ENROLLED
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Regular Session, 2013
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTI ON NO. 139
BY REPRESENTATIVES BARROW, BADON, BROWN, BURRELL, COX, DIXON,
HONORE, HUNTER, KATRINA JACKSON, JAMES, JOHNSON, TERRY
LANDRY, ORTEGO, RITCHIE, SMITH, AND PATRICK WILLIAMS AND
SENATOR BROOME
A CONCURRENT RESOLUTI ON
To direct the division of administration, the Department of Health and Hospitals, and the
Board of Supervisors of Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical
College to make annual reports to the legislature concerning operation and
management of state hospitals by private entities.
WHEREAS, a drastic reduction in federal funding for the Louisiana Medicaid
program was included in a sweeping transportation bill passed by congress and signed into
law on July 6, 2012, and resulted in a net decrease of over eight hundred fifty million dollars
in the state's Medicaid budget enacted on June 14, 2012, for the present state fiscal year; and
WHEREAS, pursuant to this dramatic cut to Medicaid funding, the Department of
Health and Hospitals, hereafter referred to as "department", announced a decision on July
13, 2012, to address the shortfall by eliminating nearly all funding for state hospitals
operated by Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, hereafter
referred to as "LSU", rather than spread the cuts more evenly throughout the Medicaid
program; and
WHEREAS, since that time, the department has led development of a privatization
effort in which public-private partnerships have been proposed for delivery of health services
at LSU hospital facilities by private health care enterprises, with the terms and conditions
for such service delivery to be set forth in cooperative endeavor agreements between the
state and private providers; and
WHEREAS, negotiations for the prospective cooperative endeavor agreements, in
which critical matters of public finance and public health policy will presumably be
determined, are being conducted in secret; and ENROLLEDHCR NO. 139
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WHEREAS, the forerunner of privatization agreements of this type was one
involving the Earl K. Long Medical Center in Baton Rouge and Our Lady of the Lake
Regional Medical Center, hereafter referred to as "OLOL"; and
WHEREAS, despite the Earl K. Long/OLOL cooperative endeavor agreement having
been conceived prior to 2009, executed in February of 2010, and amended multiple times
since then, the state has been unable to resolve numerous shortcomings in the transfer of
vital health care services to a private operator; and
WHEREAS, as evidenced by the final passage of House Bill No. 1493 of the 2010
Regular Session, the Legislature of Louisiana intends that the state parties to privatization
of a public hospital should undertake an open, earnest, and transparent effort to report to the
legislature on the fiscal and public health consequences of hospital privatization; and
WHEREAS, because the current statewide effort to privatize all but one of LSU's ten
hospitals is being implemented in a manner which entirely precludes any legislative
oversight or approval, the purpose of this Resolution is to require key data to be reported
annually to the legislature so that this branch of government may be fully informed and
better able to fulfill essential responsibilities for public finance and public health policy to
which it has been entrusted by the people of this state.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
direct the division of administration, the Department of Health and Hospitals, and the Board
of Supervisors of Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College,
acting jointly, to develop and submit a report to the House and Senate committees on health
and welfare and to the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget no later than thirty days
prior to the convening of the 2014 Regular Session of the Legislature of Louisiana, and
annually thereafter, concerning the operation of state hospitals by private providers.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the report shall include, at minimum, the
following information for each state hospital operated by a private provider:
(1) A detailed account of the net costs or savings associated with the privatization
of hospital operations.
(2) A recapitulation of the measures reported to the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services through the Hospital Compare program, including Hospital Outcome of ENROLLEDHCR NO. 139
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Care measures, Hospital Process of Care measures, and Survey of Patients' Hospital
Experiences measures.
(3) A comparison of employment information for the hospital prior to and
subsequent to privatization, including the number of employees terminated and the number
subsequently rehired; the average compensation, including wages, benefits, and retirement
contributions, for hospital employees prior to and subsequent to privatization; a comparison
of average compensation of employees terminated and subsequently rehired pursuant to
privatization; and a comparison of the number of credentialed personnel employed at the
hospital by professional category, including but not limited to physicians, allied health
professionals, registered nurses, and licensed practical nurses, prior to and subsequent to
privatization.
(4) A comparison of actual costs to the state of delivering hospital services through
the private provider with the best estimate of costs to the state of delivering the same level
of services directly, including but not limited to per diem costs for inpatient care. This
analysis shall include capital costs whether or not such costs are reflected in the cooperative
endeavor agreement or elsewhere in the state budget.
(5) Measures of accessibility of health care services at the hospital by medically
needy patients prior to and subsequent to privatization, along with recommendations for
mitigating or eliminating any barriers to health care access which medically needy persons
experience.
(6) Evaluation of overall health outcomes and quality of care for medically needy
patients in the catchment area of the hospital prior to and subsequent to privatization, along
with recommendations for policy changes to improve such outcomes and quality of care.
Measurements on which the authors of the report base the evaluation shall be derived from
a metric which is generally accepted by public and private health care providers such as the
Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS).
(7) If obstetrics, gynecology, contraception, or other health services for women are
not offered by the private provider operating a state hospital, then the report shall address
means by which the state provides for access to health services for women in the catchment
area of the hospital. ENROLLEDHCR NO. 139
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BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
office of the governor, the commissioner of administration, the secretary of the Department
of Health and Hospitals, and the chairman of the Board of Supervisors of Louisiana State
University and Agricultural and Mechanical College.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATI VES
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE