A mistake in a provision that helped keep Medicaid rates down after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita could come back to haunt the state. Congress is in the process of potentially passing a new transportation bill that will take money away from Louisiana.
The $7.7 billion dollar Medicaid budget will have to be cut by $1.1 billion with almost $450 million of that coming in the next year. The mistake caused the state to receive extra money which it ended up using fix problems in the budget. But this means trouble for health care.
"Quite frankly it is a scary situation for all providers. While it certainly gives our state additional funds for coastal restoration and also the highway bill. What it did was it take away a lot of money that we received," Lafayette General President and CEO David Callecod said.
If this transportation bill passes, state funded hospital programs that assist the uninsured, the poor, and other groups will need to be cut.
"Not only is it going to hurt Medicaid, but there's going to be drastic cuts for our charity system," Callecod said.
The budget for 2012-2013 has already been passed in Louisiana, so now a shortfall must be dealt with.
"Our legislators are going to have to go back and figure out how that's going to be fixed," Callecod said.