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Health and Hospitals
The Governor's Executive Budget for FY03 reduced the Department
of Health and Hospitals' budget by $514.6 million and 763
positions.
In response, the Legislature increased the department's
proposed funding level by approximately $280 million and restored
739 positions during the appropriation process to the $5.1 billion
recommended in the FY03 Governor's Executive Budget.
The total operating budget for the Department of Health and
Hospitals is $5.4 billion FY03. The Department has 12,763
authorized positions for FY03.
Louisiana's Medicaid Program
The total funding for medical services for Medicaid clientele
and the uninsured will increase by roughly $130 million from FY02
to FY03. The total Medicaid budget for FY03 is $4.4 billion,
including $864.9 million State General Fund.
- $70 million for private and public providers of medical
services to both Medicaid clientele and the uninsured.
- $25 million for the various existing Home and
Community-Based Waiver Programs - MR/DD, Children's Choice,
Adult Day Health Care, and Elderly and Disabled Adult - and
the development of a new adult waiver program.
- $16 million for the continuation of the Behavioral
Management Program for autistic individuals.
- $16 million for the expansion of the CommunityCARE program,
Primary Care Case Management for Medicaid enrollees, including
reimbursement rate increases for primary care services
provided by physicians.
- $4 million for an increase in the cost of Medicare premiums
for the state Medicare Buy-Ins program enrolling
Medicaid/Medicare dual eligibles in the Medicare program for
primary health insurance.
- Built into the FY03 Medicaid budget is the expansion of
Medicaid eligibility to pregnant women with a family income at
or below 200% of the federal poverty limit beginning in
January 2003. It is estimated that 2,611 additional pregnant
women will now be eligible for Medicaid in FY03.
- This investment in prenatal health care ties in directly
with LaCHIP, Louisiana's Medicaid eligibility expansion
program for children under age 19 living at or below 200% of
the federal poverty limit, to ensure continuous access to
health care services from conception to age 19 for Louisiana's
poorest children. Since 1999, the LaCHIP program has assisted
in reducing the number of uninsured children in Louisiana by
207,535. LaCHIP is fully funded in FY03 as well.
- Finally, the Breast and Cervical Cancer Program implemented
in January 2002 will be fully operational in FY03.
Public Health Services
For FY03, the Office of Public Health's budget is $249.1
million and contains 1,991 authorized positions. This is an
increase of $5.8 million and 6 positions over FY02.
The Legislature made a series of adjustments to OPH's budget to
ensure adequate funding in FY03:
- Restored funding for the full operation of the Hemophilia
program ($2.6 million) and Genetics program ($1.8 million).
- Added $900,000 and 25 positions for the collection and
transportation of water samples from the local water systems
to the public health labs.
- $300,000 has been added through the Office of Public Health
for the LSU Veterinary School for encephalitis testing.
- Funding of the parish public health units has also been
stabilized with a restoration of $11.1 million and 231
positions in the Personal Health Service program.
- In Act 23, the Capital Outlay Appropriation Act, OPH
received funding for a new central laboratory. $2.3 million in
non-recurring State General Fund and $20.2 million in Priority
5 General Obligation Bonds.
Mental Health Services
For FY03, the total budget for mental health services is $245.9
million and includes 3,560 authorized positions. This is an
increase of $18.6 million and 33 positions over FY02.

In FY03, the Office of Mental Health (OMH) will begin to
restructure its provision of services to children and adolescents
placing the greatest emphasis on community-based care. As such,
there are sizable increases in community mental health services
for children and adolescents in FY03 - $4.1 million for crisis
intervention services, $2.2 million for newer medications, and
$1.6 million for assertive community treatment teams.
In return, $3.1 million has been cut at Southeast Louisiana
State Hospital in Mental Health Area A to eliminate 16 adolescent
inpatient beds and 10 child inpatient beds and $1.4 million has
been cut at Central Louisiana State Hospital in Mental Health Area
C to eliminate 16 adolescent inpatient beds and 6 child inpatient
beds.
Beyond this reallocation of resources, the Legislature made a
series of adjustments to OMH's budget to ensure adequate funding
in FY03:
- $1.2 million was added to increase funding for inpatient
acute psychiatric services provided through the facilities of
the Louisiana State University Health sciences Center - Health
Care Services Division.
- $10.1 million and 123 positions has been added to avoid a
reduction of 328 civil adult inpatient beds across the state.
- $933,328 and 9 positions has been restored to the Mental
Health State Office for administrative services.
Services for the Developmentally Disabled
For FY03, the total budget for the Office for Citizens with
Developmental Disabilities (OCDD) is $223.2 million and includes
4,557 authorized positions. This is an increase of $18.0 million
and a reduction of 10 positions from FY02.
- For FY03, the OCDD will begin to restructure its provision
of services placing greater emphasis on community-based care.
As such, $4.9 million State General Fund has been added to the
OCDD budget to build capacity in the community. This State
General Fund increase offsets a reduction of $3.1 million
reduction in Interagency Transfers from the Medicaid program
for institutional services.
- In the facilities, funding has been added to expand
community services - $800,000 for specialized medical/behavior
resource centers, $248,808 for consumer and family training,
and $1.2 million for assertive community treatment teams. At
the same time, $4.4 million has been restored for patient care
in the facilities.
- Also funded in FY03 for the various OCDD agencies is $10.2
million for employee salaries. Included in the additional
funding is the annualization of the position reallocations
started in FY02, increased funding for group benefits and true
funding of the costs of personnel merit increases.
Services for persons with Addictive Disorders
- For FY03, the total budget for the Office for Addictive
Disorders (OAD) is $65.8 million and includes 464 authorized
positions. This is a reduction of $6.9 million and of 1
position from FY02.
- Overall, funding has been stabilized for treatment services
for addictive disorders.
- The biggest change in OAD's budget is the removal of $8.2
million of State General Fund from the base budget for the
expenditures associated with drug courts. These funds will be
budgeted directly in the Supreme Court's budget for FY03. OAD
is still committed to provide approximately $1.5 million in
treatment for the individuals enrolled in the drug court
treatment slots.
- New in the budget for FY03 is $2.3 million for the Office of
Addictive Disorders from the Tobacco Tax Health Care Fund for
operating expenses per Act 19 (HB 157) of the 2002 Regular
Legislative Session.
Homeland Defense Measures
DHH Office of the Secretary
- DHH has received a federal grant of $1.9 million from the
DHHR Health Resources & Services Administration -
Bio-terrorism Hospital Preparedness Program for the
development of a bio-terrorism medical response plan in FY03.
- This project will be cooperative endeavor uniting DHH with
the Louisiana Hospital Association and the LSU Health Sciences
Center.
- The ultimate goal of this program is the development and
implementation of a series of comprehensive medical response
plans dividing the state on a regional basis to coordinate
health care services providers and emergency response agencies
to effectively respond to and manage the health consequences
of an incident resulting from the use of a biological,
chemical, radiological, nuclear, or explosive Weapon of Mass
Destruction.
Office of Public Health
- Continued into FY03, the OPH budget contains $3.9 million
and 44 positions to detect and/or respond to a bio-terrorism
event.
- This funding will be used to address biological and/or
chemical threats to the citizens of Louisiana by providing
training and assessment of the statewide competence of health
care staff in this arena, by coordinating emergency response
activities in the medical community, and by performing
infectious disease surveillance for the early detection of
potential bio-terrorist event.
- OPH is also in the process of securing a multi-million grant
from the federal government to assist in Louisiana's efforts
to prepare its health care infrastructure for a mass
casualty/destruction incident.
Office of Mental Health
- $300,000 and 4 positions are in OMH's budget for FY03 to
train mental health professionals for the psychological
fallout that will occur in the event a mass crisis strikes
Louisiana. This is an increase of $150,000 over the amount
added by BA-7 in FY02.
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