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Regular Session, 2013 ENROLLED
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTI ON NO. 101
BY SENATORS WHITE, BROOME, DORSEY-COLOMB AND WARD AND
REPRESENTATIVES BARROW, CARTER, FOIL, GREENE,
HAVARD, HODGES, HONORE, HUNTER, HUVAL, JAMES, PONTI,
SMITH, ST. GERMAIN AND ALFRED WILLIAMS
A CONCURRENT RESOLUTI ON
To urge and request the Department of Health and Hospitals to protect certain hospitals from
the negative financial consequences of the closure of Earl K. Long Medical Center
by adequately compensating those hospitals for their increased burden of providing
care to the poor and uninsured residents of the greater Baton Rouge region.
WHEREAS, Earl K. Long Medical Center provided much needed health care
services to residents of the greater Baton Rouge region who were uninsured or covered by
the state's Medicaid program; and
WHEREAS, Earl K. Long Medical Center was scheduled to close in November 2013
but closed on an accelerated schedule on April 15, 2013; and
WHEREAS, the Department of Health and Hospitals published a rule to adjust the
reimbursement methodology for hospitals that could demonstrate a significant change in the
number of uninsured treated within six months before the scheduled closure of Earl K. Long
Medical Center; and
WHEREAS, the Board of Supervisors of Louisiana State University and Agricultural
and Mechanical College and the Department of Health and Hospitals entered into a
cooperative endeavor agreement pursuant to which responsibility for the care of the patients
formerly served by Earl K. Long Medical Center was assumed by Our Lady of the Lake
Regional Medical Center; and
WHEREAS, pursuant to such cooperative endeavor agreement, much of the care
formerly provided by Earl K. Long Medical Center was transferred to the campus of Our
Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center and away from the campus of Earl K. Long
Medical Center; and SCR NO. 101 ENROLLED
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WHEREAS, despite the best efforts of Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical
Center, a significant number of the patients formerly served by Earl K. Long Medical
Center, many of whom are uninsured, have chosen to seek their health care not at Our Lady
of the Lake Regional Medical Center but through the emergency departments of hospitals
closer to the former Earl K. Long Medical Center campus; and
WHEREAS, the care provided to those patients formerly served by Earl K. Long
Medical Center is causing a severe financial strain on those hospitals nearest to the former
campus of Earl K. Long Medical Center that the department's rule does not address, and
current Medicaid funding to those hospitals is inadequate to protect those hospitals from the
consequences of that significant increase in such care.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
urge and request the Department of Health and Hospitals to modify its reimbursement
methodology for hospitals, subject to the approval of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services, to provide enhanced reimbursement for indigent patients presenting for outpatient
treatment or requiring inpatient admission and not able to be transferred, for community
owned hospitals or hospital service districts that are within fifteen miles of the former
campus of Earl K. Long Medical Center and that have an increase in indigent emergency
room visits greater than ten percent from the date of the announcement of the closure of Earl
K. Long Medical Center compared to the first full three month period after closure.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana has determined that
Baton Rouge General Medical Center and Hospital Service District No. 1 of East Baton
Rouge Parish, Louisiana, doing business as Lane Regional Medical Center, meet the
foregoing criteria.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
secretary of the Department of Health and Hospitals and to the governor.
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES