October 3, 2024
Filing argues that UT partnership is legal, necessary, and improves patient outcomes
AUSTIN – On Monday, Sept. 30, attorneys representing Central Health, Travis County’s hospital district, filed a reply brief with the Third Court of Appeals in support of its appeal seeking to dismiss what remains of litigation first brought in 2017 – known as the Birch lawsuit – to overturn Central Health’s partnership with the Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin.
The partnership, which includes $35 million in annual funding from Central Health to support the medical school, was endorsed enthusiastically by Travis County voters in 2012 and remains popular. In a 2022 survey, nearly 90% of Travis County residents said Central Health’s support of UT’s medical school improved their perceptions of the hospital district.
A decade after Central Health and Dell Med signed their affiliation agreement, and four years after Dell Med graduated its first class of MDs, the benefits anticipated in 2012 are clearly visible. “Central Health’s partnership with the UT Dell Medical School has already led to the launch of multiple specialty clinics serving MAP patients,” the district notes in its filing, referring to its Medical Access Program that provides health coverage to Travis County residents with low income.
The district further cites “an increased number of medical resident doctors providing services to low-income and uninsured patients, decreased wait times and improved health outcomes … better pre-natal and postpartum care for low-income women and their babies, and improved cancer screening for people with low incomes.”
Central Health and Dell Med are well-aligned on the need for and value of equitable community-based health care. In addition, the agreement “imposes multiple obligations on UT that directly benefit Central Health’s patient population,” the district notes. This contradicts the plaintiffs’ arguments that the university considers the payment “a gift,” and that no controls are in place.
Last week, Travis County Commissioners unanimously approved Central Health’s Fiscal Year 2025 tax rate and budget, which includes the $35 million annual payment to UT approved by the voters. However, commissioners asked Central Health to provide more specifics going forward to show how the affiliation agreement translates into care for patients with low income. Central Health President and CEO Dr. Pat Lee pledged to work with his counterpart at Dell Med, Dean Claudia Lucchinetti, on ongoing reporting.
Both Central Health and Dell Med agree the Austin area had and has too few medical providers serving patients with low income, particularly in specialty care. This has led to unacceptably long delays for patients in need of that care, but the Dell Med/Central Health partnership has already significantly increased access to care and reduced wait times. Data shared by Dell Med bears out that the school is honoring the stipulation in the 2012 ballot language that funds be used “for a new medical school consistent with the mission of Central Health.”
Of the 1,060 Graduate Medical Education (GME) students (doctors in training) at Dell Med between 2015 and 2022, more than half have trained as primary care physicians. As promised to voters, Dell Med is creating a pipeline of doctors, with nearly half of all GME students staying to practice in Central Texas. In addition, Dell Med currently enrolls 465 residents and fellows, and that number is growing rapidly. These residents and Dell Med’s own faculty provide well over one million hours of care to Central Texas patients each year, and Dell Med and Central Health have co-recruited many physicians to come to Austin to work with them.
Central Health President & CEO Dr. Patrick Lee said, “Our Healthcare Equity Plan is guiding more than $800 million in investments to build capacity and create a high-quality and equitable safety-net health care system in Travis County. We’ve just in the past year launched more than a dozen new specialty care and diagnostic lines of service, and we expect those practice areas to see a 600% increase in patient volume over the next 12 months. We can do this now, after years of shortages, because we are collaborating with Dell Med to recruit, place, and train the providers we need to deliver that care.”
Read the Dell Medical School’s annual community benefit reports