Health plan faces delay

• By MARSHA SHULER
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Feb 13, 2009 - Page: 8A - UPDATED: 12:15 a.m.

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The Legislature will only deal with Gov. Bobby Jindal’s proposed health-care restructuring this spring if the plan first wins federal consent, the state’s top legislative leaders said Thursday.

The Jindal administration is seeking the consent of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, called CMS, to waive certain federal Medicaid regulations to experiment with insurance-based managed care in four areas of the state.

State health chief Alan Levine said earlier this week that the approval process could take up to six months — long after the deadline for filing bills to be considered by the Legislature, which opens April 27.

Levine raised the possibility of pursuing the necessary legislative changes conditioned on the federal authorization. He said he would consult with legislative leaders.

House Speaker Jim Tucker said, “I’m not seeing how we can possibly begin to go through any major health-care reform without knowing what our options are from CMS.”

Legislation could not be drafted without officials knowing the “parameters of what we can and cannot do,” said Tucker, R-Terrytown. If an attempt was made, it “would be a piece of junk.”

Tucker noted that the deadline for filing legislation for the regular session is May 6.

Efforts may have to wait until the 2010 regular session, Tucker said. He held out the possibility of a special session later this year, if federal approval comes during the summer.

Senate President Joel Chaisson II, D-Destrehan, said if Levine is correct about the timing, “it’s obviously going to be very difficult, if not impossible” to tackle the health-care revamp.

“We start the legislative session April 27 and end in the middle of June. Unless we get an indication in advance which way they are leaning it would be virtually impossible,” Chaisson said Thursday.

Chaisson said lawmakers would “not be so inclined” to consider legislation that would be conditioned on federal approval being given before implementation.

Legislators are going to have a lot of questions about health-care revamp specifics, Chaisson said.

Louisiana lawmakers gave permission for the Jindal administration to ask for the federal waiver request “on the basis we would see it again in all its detail before it’s ever implemented,” he said.