By Bill Barrow
The Times-Picayune
BATON ROUGE, La. — A coalition of medical providers, from hospitals to ambulance firms, joined political forces Thursday to urge lawmakers to reverse proposed budget cuts that the alliance said will yield thousands of layoffs and a decline in patient services.
Led by the Louisiana Hospital Association, the group implored Gov. Bobby Jindal and lawmakers to ease the proposed cuts, which will reduce payments to health-care providers for the services they render to Medicaid patients.
LHA President John Matessino did not offer specific solutions, though he mentioned the balances of the state’s rainy day fund, the economic development mega-fund and a Medicaid trust fund, none of which are usual sources for general fund operating expenses. “There are funds out there” legislators could tap, he said.
State Health Secretary Alan Levine disputed the idea that Medicaid beneficiaries will lose access to services, though he continues to lament the long-term challenges facing the state’s health-care delivery system.
The back-and-forth comes as the Senate Finance Committee mulls the $27.9 billion spending plan for fiscal 2010 that the House passed earlier this month. The House restored about $130 million in health-care cuts that Jindal proposed, but that leaves about $375 million in reductions that fall mostly on providers of Medicaid services.
Health care and higher education bear the brunt of cuts in the downward swings of Louisiana’s budget cycles because they do not enjoy statutory protection
“We can’t absorb this magnitude of cuts, not this time,” Matessino said.
Levine said he has tried to mitigate the reductions, and he cautioned that they pale in comparison to what is ahead when federal stimulus dollars and other “one-time” revenue sources run out.
He also cited $93 million in temporary financing that is leveraging about four times that amount in federal money, much of it for hospitals. But, Matessino said, a large portion of that is intended to cover previous hurricane losses rather than future operating expenses.
Paul Salles of the Metropolitan Hospital Council cited a study that said 70 jobs, $2.8 million in personal earnings and $7.2 million in overall business transactions would be lost for every $1 million cut in state Medicaid financing.
Tyron Picard of the Louisiana Ambulance Alliance said a statewide survey of ambulance providers found that 45 percent of the responding providers plan layoffs and more than a quarter are likely to reduce their service area.
The gathering marked the industry’s most public effort this session, in contrast to the frequent pleas from higher education officials.
“The last thing we want to do is fight with higher education for money,” Matessino said. “We’re not going to do that.”
Jan Moller contributed to this report.
Copyright 2009 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company