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Dr. Roxane Townsend, Medicaid Medical Director for the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, will serve as one of several featured speakers at the upcoming eHealth Conference in Baton Rouge.
Flu season is coming to an end, and there have not been any widespread outbreaks of the flu in Louisiana. Nor have there been any confirmed cases of avian flu in humans in the United States. Finally, although there has been much attention, there has not been a flu epidemic, much less a flu pandemic.
Parish health units across the state of Louisiana will be joining in the observance of National Infant Immunization Week, an annual event to promote the benefits of immunizations and to focus on the importance of having children up-to-date on their immunizations by age two. This year’s event will be held from Saturday, April 22 through Saturday, April 29, 2006.
The Department of Health and Hospitals announced today it has begun an orderly transition of all remaining responsibilities for the identification and release of deceased Hurricane Katrina victims to the Orleans Parish coroner.
A study conducted by the Department of Health and Hospitals, Office of Public Health shows dust and sediment from Hurricane Katrina did not cause an increase in severe respiratory problems for people living in the Greater New Orleans area.
After more than six months of solid detective work and more than 13,000 reports of people missing after Hurricane Katrina, staff at the Family Assistance Center celebrated an important milestone Tuesday: fewer than 1,000 people remain missing.
More Louisiana children will be eligible for the Louisiana Children’s Health Insurance Program (LaCHIP) because of the annual increase in the Federal Poverty Level effective this month. This increase allows working families to earn more income and still qualify for LaCHIP, which provides no-cost health coverage for uninsured children younger than age 19.
It has been said that it takes a village to raise a child, but it takes a community effort to raise a healthy child. Creating a better environment for children that will allow them to grow up stronger and healthier is the focus of this year’s National Public Health Week.
Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco’s Health Care Reform Panel will hold its final regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday, March 30. The meeting, which will take place at the State Capitol in Baton Rouge, will mark the end of the two-year process that brought together national health care experts, state legislative and government leaders, business leaders, and a representative from each of the nine health care regions of Louisiana.
People living in 10 states, including Texas, who have health care coverage from Louisiana Medicaid or the Louisiana Children’s Health Insurance Program (LaCHIP) and who are or were enrolled in similar programs in other states as a result of being displaced by Hurricanes Katrina or Rita will no longer be covered by Louisiana Medicaid.
Louisiana has gone from last place nationwide to 48th in the 2006 Morgan Quitno State Health Care Rankings. The state improved on the majority of factors considered when assigning these rankings.
Health care providers who gave free care to thousands of uninsured patients following Hurricane Katrina will soon be reimbursed for a portion of that care. The Department of Health and Hospitals learned today that the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has made $383 million available to the state to begin reimbursing hospitals, doctors and other health care providers.