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The Lafourche Parish Council after much debate agreed to contribute $1 million to the ailing state charity hospital in Houma, fulfilling the final segment of a grand plan allowing the hospital to stave off immediate, severe cuts.
The dedication to the Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center will be combined with a $2 million contribution approved this month by the Terrebonne Parish Council. The local government assistance will prevent cuts from being enacted at the first of the year, affording time for a public-private partnership with area hospitals to take effect.
“I’m going to be judged on this just as you all will be judged on this,” state Sen. Norby Chabert, R-Houma, told the council amid a winding debate. “This is bigger than you. It’s bigger than your district.”
The council approved the allotment by a 6-2 vote. Councilmen Aaron Caillouet and Jerry LaFont opposed the appropriation, and Councilman John Arnold was absent.
The parish must sign an agreement with the state before the money can be transferred, meaning another council vote looms.
Chabert Medical Center is staring at a $14.3 million cut, as ordered by the Louisiana State University’s public hospital system. The cut was announced after the 2012 legislative session and came on the heels of a $2.9 million cut in March and $3.7 million blow in July.
The hospital has already closed its labor and delivery department and cut its workforce by roughly 100 positions.
Had the latest cut been realized, Chabert Medical Center would have closed its neurology clinic; halved the number of its inpatient services, emergency room availability and operating rooms; and lost its residency programs and dental clinic, among other service closures and abbreviations.
TGMC, a public hospital, and Ochsner, a private entity, have tentatively agreed to pay out $12 million in the 2013 budget year. In turn, non-profit corporations will lease the state facility and manage its operations.
Combined with the local government contributions, the partnership will put Chabert Medical Center on stable footing – barring mid-year cuts – until 2014.
The state senator said after the meeting that year remains a question mark, as it will see implementation of many elements of the Affordable Care Act, including an expansion of Medicaid eligibility in participating states. Gov. Bobby Jindal has said Louisiana will not accept expanded Medicaid.
The latest cut was prompted when Congress decreased the Medicaid reimbursement rate to the lowest level in 25 years, Chabert said. “We are dealing with a budget cut that is unprecedented in state history,” he said.
Parish President Charlotte Randolph brokered with hospital and state leaders the amount Lafourche would pay in lieu of one of the council’s most anticipated votes this year.
The decision followed a meandering, passionate discussion that transcended the measure at hand. The role of government at all levels, perceived greed of the needy, a collapsing levee in Larose, necessary parish equipment repairs, illegal immigration, some councilmen’s own impoverished pasts, and the Leeville toll bridge were all mentioned at some point.
LaFont was a staunch opponent of the allotment. He took umbrage that councilmen were not involved in discussions and said he wouldn’t support the measure.
“It’s costing me, it’s costing the taxpayers,” LaFont said. “It’s not the burden of Lafourche Parish to help out a state-run hospital.”
LaFont ran down a list of needed repairs to parish equipment at one of the public-works department’s barns and said the money would be better utilized for parish projects because the medical center’s long-term sustainability is questionable.
The parish has for years worked to fund construction of a new detention center, and drainage and storm surge projects remain in need of money after a proposed sales tax failed this month.
Some infrastructure ills will be rectified with $22 million in bonded sales-tax money the parish will receive early next year, Randolph said, mentioning the parish has received approval for the loan. The parish’s mortgage authority informed the council earlier this year it will turn over $1 million to the parish.
Councilman Michael Delatte said nearly 17,000 of the more than 45,000 Lafourche residents who logged visits at Chabert Medical Center last year live in his district.
Aside from the economic impact the hospital has on the parish through providing jobs, its utility – care for the impoverished – outweighs uncertainty over the hospital’s future, the councilman reasoned.
“Stacking everything up and dealing the cards out, I would have to say that I’m going to support it,” Delatte said.
Two Terrebonne Parish Councilmen – Red Hornsby and Danny Babin – addressed their Lafourche colleagues and urged support.
“It is truly a regional hospital serving seven parishes,” Hornsby said.
Councilman Aaron Caillouet opposed the allocation and laid the blame with state government. He said he didn’t believe Lafourche residents wanted the council to dedicate the money.
“We haven’t helped Nicholls,” Caillouet said. “We haven’t helped the school system. They’ve had to cut teachers.
“Of course there’s an impact on us (if Chabert Medical Center reduces services), but we’re not responsible.”
Lafourche’s contribution will be diverted from its oil-and-gas royalty fund. The $1 million commitment would be sent to the Department of Health and Hospitals, which will draw down an additional $1.7 million from a federal match program, Chabert said.
“I work every day with people who live 200 percent below the poverty line,” said Debbie Triggs, chairperson of the advisory board to the parish’s Office of Community Action. Triggs was at the meeting for another issue but said she was inspired to speak out as a parish resident in favor of the allocation.
“I know you say you came from ‘dirt,’ but I guarantee you, I bet your dirt was better than some people here, living in this parish,” she said. “They can’t just get anywhere. They can’t just go anywhere.”
NORBY CHABERT
