Louisiana Health Department Secretary Discusses Possible Cost-Saving Measures

Cutting the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals' operating budget by 5% next year could lead to reduced access to care for low-income and elderly residents and those with disabilities, DHH Secretary Alan Levine wrote in a letter to state House Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services Chair Tom McVea (R), the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports. Lawmakers say they are trying to develop measures that would reduce the state's operating expenses by about $250 million.

According to Levine, most of the agency's $8.5 billion budget is allocated to the Medicaid program, 30% of which is financed by the state with the remaining funds coming from the federal government. Levine wrote that reducing spending by $86 million could lead to a reduction of $302 million after accounting for lost federal matching funds (Moller, New Orleans Times-Picayune, 4/18).

Levine offered lawmakers several options to reduce spending, including:

• Eliminating a program that provides community-based services for the developmentally disabled to save $41 million;
  
  
• Lowering the Medicaid payment rate for nursing homes to save $8 million;
  
  
• Reducing by one day the length of time a Medicaid beneficiary is allowed to stay in a charity hospital to save $27.5 million; and
  
  
• Eliminating an adult health care day program in New Orleans and the hospital unit and group home at Villa Feliciana medical complex to save $1.1 million.