Louisiana is renegotiating deals with the private managers of its safety-net hospitals and services, in what is becoming an annual bargaining session aimed at keeping state costs in check.
Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne tells The Associated Press that drafts of the latest contract proposals are out this week for hospital managers to review.
One deal with the Louisiana Children’s Medical Center, which operates the New Orleans safety-net hospital and clinics, has been reached and will expire in June 30, 2018, like the others expected to be renegotiated.
The main negotiation issue is money. Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration is trying to ensure the deals have caps on the state’s financial liability amid Louisiana’s continued budget struggles.
“I don’t think there are any of our partner hospitals who are asking for less and who don’t think they should be paid more, but we don’t have the resources,” Dardenne says. “It’s a huge amount of money, there’s no question.”
The contracts, negotiated by former Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration, will carry a nearly $1.2 billion price tag in the fiscal year that began July 1, data from the Louisiana Department of Health shows. Lawmakers reduced spending on the contracts this year by about 6% to help balance the budget.
Jindal privatized nine state-owned charity hospitals and their clinics that cared for Louisiana’s poor and uninsured through no-bid contracts over 2013 and 2014. The facilities had been run by LSU.
