Louisiana Health Department Secretary Discusses Possible Cost-Saving Measures
Main Category: Public HealthArticle Date: 22 Apr 2008 - 10:00 PDT
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.
Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
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