Budget cuts threaten clinic
An LSU medical clinic that serves about 5,000 Baton Rouge area children is on the chopping block because of Jindal administration budget cuts.
“We are trying to identify other providers who can absorb the patients,” LSU System Vice President for Health Care Fred Cerise said Monday. “We will do our best to transfer kids to other providers. We are having those conversations right now. We want to make sure they don’t have gaps in care.”
Cerise said LSU has been unable to identify a source of funding that would keep the clinic open because of 2011-12 fiscal year budget cuts.
The clinic operates at LSU’s MidCity location, 1410 N. Foster Drive.
The pediatric clinic is one of the LSU medical programs slated to be included in the budget cuts for the LSU hospital system, which would go into effect in March, Cerise said. Some physicians with the clinic have been put on notice, he said.
The pending LSU budget reductions also take into account the impact of a new plan from Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration to eliminate a $251 million mid-year state budget deficit. The deficit is tied to lower-than-expected state revenue collections and some increased spending requirements.
The $251 million cut plan took some $50 million from hospital operations and transferred it to the state Department of Health and Hospitals to stop reductions there. Cerise has said that will prompt employee layoffs, program closures and fewer patient beds.
The LSU clinic closure would come at a time when DHH is launching its new health care delivery system for the poor in the area. Two-thirds of the 1.2 million people in Medicaid are covered by the program — most of them children.
Lisa Faust, DHH spokeswoman, said the agency is working with LSU. But she said the closure should have no impact on the program, known as Bayou Health.
The program turns the care of Medicaid patients to private health plans which contract with physicians, hospitals and other providers. LSU hospitals, clinics and physicians are part of those health plans.
LSU children’s clinic financing became an issue because the state operating budget that went into effect July 1 reduced funding by 5 percent across LSU hospital and clinic operations. The budget gave LSU some flexibility in how to make up for the lost dollars.
Cerise said funding alternatives were identified in most areas. But pediatrics was a difficult area, he said.
LSU pushed for federal approval to convert the clinic to what is called a “federally qualified health clinic look-alike,” which would operate under a new, more favorable financing plan.
“We did not get that application approved,” Cerise said.
The federal status would provide a higher level of federal reimbursement through Medicaid — the government health insurance program for the poor.
Under the plan, a non-profit organization — Community Health Care Services — would take over clinic operations, with LSU still providing care. The new organization would have included members of the board of a foundation that oversees the Mid-city operation.
The state Department of Health and Hospitals supported the application filed with the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, called HRSA.
The Louisiana Primary Care Association did not endorse the application. The LPCA is an entity representing federally qualified health clinics.
Cerise said HRSA’s biggest problem with the application involved the governance plan submitted by LSU.
“It’s tricky to do as a government entity,” he said.
He also said the federal agency puts a lot of stock in the opinion of local groups like the LPCA.