Texas Healthcare Workforce: House Committee on Public Health
- Tori MacFarlan
- Jun 4
- 1 min read
In order to address the growing shortage of health professionals in certain areas, Texas should expand APRN independent practice authority and pharmacist test-and-treat authority.
Texas faces a healthcare workforce crisis that is worsening as the state grows. The Governor’s Healthcare Workforce Task Force Final Report, issued in October 2024, found that 224 of Texas’ 254 counties are designated as health professional shortage areas (HPSAs), with approximately 6,066,420 Texas residents living in an HPSA. Healthcare accounts for 13.5 percent of total Texas employment, making it the state’s largest employment sector, yet persistent shortages constrain the system’s capacity to meet growing demand.
The data reviewed by the Governor’s Healthcare Workforce Task Force and the research underlying these recommendations converge on the same conclusion: Texas is moving in the wrong direction on healthcare access, and the gap between supply and demand is widening faster than the state’s current trajectory can address. The 89th Session made meaningful progress through the DOCTOR Act, the military licensing provisions, and the nursing pathway workgroup. The two reforms that would make the greatest near-term difference, APRN independent practice authority and pharmacist test-and-treat authority, remain unfinished. The 90th Legislature should evaluate the following recommendations to expand the healthcare workforce in Texas.
