Tagged: Department of Health and Hospitals

Lawmakers want more details about $523 million in health care cuts made by Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration. The reductions fall largely on the LSU-run public hospital system.

House Speaker Chuck Kleckley called a Thursday meeting of the House budget and health care committees for presentations from LSU officials and from Health and Hospitals Secretary Bruce Greenstein, who made the decisions on funding cuts.

State health regulators have confirmed six more human cases of West Nile Virus, bringing the year's total to 10, including two cases of the more serious neuroinvasive disease.

The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, in a news release Friday, said the new cases are from East Feliciana, Jefferson, Rapides, St. Tammany and Tangipahoa parishes.

Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Bruce Greenstein says he expects to announce by Friday how he'll divvy up $859 million in cuts to Louisiana's Medicaid program.

The cut is tied to a congressional reduction in Louisiana's federal Medicaid financing rate.

Greenstein didn't offer details Tuesday about what will be slashed. But hospitals, doctors and other health providers are bracing for cuts that could shrink the money they receive for taking care of Medicaid patients and the uninsured.