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44
JAN / FEB 2013
I
Healthcare Journal of New Orleans
State
Louisiana Formally Opts Out of Exchanges
In November the State of Louisiana sent a letter to the federal De-
partment of Health and Human Services declaring that the state de-
clines to assume the risk of building a health insurance exchange as
outlined by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
State Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Bruce Green-
stein confirmed the decision originally announced back in March,
2011, saying Louisiana has not changed its position that the law creat-
ing the exchanges has severe legal problems, is bad policy and does
not allow the state enough flexibility.
BCBSLA Announces New Leadership
In recent months, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana has made
several leadership appointments. Dr. Rodney Wise, former medical
director at Louisiana Medicaid, has been named medical director, Dr.
David Carmouche has been appointed as senior vice president and
chief medical officer, Anh Tran has been named director of facility
reimbursement and payment policies, Jerry Abbruzzese was hired
as manager of EDI customer relations, and Tej P. Shah will serve as
Senior Vice President of Business Development.
EHR/HIE Crucial In Disasters
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Tech-
nology (ONC) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Ser-
vices released a report detailing the findings of the Southeast Re-
gional HIT-HIE Collaboration (SERCH) Project, in which the Louisiana
Health Care Quality Forum participated. The project was designed
to research how health information exchanges can be leveraged to
provide timely access to clinical information during times of disaster.
Its focus was to build on the lessons learned through major disas-
ters over the years, including the evacuation of more than one million
people in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.
The SERCH Project began in November 2010 and included six states
– Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas – that
shared the goal of developing a strategic plan
for sharing health information data among the
Southeast and Gulf States during and follow-
ing a declared national disaster. The project’s
findings indicate that combining disaster plan-
ning and HIE functions will help ensure that
when a disaster occurs, patients and providers
will have better access to information and be
able to provide appropriate care.
To read the full report of the SERCH Proj-
ect, visit www.healthit.gov. To learn more
about LaHIE services, visit www.lhcqf.org.
Future of Southeast LA
Hospital Announced
The Louisiana Department of Health and Hos-
pitals, St. Tammany Parish leaders, and area
legislators announced a final agreement in
December allowing the parish to use the
property at Southeast Louisiana Hospital in
Mandeville, with Meridian Behavioral Health
Services assuming control of inpatient beds
at the hospital and outpatient services on the
property continuing.
In July, the State announced plans to cease
operations at Southeast in response to Con-
gress sharply reducing Federal Medical Assis-
tance Percentage funding for the Medicaid
program. Those plans called for the con-
tinued operation of these services through
agreements with private providers.
The State has now signed an agreement
giving St. Tammany Parish the authority to
manage all property at Southeast, and has
signed an agreement for Meridian to operate
58 psychiatric inpatient beds – 42 youth and
16 adult. A separate agreement between St.
Tammany Parish and Meridian allows Merid-
ian to operate these 58 beds on the South-
east campus. These agreements will also
allow the current outpatient and group home
services providers on the Southeast campus
to remain in place. Meridian will begin operat-
ing these beds at Southeast effective Jan. 2,
2013. DHH will discontinue all management of
Southeast effective Jan 1, 2013.
B
r
iefs
from left
Rodney
Wise, MD; David
Carmouche, MD;
Anh Tran; and Jerry
Abbruzzese.