La. health chief: Cuts would bleed hospitals

• By MARSHA SHULER
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: May 20, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Louisiana’s health chief warned state legislators on Monday that the cuts they want would hurt hospitals and nursing homes that care for the poor and uninsured.

Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine said Monday he wanted lawmakers to know that $183 million in proposed health-care cuts — the Medicaid reduction — called for in the House-passed state budget would hurt programs that help real people. The cuts have been portrayed as an elimination of excess funding.

“I think it’s fair for them to have the information,” Levine said.

To implement the cut in the government health insurance program for the poor, Levine said in a letter to legislative leaders that payments to inpatient hospitals would be reduced by $38 million and outpatient hospitals by $11.5 million; nursing homes by $38.6 million and the pharmacy program by $38 million.

Other Medicaid programs for the disabled, including those that provide community-based care, would also get hit — translating into fewer services for those in need.

“It’s a very alarming position,” said Joe Donchess, executive director of the Louisiana Nursing Home Association.

“The House leadership told us there would be no cuts to the nursing home program, that all they were doing was reducing excesses in the Medicaid program,” Donchess said.

Louisiana Hospital Association president John Matessino said any reduction in hospital reimbursement “becomes a hidden tax” that’s passed along to patients with insurance coverage.

Matessino said he cannot understand why lawmakers would want to reduce payments to hospitals “with the resources the state has right now.”

“It’s unconscionable to think about cutting health care and education this year,” Matessino said.

Donchess and Matessino said their associations are turning their attention to the Senate Finance Committee, which started hearings on the Jindal administration’s proposed $30 billion state spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Levine said there was “no true dialogue” between House budget leaders and his office prior to cuts being adopted about the impact on state health programs.

Levine said only $21.6 million of the reduction involves funding for new or expanded programs. “The rest of it is tied explicitly to expansions the Legislature put into law,” he said.