Author

  • Joey Berlin

    Joey Berlin is the director of advocacy communications at THA. He creates and oversees creation of content to further THA’s messaging on sound health care policymaking at both the state and federal levels, primarily focused on legislative and regulatory matters.

    View all posts Joey Berlin is the director of advocacy communications at THA. He creates and oversees creation of content to further THA’s messaging on sound health care policymaking at both the state and federal levels, primarily focused on legislative and regulatory matters. Regular pieces of content in which Joey plays a central role include THA’s weekly email newsletter, the Health Care Advocate; issue-focused white papers, state and federal priorities documents; the creation of advocacy videos highlighting important issues; and THA’s end-of-session report that recaps important legislation passed in each session of the Texas Legislature. Joey has served in communications roles in the health care trade association industry for nearly a decade. Prior to THA, he worked in communications at the Texas Medical Association (TMA) for seven years, serving as a reporter, associate editor of the association’s monthly magazine, and finally managing editor of TMA’s daily email newsletter. His areas of focus at TMA included legislative affairs, law, public health and quality. Before TMA, Joey spent most of his career in the world of daily news journalism, working at the Topeka Capital-Journal and Emporia Gazette newspapers in both reporting and editing roles in the news and sports departments, and for the news division of WorkCompCentral, a website focused on workers’ compensation. Awards that Joey has won for his newspaper work include a First Place award from the Kansas Press Association for Government/Political Story (Daily Division 2), and Wrestling Media of the Year from the Kansas Wrestling Coaches Association for his high school wrestling coverage. Joey has lived in Austin since 2014 and joined THA in 2022. He’s originally from Leawood, Kan., a suburb of Kansas City.

Articles by Joey Berlin

After the Election: The Outlook for Texas Hospitals
November 13, 2024
7 min read

After the Election: The Outlook for Texas Hospitals

Last week’s general election brought clarity for the Texas Hospital Association on what kind of legislative environment THA and other hospital advocates will be navigating both in Austin and in Washington, D.C. – even as the dust continues to disperse in the latter, with some congressional winners still unknown as votes are counted. Here’s a look at what the election…
Faith Community Hospital
November 11, 2024
5 min read

Rural Texas Hospital Goes Hollywood

When Hollywood – and one of TV’s preeminent creators of this decade – came to Faith Community Hospital in Jacksboro to film part of a new series debuting this month, the facility pulled off a notable feat: switching between medical setting and television filming location with little warning. Over a handful of days last February and May, Taylor Sheridan –…
The Texas Standard: Champions of Charity Care
October 9, 2024
6 min read

The Texas Standard: Champions of Charity Care

Caring for the entirety of a large state with a large uninsured population requires a huge collective effort by Texas hospitals – one that runs in the billions of dollars each year. Charity care – free or discounted care for patients who are unable to pay – is a perennial staple in a state where 5 million people don’t have…
Texas Hospitals: Invaluable -- and Imperiled
July 1, 2024
7 min read

Texas Hospitals: Invaluable – and Imperiled

In the broadest sense of the word, Texas hospitals equal health. Not just in the obvious, medical sense – tied to health care facilities’ mission to keep Texans living and thriving – but also economic health. Hospitals net jobs from Lubbock to Laredo. They generate millions in economic activity from Midland to Mount Pleasant. For reasons that certainly include healing…
The Federal Case: THA in Washington
May 7, 2024
13 min read

The Federal Case: THA in Washington

After this November’s election, a busy “lame duck” session will likely revisit site-neutral payments, pending deep Medicaid cuts and many more issues on hospitals’ radar.
Workplace Violence: Breaking a Cultural Norm
April 10, 2024
5 min read

Workplace Violence: Breaking a Cultural Norm

When the Texas Hospital Association pushed for key steps to protect health care workers from violence during last year’s state legislative session, it was trying to reverse a long-standing pattern of troubling incidents driving nurses and others out of the profession – a regrettable status quo that had worsened since the COVID-19 pandemic. But hand in hand with that aim…
March 5, 2024
3 min read

New Channels: THA’s Hospital Communicators Summit

Last week, the Texas Hospital Association’s Communications team brought together its counterparts from dozens of hospitals and systems around the state in a first-of-its-kind Texas Hospital Communicators Summit. Over the course of two days, communications professionals shared insights, listened to presentations from THA, the American Hospital Association and other experts, and strategized with their fellow attendees on a collaborative path forward.
HOSPAC: Agents of Change
February 29, 2024
5 min read

HOSPAC: Agents of Change

Out of all the ways the Texas Hospital Association pushes for better health care in Texas, HOSPAC – the only political action committee that represents all Texas hospitals – may be the most tangible and impactful route to positive change. In a crucial election year – as HOSPAC awaits the results of next week’s Texas primary to see where its…
COVID-19 Heroes and Memorial Day
February 6, 2024
3 min read

COVID-19 Heroes Day: Honoring Sacrifice

For health care facilities all over Texas, a day of reflection on the heroes and the fallen of the COVID-19 pandemic will tap into memories at polar ends – sadness and happiness, inevitable despair and improbable elation. That’s how it is for Sherri Abendroth as her hospital system, DHR Health in the Rio Grande Valley, prepares to observe the first…
January 9, 2024
7 min read

Texas Hospitals are Reclaiming Reality in 2024

Three years of saving lives, elevated personal risk and unprecedented professional stress left hospitals across Texas staggering for footing as the COVID-19 pandemic, by most standards, finally dissipated to a memory. But the onslaught of the pandemic was just a prologue. What Texas hospitals got in 2023 as a reward for their service – from a coalition of health insurance…