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FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 2004

NATIONAL REPORT CITES LOUISIANA AS ‘SUCCESS’ IN CHILDREN’S CARE; ‘TROUBLE SPOT’ IN CARE FOR ELDERLY

WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 30, 2004) – An assessment of health care in the 50 states, released here today, singles out Louisiana for failing to make sure that the elderly and disabled are given long-term care in the appropriate setting; relying too much on nursing homes. The report appears in the February 2004 issue of Governing magazine.

Louisiana spends a far higher percentage of its long-term care budget on nursing homes than does any other state, and residents who rely on the state to pay for their long-term care may well be out of luck if they wish to stay in their homes or community-based settings. “The demand for nursing home care is declining. And yet we have this vast institutional network that we continue to support,” David Hood, secretary of Louisiana’s Department of Health and Hospitals told the magazine.

Last winter, the state’s executive branch suggested a self-proclaimed “radical proposal” to divert nursing home residents into home and community programs--a potential blow to an industry in which 7,000 beds in the state are currently empty. Nursing home lobbyists responded immediately, and the proposal didn’t get far. As one state policy adviser recalled, “They were so angry they wouldn’t even talk to us. They wouldn’t look us in the eye or acknowledge us in the hall.”

Louisiana residents can take pride, however, in the accolades the state received for tackling children’s health needs in the past year, countering a national trend to pull back. The state increased the low rates it pays providers, boosted eligibility levels for pregnant women and continued to expand primary care case management.

“Louisiana was actually one of three states that notably improved its efforts to care for children in the last year,” says Katherine Barrett co-author of the report. “The other two were Illinois and Virginia. Truth is, none of the three has been a leader in children’s health care in the past, but it was significant to us to see them all trying to move forward at a time when budgets are particularly tight.”

Governing’s analysis of state-funded health care is part of the Government Performance Project, a six-year-old effort, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, to evaluate a wide range of state government management and policy functions. This year’s special report focuses on six critical health care problems facing states: long-term care, public health, mental health, prescription drugs, access to care for the uninsured, and care for children.

The Government Performance Project found and documented the inability of the 50 states’ health care system to deliver improvements in medicine fairly and consistently to many of their citizens. Health care in most states is not just inadequate, the study concluded--it’s deteriorating. “After exhaustive analysis and hundreds of interviews,” says Peter Harkness, Governing’s publisher and editor, “it became clear that there is a health care crisis in America. But it is in no way a medical crisis. It is a fiscal crisis.”

Governing is a policy and management magazine aimed at high-level state and local government officials. An online version of this report will be available at http://www.governing.com/gpp/2004/intro.htm as of January 29. Press releases for each of the 50 states can be found at http://www.governing.com/gpp/2004/press.htm.

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