Department News

Annual reports from Louisiana's Medicaid program (Bureau of Health Services Financing).

Citing the critical danger posed by storm surge and resulting flooding, La. Gov. John Bel Edwards today announced the Interagency Coastal Storm Surge-Based Flood Risk and Resilience Awareness Campaign, a partnership of state agencies to use “Story Maps” to promote awareness of Louisiana’s Comprehensive Coastal Master Plan. The Master Plan is the foundational document underlying the campaign, as it identifies the risk to state infrastructure such as roads and bridges; and to services, facilities and systems for health care and education.

Legislative auditor Daryl Purpera appears to be retreating from comments he made describing the Louisiana Department of Health's oversight of its Medicaid program as sloppy and "a mess" last month.

Hepatitis C kills more Americans than any other infectious disease. About 30,000 people in Louisiana's Medicaid program and prison system are carrying Hepatitis C. Nationally rates of new infections are growing dramatically as a result of the opioid epidemic.

Recent reviews of the five private health plans administering the Louisiana Department of Health’s Medicaid Healthy Louisiana (or managed care plans) found inaccurate records for the providers enrolled in each of the respective health plans.

In its most recent audit of the Louisiana Department of Health and the Attorney General’s office about the Medicaid Fraud Fund, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor cited both agency’s management of the fund. The audit said both the state health department and the AG need to develop more effective processes to identify and ensure that the appropriate funds are deposited into the fund.

The Louisiana Departments of Health, Environmental Quality and Wildlife and Fisheries today issued a series of fish consumption advisories for nine bodies of water. These most recent advisories include one new warning and updates to eight previously issued warnings.

Secretary of Health Dr. Rebekah Gee announced the state had finally done away with the waiting list and ensured that every eligible person who was in line asking for help from the state had received some form of assistance.

Yesterday, a child in Texas and one in Connecticut died after overheating in a hot car. These deaths followed similar incidents from earlier in the week where a 17-month-old child died in Florida after the boy was left unattended in a parked car, and in Louisiana where emergency responders had to break a window of a parked car to rescue a child who had also been left alone.

The Louisiana Department of Health today reported the first human cases of West Nile virus for this year. These initial cases are listed in this year’s first weekly Arboviral Report and shows six WNV infections, distributed as follows: • Three cases of neuroinvasive disease: one case each in DeSoto, St. Tammany and Tangipahoa parishes, • Two cases of fever: one each in East Baton Rouge and Ouachita parishes, and • One asymptomatic case in East Baton Rouge Parish that was diagnosed because of a blood donation.