Opelka: Even at 10 beds, public hospitals may be worth keeping open

Published Oct 11, 2012 at 3:30 pm (Updated Oct 11, 2012)

The cuts to the LSU System's public hospitals announced on Oct. 4 arguably reduce facilities to shells of their former selves. Some will have as few as 10 staffed beds. Some lawmakers suggest the Jindal administration wants to slash hospital funding to the bone, all but forcing the Legislature to close some hospitals down, while DHH Secretary Bruce Greenstein says he's playing the cards he has been dealt by the federal government. But keeping scaled-down hospitals open still may be worthwhile, says LSU Health official Dr. Frank Opelka, if only to keep the associated outpatient clinics alive. Federal funding rules for "disproportionate share hospital" payments to "provider-based clinics" require those clinics have a relationship with a hospital that meets certain minimum requirements. Lose the hospital, and you lose clinic funding. "It's great to have those hospital beds there for the community," Opelka says, "but it's even more important to have those clinic services." Still, Greenstein says, the partnerships the state is seeking with private-sector providers could lead to better solutions. "In the future, if it makes sense for an LSU hospital to partner with another, larger hospital, it's possible for those licenses to be organized under the larger hospital," he says. —David Jacobs