LSU announces plans to lease 3 hospitals to private operators

The operations of LSU’s public hospitals in New Orleans, Houma and Lafayette will be turned over to nonprofit corporations that run private hospitals in the three cities under outsourcing plans unveiled today by Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration. The arrangements were announced by Health and Hospitals Secretary Bruce Greenstein and LSU hospital chief Frank Opelka as part of an administration effort to cut state costs by turning over university-run health care services for the poor and uninsured to the private sector. The Louisiana Children’s Medical Center, which operates Children’s Hospital and Touro Infirmary, will lease the Interim LSU Public Hospital in New Orleans and the new $1.2 billion, 424-bed University Medical Center under development and set to open in about two years. Ochsner Health System, meanwhile, will manage the LSU hospital in Houma, the L.J. Chabert Medical Center. Lafayette General Health System will operate the LSU hospital in Lafayette, which is also called University Medical Center. The privatization plans need approval from the LSU Board of Supervisors, which today announced a special meeting on Friday to vote on them. Lawmakers on the joint House and Senate budget committee will also need to approve the deals before they’re finalized. Opelka says the leases didn’t need to be put out through a public bid process. The details of the annual lease payments haven’t been released. The Associated Press has the full story here.