Childrens Health System of Texas Board of Directors and Childrens Medical Center Foundation Chair Rebecca Egelston Caso as the moderator.

Lessons learned from the pandemic

While the pandemic has been a challenge in health care, it also seems to have strengthened partnerships and brought about innovative changes.

More people died in [of] COVID-19 than in WWI, WWII, the Vietnam War, and 9/11 all put together, said Dr. Sims.

but through COVID-19, we had the opportunity to lower our competitive edge and raise our collaborative edge. Throughout health systems across DFW we collaborated, we communicated. Relationships really mattered with our state, with our elected officials. Steve Love and with the DFW Hospital Council was able to bring us all together as one community to make sure that we are creating access for those who needed us in the time of need.

McClure mentioned the quick pivoting that took place along with insurance changes that occurred during the pandemic.

Providers, they werent really incentivized financially to provide services by telehealth because they werent paid very well for that. So we made sure that we changed the payment, some of that was policy related, but some of that was just making sure that our members could get taken care of.

Surges in hospitals

Love said, if you look at just the pediatric hospitals [in terms of capacity], were running 99 percent, and the emergency rooms at the pediatric hospitals are seeing a large number of people with RSV [Respiratory Syncytial Virus], flu, Covid, and other upper respiratory diseases.

We called all of the chief medical officers in an emergency call on Friday, he said. [We asked] how can we help our pediatric hospitals?

The things in the emergency room that they normally would refer to a pediatrician if it was not an emergency, per se, they were trying to delay that because they knew that Cook, also Medical City, and Childrens Health E.D.s [Emergency Departments] were overwhelmed. Thats just another example of how the hospitals work together, Love said.

Rep. Noble shared another aspect of pediatric health care needs.

One thing that comes up before human services very frequently is our need for psychiatric beds as well, and we are so grateful for those that are in the mental health part of our health needs. We need more pediatric, sadly, mental health beds, and so that is something we will be looking at as a legislature.

To view the video of this panel session, click here. For more information about the inaugural summit, visit www.collin.edu/policysummit/.