An amendment on the Nov. 4 ballot would create a fund in an effort to build up the state’s health care system, maintain existing costs for patients or businesses, and better fund hospital care for Medicaid and uninsured patients, Paul Salles, president and CEO of the Louisiana Hospital Association, said Tuesday.

If approved by voters, Constitutional Amendment No. 2 would create the Hospital Stabilization Fund. Salles told the American Press editorial board that the fund would stabilize and protect Medicaid reimbursements for health care services by depositing assessments paid by hospitals, as authorized by the state Legislature, into a fund to support reimbursement to Louisiana hospitals.

Starting with the economic downturn in 2009, Salles said state lawmakers were forced to make cuts to hospitals in Louisiana. After years of repeated cuts, he said the association started an initiative to get some of that funding back.

“The total of all those cuts … was about a 26 percent reduction in some of the fees that we’ve paid through the Medicaid program,” Salles said. “Obviously, those are individuals with tremendous needs. We have about 1.3 million of our citizens that are on Medicaid.”

Salles said hospitals in 40 states use provider assessment funding programs as a way to finance Medicaid. Because Medicaid is a shared program between the state and federal government, Salles said that partnering with the state allows hospitals to pool their money and possibly draw down available federal money. Right now, for every 38 cents Louisiana puts up, there is a federal match of 62 cents.

Tim Coffey, senior vice president of operations at Lake Charles Memorial Health System, said their hospital felt the pressure after going through cuts on the state level.

“It made it very difficult to answer questions like how do we continue to hire more doctors or take more emergency room patients?” he said.

Salles said that stabilizing the funding within the Medicaid program takes the pressure off hospitals and health care providers having to make up any difference in a shortfall with commercial insurance.

Salles said officials chose a constitutional amendment to ensure that the money goes solely to health care and hospitals within the state, instead of the general fund. If the amendment is approved, it would require a two-thirds vote in the Legislature before it would be implemented.

“We didn’t want to find ourselves in a situation that we embark on a program like this and the state uses the funding for something else,” he said. “This was a program we thought really had application for the long term.”

Another item on the ballot is Constitutional Amendment No. 1. Voters will decide whether to authorize the Legislature to create the Louisiana Medical Assistance Trust Fund for the payment of Medicaid reimbursement to the health care provider groups paying fees into the fund.(MGNonline)