Viewpoint: Beginning of the end for charity hospitals

The best thing to come Louisiana’s way since the start of the Obama administration, LaPolitics columnist John Maginnis writes, has to be the $475 million arbitration award won by LSU last week to replace the Katrina-damaged Charity Hospital in New Orleans. Resolving the drawn-out dispute with the Federal Emergency Management Agency marks the last big piece of unfinished recovery business to fall into place since the water went down. Along with $300 million the state has banked, LSU has a two-thirds down payment toward constructing a $1.2 billion academic medical center alongside the planned Veterans Administration Hospital on 70 acres near downtown. Now it can move ahead on forming the non-profit entity that can issue revenue bonds that won’t count against the state’s debt limit. A confederation of community and preservation groups still want the new hospital to be built within the shell of the old one, but LSU and state officials make a compelling case for development of a brand-new medical complex with room to grow. What makes the difference so far is that the opponents don’t have enough allies at the State Capitol, whereas LSU has the big one. Gov. Bobby Jindal envisions the two hospitals forming a bio-medical corridor that will attract research grants and jobs to bolster the city’s economy and serve its healthcare needs. He is unlikely to break ground on anything this big as long as he is governor, so the healthcare complex figures to be his most tangible and enduring legacy. To read the full column, click here.