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This evening, Louisiana State Health Officer Jimmy Guidry, MD, notified the Peoples Water System of Donaldsonville, LA that it must immediately change how it treats it drinking water after a routine inspection discovered possible elevated levels of chlorine dioxide in the treatment system. The directive is to make the change from using chlorine dioxide immediately this evening, March 22, 2016.
Because of needed repairs to its heating and cooling system, the Caddo Parish Health Unit will be closed for the next two weeks, beginning Monday, March 21. The health unit is expected to reopen on Friday, April 1 following this maintenance work.
The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals offers advice to Louisiana residents with private drinking water wells and to restaurants that are in areas affected by last week’s storm system that caused flooding throughout the state. Also, a fourth death that is attributed to the storm has been confirmed by the Natchitoches Parish Coroner.
Louisiana is currently experiencing floods due to severe weather in many regions throughout the state. The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) advises all Louisiana residents to be aware of the dangers flood waters pose and to take all appropriate precautions.
Governor John Bel Edwards has declared this week to be “Severe Weather Awareness Week” in Louisiana. The Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP), the National Weather Service (NWS) and other partners encourage the public to get a game plan to protect themselves, their families and their homes in the event of severe weather.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans’ ruled on Wednesday, February 24 that a 2014 Louisiana law, known as Act 620, can now be enforced in Louisiana. Under that law, physicians providing abortions in the state of Louisiana must have admitting privileges to a hospital not more than 30 miles away from the location at which an abortion is performed or induced.
Dr. Rebekah Gee, DHH secretary, will appear on Louisiana Public Square tomorrow night (Wednesday, February 24) at 7 p.m. on LPB HD and WLAE in New Orleans. She and her fellow panelists will discuss how expanding Medicaid will affect the lives of those who will now have access to health care, what expansion will mean for the cost of health care and insurance for everyone else in the state, how hospitals will be affected and more.
The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals awarded a $2.1 million loan to Waterworks District No. 1 of Avoyelles Parish through the State’s Drinking Water Revolving Loan Fund. This low-interest subsidized loan will benefit Avoyelles Parish residents by enabling improvements to the drinking water system.
Baton Rouge, La. – A new independent study estimates that the Bayou Health program saved the state up to $437 million in Medicaid expenditures in 2015 when compared with what the state would have paid under the old fee-for-service model. The study, which was performed by Wakely Consulting Group for the Louisiana Association of Health Plans (LAHP), concludes that the managed care organizations are operating efficiently and producing significant savings when compared to the costs that DHH would have incurred under the old, fee-for-service program.
The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) is investigating two presumptive cases of imported Zika virus in the state.
BATON ROUGE - Tomorrow, Governor John Bel Edwards will make a special address to the citizens of Louisiana to discuss the historic budget shortfall facing the state ahead of a special session of the Louisiana Legislature. The special address will be aired statewide at 6:30 pm on all major network television and radio stations, as well as Louisiana Public Broadcasting (LPB).
The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have joined together to review citizen concerns about the St. Joseph Water System in Tensas Parish.