The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals projects public-private partnerships at several hospitals across the state will be eliminated for fiscal year 2017, though funding for the LSU Health Sciences Centers at New Orleans and Shreveport will be maintained.
DHH Undersecretary Jeff Reynolds, presenting the department’s projections to the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services, said the state is prioritizing medical education through LSUHSC as a means to keep the health care system working in the face of heavy cuts.
Under worst-case-scenario projections, as many as eight hospitals will cancel their public-private partnership contracts, potentially forcing them to close. Reynolds said these closures could be “disastrous” for the health care environment in Louisiana, leaving residents in rural areas without primary or emergency care available.
Those hospitals in danger of closing include W.O. Moss Regional in Lake Charles, Bogalusa Medical Center in Bogalusa, Chabert Medical Center in Houma, Huey P. Long Medical Center in Alexandria, E. A. Conway Medical Center in Monroe and University Medical Center in Lafayette.
But the projections aren’t entirely rosy for the LSU Health Sciences Centers, either. They will likely take cuts in FY 2017, though they’ll be modest compared to those other hospitals face. But LSUHSC-New Orleans Chancellor Larry Hollier says the teaching hospitals will suffer for the loss of resources the hospital closures will bring.
Almost 500 LSUHSC-New Orleans students take residencies in public-private partnership hospitals around the state, and canceling those partnerships would leave the center with nowhere to send its students, Hollier said.
“The case density in New Orleans is simply not there,” Hollier says.
—Gordon Brillon
Jeremy Alford and Gordon Brillon will publish a daily update throughout the legislative regular session on Daily Report PM. Alford reports on Louisiana politics at LaPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter or on Facebook. He can be reached at JJA@LaPolitics.com.
