DHH chief offers ideas
Budget committee seeks 5% in cuts
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Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine offered legislators a couple of suggestions Thursday for cutting the agency’s budget by 5 percent.
Levine’s suggestions include eliminating a Baton Rouge-area housing program for homeless people with substance abuse problems.
In a letter released Thursday, Levine responded to a budget committee’s request that he recommend ways to cut his budget by 5 percent, or $86 million, from the state funded portion of the budget.
The department’s proposed budget is $8.5 billion, of which only $3.1 billion comes from state government. The rest comes from federal sources.
Lawmakers say they are trying to reduce the growth of state government spending in Gov. Bobby Jindal’s proposed $30 billion state operating budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
Levine noted that Jindal’s budget proposal for DHH already is 4 percent less than what the agency requested.
Rather than give legislators an itemized list of what else he would cut, Levine gave them a list of what they could cut.
“Without knowing the Legislature’s priorities as a starting point, these options are not recommendations, but rather examples of various programs the Legislature could choose to address and the potential impact of such reductions,” Levine wrote. He said the Legislature could save:
Levine’s suggestions include eliminating a Baton Rouge-area housing program for homeless people with substance abuse problems.
In a letter released Thursday, Levine responded to a budget committee’s request that he recommend ways to cut his budget by 5 percent, or $86 million, from the state funded portion of the budget.
The department’s proposed budget is $8.5 billion, of which only $3.1 billion comes from state government. The rest comes from federal sources.
Lawmakers say they are trying to reduce the growth of state government spending in Gov. Bobby Jindal’s proposed $30 billion state operating budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
Levine noted that Jindal’s budget proposal for DHH already is 4 percent less than what the agency requested.
Rather than give legislators an itemized list of what else he would cut, Levine gave them a list of what they could cut.
“Without knowing the Legislature’s priorities as a starting point, these options are not recommendations, but rather examples of various programs the Legislature could choose to address and the potential impact of such reductions,” Levine wrote. He said the Legislature could save:
- $41 million by cutting a program that provides community-based services for the developmentally disabled.
- $8 million by reducing the rates nursing homes are paid for caring for Medicaid patients.
- A total of $27.5 million by trimming a day from the amount of time a Medicaid patient is allowed to stay in a charity hospital.
- $1.1 million by eliminating an adult health-care day program in New Orleans and the hospital unit and group home at Villa Feliciana.
- $3.5 million in Office of Public Health cuts including reducing services for children with genetic disorders as well as blood clotting products provided to prisons.
- $5.4 million by reducing vocational rehabilitation, supported living services and group home services for people with developmental disabilities.
- $300,000 by decreasing call center contracts for the state’s emergency response network.
- $2.5 million by eliminating social and medical detox services.
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