Louisiana House Committee Passes Bill That Would Shift Hospital Funds From New Orleans to Other Regions

The Louisiana House Health and Welfare Committee on Wednesday unanimously approved a bill that aims to shift some Medicaid "uncompensated care" money from New Orleans hospitals to other hospitals in the southern part of the state, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports. The committee rewrote the Senate measure (SB 402) by state Sen. Bill Cassidy (R), which faced opposition from New Orleans lawmakers, to ensure the funds would not be reallocated without approval by the Legislature. The measure would create a new formula for distributing the Medicaid funds among seven hospitals in the southern part of Louisiana. The measure called for developing a new formula by Feb. 1, 2009, and having it go into effect by no later than November 2009. However, after an 8-8 deadlock in the committee, state Rep. Fred Mills (D) added an amendment that removed the implementation deadline.

According to Cassidy, the New Orleans region receives more than twice as much in Medicaid uncompensated care funds per resident than other regions in the southern part of the state. Opponents of the measure said the New Orleans area receives more because it does more complex and expensive procedures than other hospitals in the south. In addition, they say it would take away critical funding from New Orleans as it tries to rebuild its health care system after Hurricane Katrina (Moller, New Orleans Times-Picayune, 6/12).