October 02, 2007 DHH Responds to Woman’s HospitalThe Department of Health and Hospitals will pay millions more to Woman’s for extra care

BATON ROUGE, Oct 02, 2007 - For the past four years, the Blanco administration and the Department of Health have worked to increase the reimbursements made to all hospitals throughout Louisiana, including Woman’s Hospital in Baton Rouge.

Thus, it is disappointing to learn that not only is Woman’s Hospital filing suit against the department in an effort to seek a rate increase, but that they have chosen to characterize their efforts as "attempting to work (with DHH) but to no avail."

Clearly, this is not the truth.

This year alone, the department will:

• Pay Woman’s Hospital $4.5 million more this fiscal year than last year.
• Increase the hospital’s payments for treating uninsured patients.
• Increase funding to hospitals (such as Woman’s) that provide care to a high number of Medicaid patients.
• Make extra payments to Woman’s for their home health care program.
• Increase the rates we pay to Woman’s for the care they provide to babies that require complex medical care.

The Department of Health will continue its commitment to responsibly using the funding that has been appropriated to the agency to pay for the health care services of the citizens of the state who rely on the Medicaid program.

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