Louisiana Senate Approves Bill To Redistribute Medicaid Funds

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 15 May 2008 - 8:00 PDT

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The Louisiana Senate on Monday voted 27-8 to approve legislation that would change the way Medicaid funding is divided among charity hospitals in the southern region of the state, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports. The bill (SB 402), sponsored by state Sen. Bill Cassidy (R), is intended to correct what some lawmakers see as a disparity in the amount of tax dollars going to New Orleans Charity Hospital facilities compared with the amount going to the other hospitals in the charity hospital system run by Louisiana State University.

According to a chart distributed by Cassidy, New Orleans charity hospitals treat about 20% of the state's uninsured but receive nearly 50% of the $653 million spent by Louisiana each year on care for the uninsured. Cassidy said this disparity creates longer wait times for patients in other parts of the state.

Under the proposal, LSU would be directed to work with the state Department of Health and Hospitals to create a formula to distribute indigent care funding based on the number of uninsured people in each region of the state by Feb. 1, 2009. The new formula would have to be approved by the state House and Senate health care committees and would be phased in over five years, beginning in 2010. The bill would not affect financing for private and community hospitals, rural hospitals or charity hospitals in Alexandria, Monroa and Shreveport.

Democratic lawmakers say New Orleans receives more Medicaid funding per capita because it sees a disproportionate amount of costly and complex procedures than regional hospitals (Moller, New Orleans Times-Picayune, 5/13).

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