Tulane, LSU approve governing
structure for new hospital
by Jan Moller, The Times-Picayune
A deal spelling out
the governance of a proposed teaching hospital in lower Mid-City won quick,
unanimous approval Thursday from the boards of Tulane and Louisiana State
universities, clearing a long-standing obstruction in the state's effort to
build a replacement for Charity Hospital in New
Orleans.
The LSU Board of
Supervisors deliberated for less than five minutes before giving approval to
a memorandum of understanding that spells out how the $1.2 billion, 424-bed
hospital will be run. Tulane's board followed suit a few hours later.
The deal, brokered
in negotiations with Gov. Bobby Jindal's
administration, follows more than a year of sometimes-contentious
negotiations between LSU and Tulane that centered on who would control the
new medical center. Scheduled to open in 2013, the new hospital would serve
as a primary training ground for medical students, post-graduate residents
and other medical professionals from LSU, Tulane and other schools in the
state.
"This is the
framework that we are all agreed can produce the result that is so much
needed in New Orleans," LSU System President John Lombardi said moments
before his board voted.
Tulane President
Scott Cowen said the agreement "ensures the new university medical
center will be governed with the appropriate controls and safeguards,
including independent oversight, which will guarantee it
is properly managed and fulfills the needs of the community."
The governing
memorandum calls for the hospital to be owned by LSU and operated by a
private, non-profit corporation that would be run by an 11-member board of
directors. Four board members would be appointed by LSU, while Tulane and Xavier University each would have one
appointment. Another seat would rotate between Dillard
University and Delgado Community College.
Four board seats
would be considered independent and filled by people who have no affiliation
with any participating school or competing hospitals.
A similar
governing framework was presented to LSU and Tulane in June, but was rejected
by the LSU board amid concerns about the size and makeup of the hospital
corporation's board. That created a stalemate that lasted until Jindal and his senior staff contacted leaders at both
schools this month and began pushing for a compromise.
The latest version
essentially splits the difference between the configuration supported by
Tulane and the one LSU was seeking.
"The governor
and his senior staff did an excellent job of bringing this issue to closure.
It would not have happened without their intervention," Cowen said.
Cowen said he
thinks the bad blood between LSU and Tulane that arose over the governing
dispute won't prevent the two schools from working together on the goal of
making the hospital a world-class academic medical center. "We may have
differences from time to time on how to achieve that, but there's no
difference in the ultimate goal," he said.
The approval of
the memorandum clears the way for the state to resume the process of
acquiring land for the project, which was halted by the Division of Administration
as a way to jump-start negotiations after they fell apart in June.
Dr. Fred Cerise,
LSU's vice president for health affairs, said the delay hasn't affected the
overall timeline for the hospital and that he still thinks it can be
completed by 2013.
With the
governance issue settled, the focus now shifts to the financing of the
project. The state has set aside $300 million, but the rest of the financial
puzzle has yet to be solved. Louisiana is
hoping the Federal Emergency Management Agency will put up $492 million to
compensate for the Katrina-related damage to Charity Hospital,
but the agency's latest offer is $150 million. The issue will be decided
either through arbitration or the courts.
Cerise said the
state is prepared to search for other sources of federal money as it tries to
minimize the amount that the new corporation will have to borrow.
"If the full
answer is not from FEMA, everybody would be willing to look for other
sources," Cerise said.
http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/08/tulane_lsu_approve_governing_s.html
[BACK TO TOP]
By MARSHA SHULER
Advocate Capitol
News Bureau
A deal could be
struck by year’s end for Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center to
become home to LSU’s medical education and inpatient hospital care, LSU’s top
health-care administrator said Thursday.
The biggest hurdle
ahead is complicated financial arrangements in such a deal, LSU System Vice
President Fred Cerise said.
“It’s not going to
be simple. We think we know the pieces that have to happen and the (Jindal) administration is fully supportive of this
concept,” Cerise told the LSU Board of Supervisors.
Gov. Bobby Jindal has endorsed the public-private partnership
instead of constructing a new LSU hospital in Baton Rouge for the poor and uninsured.
LSU is working
with the state Department of Health and Hospitals on potential rule changes
needed in Medicaid, the government health insurance program that pays for
care of the poor, Cerise said.
Cerise’s comments
came as he gave the board an update on negotiations under which inpatient
hospital care delivered at LSU’s Earl
K. Long
Medical Center
in north Baton Rouge would move to the Lake’s campus off Essen Lane.
Meanwhile, the LSU
Board of Supervisors — without debate — signed off on a memorandum of
understanding for the operations of a proposed $1.2 billion medical center
and trauma complex in New Orleans.
Later in the day,
the Tulane University Board unanimously ratified the agreement.
The approval ended
a back-and-forth fight over control of a nonprofit corporation that would be
set up to run the complex. The
disagreement escalated to the point that the state stopped the purchase of
land needed for the project until agreements could be reached among warring
parties.
The nonprofit
corporation would be aligned with LSU, but Tulane University,
which also would operate medical education programs out of the hospital,
wanted a seat at the table and other concessions.
The nonprofit
board’s makeup is now to LSU’s liking.
The agreement is
among LSU, Tulane and the state.
“We can now
proceed to negotiate the total arrangement,” LSU System President John
Lombardi said.
“This is the
framework that we are all agreeing that can provide the medical center that
is so much needed in New Orleans.”
Tulane President
Scott Cowan issued a prepared statement saying the agreement “ensures the new
University Medical Center
will be governed with the appropriate controls and safeguards, including
independent oversight. …”
Financing of the
project remains uncertain.
The state is still
pushing its case for additional federal disaster reimbursement for damages to
LSU’s New Orleans
Charity Hospital
which has been shuttered since Hurricane Katrina.
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/55590907.html#
[BACK TO TOP]
By JORDAN BLUM
Advocate Capitol
News Bureau
LSU, Tulane University
and the Governor’s Office have reached an agreement on the much-debated
governance structure for a new academic medical center in New Orleans, Gov. Bobby Jindal
confirmed Wednesday.
The LSU Board of
Supervisors is scheduled to consider approving the revised governing
agreement today.
The pact would
form a private, nonprofit organization that would finance and operate the
planned $1.2 billion academic medical center to replace the shuttered Charity Hospital.
The Tulane
University Board also has called a special teleconference meeting today to
consider the same agreement, the university confirmed.
“We worked very
hard with both LSU and Tulane and others,” Jindal
said in a phone interview Wednesday. “I think this is a good agreement. I
think this is a fair agreement.”
The compromise
agreement, if approved, would form an 11-person, independent operating board
with four LSU representatives. Tulane and Xavier
University each would have one seat
and another on a rotating basis would be shared by Delgado
Community College, Dillard University
and Southern University. Another four independent board members would have no
university affiliation.
The board
chairperson would have to be one of the LSU representatives. The plan also
would allow four members to jointly nominate a new director if the nominating
committee does not have majority agreement.
The original
proposal from the state had a 12-person board with four LSU members. The LSU
Board rejected that plan and proposed an 11-member version with five LSU
representatives, which Tulane did not support.
LSU’s rejection in
June led to the Jindal administration ceasing the
process of buying land for the facility until the governance was worked out.
Wednesday’s
agreement represents a new compromise.
“Governance was
the last big stumbling block,” Jindal said. “It’s true, all sides gave in a little bit.”
As for moving forward
with a new medical center rather than renovating Charity, Jindal
added, “It would be a mistake to build exactly what was there before the
storm.”
LSU System
President John Lombardi did not respond to an interview request Wednesday.
But in a e-mail statement, Lombardi wrote: “It is the result of
very careful and intense negotiation in which Tulane, LSU, and
representatives of the governor’s staff and cabinet participated.
“The document to
be considered at the board meeting is, we believe, a consensus document
recognized by all parties as a fair and effective basis for moving forward on
all the other issues that must be addressed to fulfill our governor’s
commitment to build a major academic medical center in New Orleans,” Lombardi stated.
LSU Board Chairman
Jim Roy, of Lafayette,
said he is satisfied with the agreement.
“I think both LSU
and Tulane continue to quietly talk,” Roy
said. “The office of the governor was a very good intermediary.”
In June, several
LSU Board members expressed their frustrations about the Governor’s Office
and Tulane attempting to exert control over a medical center that would be
owned by LSU, with LSU also holding the liability.
“Everyone was
amply quoted the last time,” Roy
said Wednesday. “I don’t want to rehash it.”
Under the draft
agreement, LSU would own the medical center and lease it to the nonprofit
corporation. The new center would replace the LSU public hospitals in New Orleans, known as the University and Charity Hospital, which was badly damaged by
Hurricane Katrina.
The official name
of the proposed center would be “University
Medical Center”
with the main building called the “Rev. Avery C. Alexander Hospital.”
The state has set
aside $300 million for the $1.2 billion facility, with nearly $500 million
potentially coming from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the rest
to be funded through revenue bonds issued through the nonprofit corporation.
LSU and Tulane
also agree on maintaining the same division of medical residency slots as
before Hurricane Katrina. LSU would have 373 slots, Tulane 200.
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/55266592.html
[BACK TO TOP]
Associated Press
Reporting
LSU has agreed to
a compromise with Tulane University over the governance of a public teaching
hospital planned for New Orleans to replace
the shuttered Charity
Hospital.
At issue has been
how much clout LSU would have on the governing board of the hospital it will
help finance - and the Jindal administration shut
down land acquisition for the hospital until the dispute could be resolved.
A revamped plan
won approval Thursday from the LSU Board of Supervisors. The Tulane Board of
Trustees was scheduled to vote on it later Thursday evening.
The new plan gives
LSU four appointees on an 11-member board.
Officials said the
compromise was devised by LSU, Tulane and Gov. Bobby Jindal's
office.
A financing plan
for the 424-bed hospital, estimated to cost more than $1.2 billion, still
hasn't been worked out.
http://www.wwl.com/pages/5096284.php?
[BACK TO TOP]
Sofia Voulgarakis / Eyewitness News
NEW
ORLEANS – The LSU
Board of Supervisors has approved an agreement regarding the governance of
the proposed new LSU Academic Medical
Center in New Orleans.
The agreement
changes the number of seats LSU holds on the board of directors for the new
hospital from five to four, and increases the number of non-permanent board
members from three to four.
The Tulane board of
trustees was scheduled to vote on it later tonight.
Gov. Bobby Jindal plans to hold a news conference Friday to talk
more about the hospital and its design.
http://www.wwltv.com/topstories/stories/wwl082709cblsumedical.1211bb604.html
[BACK TO TOP]
by Jan Moller, The Times-Picayune
Tulane and Louisiana State
universities appear on the verge of ending their months-long stalemate over
the governing structure of a proposed new teaching hospital in New Orleans.
A revised
memorandum of understanding unveiled Wednesday in Baton Rouge essentially splits the
difference between the governing structure sought by LSU and the one endorsed
by Tulane and Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration
when negotiations broke down in June. The new proposal changes the makeup of
the board but does not give LSU a majority.
The deal is
expected to be taken up by the LSU System Board of Supervisors at its regular
monthly meeting today. Tulane's board is scheduled to meet by teleconference
later in the day to discuss the agreement.
If both boards
adopt the memorandum, it would clear one of the major hurdles remaining in
the state's efforts to build a 424-bed, $1.2 billion teaching hospital in
lower Mid-City that would replace the shuttered Charity
Hospital and become the chief
training ground for medical professionals in south Louisiana.
"We
absolutely, strongly support this deal, " Gov.
Bobby Jindal said. "I think it would be good
for both Tulane and LSU, but also good for Louisiana."
Health and
Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine said he is "optimistic" that the
deal will win approval. "There's been a lot of work done by Tulane and
LSU."
The agreement
calls for the hospital to be run by a private, nonprofit corporation
affiliated with LSU that would be governed by an 11-member board. Four of the
board members would be appointed by LSU. Tulane and Xavier would each have
one appointee, while another seat would rotate between Dillard
University and Delgado Community College.
Four board members
would be considered independent and not affiliated with any of the
participating schools or competing hospitals. The independent members would
be appointed by a six-member committee evenly divided between the LSU members
and the other schools' appointees. The chairman of the board would be an LSU
appointee and would have the power to break tie votes when appointing
independent members.
The latest deal
follows on-and-off discussions dating back more than a year that bogged down
repeatedly amid an intense turf war between Tulane and LSU.
Weeks of
negotiations this spring between Tulane President Scott Cowen, LSU System
President John Lombardi and Levine produced a memorandum calling for a
12-member board, with four of them from LSU. It won quick approval from
Tulane's board, but LSU balked, with its board members insisting the school
should have more sway.
The LSU Board
approved a revised memorandum calling for 11 board members, five of whom
would be under LSU's control. That led to an impasse that began to break only
in recent weeks when the governor's senior staff intervened in the
negotiations.
In the meantime, Jindal's budget office halted land acquisition for the
project to try to put pressure on both sides to reach an agreement.
Dr. Fred Cerise,
LSU's vice president for health affairs, said he doesn't think the delay in
land acquisition will affect the timeline to complete the hospital.
"There's no
slippage yet on the timeline, " Cerise said.
Financing questions remain
LSU leaders had
said that because LSU's statutory authority would be used to create the
hospital corporation, the school would have a moral, though not necessarily
legal, obligation to repay any debt incurred in building the hospital. As
such, LSU said, it should have control of the hospital.
But Tulane and
others said the board needed to be independent to ensure that all interests
are represented, not just LSU's. The hospital is expected to be a medical
safety net for the indigent and will train medical students, post-graduate
residents and other health care workers.
Cerise said the
latest memorandum was crafted with a push from Jindal's
chief of staff, Timmy Teepell, and executive
counsel Tim Barfield.
Tulane officials
issued a written statement announcing that the board would take up the draft
memorandum at a 5:30 p.m. meeting. They declined to comment beyond that.
If the governance
issue gets resolved, the state still must try to get financing for the
project. With $300 million already set aside, the state is hoping to get $492
million more from the federal government as compensation for the damage done
to Charity Hospital by Hurricane Katrina. But
FEMA has offered $150 million.
The issue is
likely to come to a head later this year, either through a newly established
arbitration process or the courts.
Even if the state
gets the full amount it is seeking from FEMA, at least $400 million would
have to be borrowed to build the hospital. One reason the state pushed to
create an independent nonprofit corporation is because it hopes the new
entity will be able to issue bonds without affecting the state's self-imposed
debt ceiling.
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/08/agreement_on_teaching_hospital.html
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New
Orleans, LA – The only two United
States Senators who are physicians will visit LSU
Health Sciences Center New Orleans on Friday, August 28, 2009 at 10:00 a.m. to
interact with Louisiana
health leaders and see firsthand some of the most advanced medical education
techniques and tools in the nation.
Amidst discussions
about the future of health care, Senator John Barrasso,
MD (R-WY), and Senator Tom Coburn, MD (R-OK) will tour the Russell Klein, MD
Center for Advanced Practice and the Isidore Cohn,
Jr., MD Student Learning Center at LSU
Health Sciences
Center. These two companion facilities represent
about 30,000 square feet of the most sophisticated medical learning
environments developed to date. Dr. Steve Nelson, Dean of the LSU Health
Sciences Center New Orleans School of Medicine – the medical school that
educates and trains the majority of Louisiana’s
physicians – will
lead the tour during which the senators will meet LSUHSC faculty physicians,
as well as medical students. They will also hear about LSUHSC’s
Rural Scholars Track, a program that is placing LSUHSC alumni physicians in
communities where they are most needed.
Senator John Barrasso, MD is known by many as Wyoming’s Doctor. He has
a long and recognized career in both medicine and public service. During 24
years as an orthopedic surgeon in Casper,
Dr. Barrasso served as President of the Wyoming
Medical Society and was named Wyoming Physician of the Year. He also served
as medical director of the Wyoming Health Fairs, bringing low-cost health
screening exams to people all around the Cowboy State.
Dr. Barrasso is known throughout Wyoming for his health messages. His
public service announcements have been on TV, radio and in numerous
newspapers for more than 20 years. Dr. Barrasso has
also hosted Wyoming’s
efforts on the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon.
Senator Barrasso serves on the Energy and Natural Resources
Committee, the Environment and Public Works Committee, the Indian Affairs Committee
and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Senator Tom A.
Coburn, MD has pledged to serve no more than two terms in the Senate and to
continue to care for patients. He is a member of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Intelligence
Committee, the Indian Affairs Committee and the Committee on Health,
Education, Labor and Pensions.
Prior to his
election to the Senate, Dr. Coburn represented Oklahoma's Second Congressional District
in the House of Representatives from 1995 through 2001. He was first elected
in 1994, then re-elected in 1996 and 1998, becoming the first Republican to
hold the seat for consecutive terms. Dr. Coburn retired from Congress in
2001, fulfilling his pledge to serve no more than three terms in the House.
During his tenure in the House, Dr. Coburn wrote and
passed far-reaching legislation. These include laws to expand seniors' health
care options, to protect access to home health care in rural areas and to
allow Americans to access
cheaper medications from Canada
and other nations. Dr. Coburn also wrote a law intended to prevent baby AIDS.
The Wall Street Journal said about the law, "In 10 long years of AIDS
politics and funding, this is actually the first legislation to pass in this
country that will rescue babies." He also wrote a law to renew and
reform federal AIDS care programs. In 2002, President George Bush chose Dr.
Coburn to serve as co-chair of the President's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS
(PACHA).
In 1970, Dr.
Coburn graduated with an accounting degree from Oklahoma State
University. From 1970
to 1978, Dr. Coburn served as manufacturing manager at the Ophthalmic
Division of Coburn Optical Industries in Colonial Heights, Virginia.
Under his leadership, the Virginia division
of Coburn Optical grew from 13 employees to more than 350 and captured 35
percent of the U.S.
market.
After the family
business was sold, Dr. Coburn changed the course of his life by returning to
school to become a physician. Again he emerged as a leader, becoming
president of his class at the University of Oklahoma Medical School where he
graduated in 1983. He then did his internship in general surgery at St.
Anthony's Hospital in Oklahoma City and family
practice residency at the University
of Arkansas, Fort Smith.
Dr. Coburn
returned to Muskogee
where he specializes in family medicine, obstetrics and the treatment of
allergies. Dr. Coburn has personally delivered more than 4,000 babies.
Dr. Coburn also is
a two-time cancer survivor.
[BACK TO TOP]
LSU Health
Sciences Center's Scribner Appointed Chair of NIH Grant
Recommendation Panel
AScribe
| 08.26.09
NEW ORLEANS, Aug.
26 (AScribe Newswire) -- Richard Scribner, MD, MPH,
D'Angelo Professor of Alcohol Research at LSU
Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Public Health, has been
appointed Chairman of the National Institutes of Health Community Influences
on Health Behavior Study Section.
The primary
function of NIH study sections is to review and rate research grant
applications for scientific and technical merit. They make recommendations
for the appropriate level of funding support and duration of the grant award.
Those who are asked to chair study sections are selected on the basis of
demonstrated competence and achievement in their scientific disciplines as
evidenced by the quality of research accomplishments, publications in
scientific journals, and other significant scientific activities,
achievements and honors. Study section chairs play a key role in the function
and success of their sections, from identifying, assessing and helping to
train candidate reviewers and panel members, to ensuring the quality of the
quality of the NIH peer review process. They are responsible for the flow and
focus of the scientific discussion at the meeting. They monitor the quality
of the review process, and intervene or facilitate as needed to ensure
balanced discussion, guard fairness and promote consistent scoring, so that
grants are assigned the proper scores.
The Community
Influences on Health Behavior [CIHB] Study Section reviews applications
concerned with the broader socioenvironmental
contexts. The applications may examine social, cultural, and other socioenvironmental factors and processes and their
inter-relationships with a broad range of outcomes, including mental and
physical health, illness and disorder, risk and protective behaviors and
behavior change, health beliefs and attitudes, and normal development and functioning
across the lifespan.
One of the
nation's most authoritative alcohol and public health research scientists,
Dr. Scribner has been the principal investigator of five RO1 grants
representing about $7 million in funding support. His total career research
funding exceeds $12 million. Dr. Scribner has studied the relationship of
alcohol to HIV, STDs, violence, neighborhood environment and health
disparities, as well as binge drinking among college students. His studies
showing a relationship between alcohol outlet density and crime and health
are well known and highly regarded.
Dr. Scribner has
served on research review committees for the National Institutes of Health,
the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and Louisiana and California
Departments of Public Health.
He has been
invited to speak to numerous professional societies, policy makers, political
and government groups on everything from alcohol prevention and community
conditions that contribute to alcohol problems to obese neighborhoods and
STDs and GIS mapping.
Dr. Scribner is
widely published including book chapters, peer reviewed journal publications,
and abstracts. He is a reviewer for the Journal of the American Medical
Association, Prevention Science, the American Journal of Public Health, the
Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Alcoholism: clinical and Experimental
Research, the Journal of Alcohol Policy, Addiction, and Alcohol Health and
Research World.
Dr. Scribner
occupies the Endowed Chair of Alcohol Research at the LSUHSC School of Public
Health. His other honors include the Shannon Award from the National
Institutes of Health, Researcher of the Year from the University of Southern
California Institute for Prevention Research, and an NCI Fellowship awarded
by the National Cancer Institute.
Dr. Scribner's
appointment is effective immediately, and he will serve until July 1, 2011.
http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20090826.140951&time=15200720PDT&year=2009&public=1
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Dear Mr.
President,
Tomorrow we will
mark the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which claimed the lives of
1,400 Louisianians and nearly killed a great
American city. We will miss having you in our midst.
We know you don't
lack passion for our community and its recovery. Though you haven't been here
as president, as a senator you visited five times after Katrina. We remember
well the fervor of your speech at Tulane
University on your last
visit, a year and a half ago.
"I promise
you that when I'm in the White House, I will commit myself every day to
keeping up Washington's
end of the bargain," you said then. "This will be a priority of my
presidency. And I will make it clear to members of my administration that
their responsibilities don't end in places like the 9th Ward; they begin in
places like the 9th Ward."
We await the
fulfillment of many of these promises. We are grateful for the federal aid
that has flowed our way, including $14.7 billion in improvements to levees
and drainage and other storm protection measures. And under your
administration, the federal recovery bureaucracy has been eased, as even
Republican officials here acknowledge.
But much remains
to be done.
The wetlands and
barrier islands that are the first defense of Louisiana's energy coast must be restored
if we are to survive long term.
Flood protection
on a massive scale, the ultimate rampart the Netherlands saw fit to build,
should be our model as well, a vital safeguard against a Category 5 storm and
its surge. Such a substantial commitment, you told our reporter this week, "remains a strong goal." For us and for
the nation, it's a vital necessity.
The economic revitalization of a new
medical facility to replace the destroyed Charity
Hospital would give New Orleans a shot in
the arm it desperately needs. We urge you to see to it that the stalled
project moves forward.
Our community is
resilient and hard-working. Together with volunteers from around the country,
we are striving to make this a better place than it was before the storm,
with renovated houses, vastly improved schools and a unique culture that's as
vibrant as ever.
But there's no
substitute for the focus, the energy, the commitment that a president alone
can bestow. There's no substitute for you, as president, seeing our recovery
and its halting progress with your own eyes, for taking time to walk in our
shoes. So we ask you to bring your considerable intellect, your
problem-solving ability, your influence to bear. When a president pays
attention, so does the nation.
In the past week,
we have hosted several of your Cabinet secretaries. We are grateful for their
visits. We were especially impressed with Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan. On
this, his third visit since his appointment, he brought his entire senior
team with him and committed himself to "building back not just what was
there, but building back better and stronger."
That was music to
our ears. But it would be a sweeter sound coming from you and spoken on
location.
http://www.nola.com/news/?/base/news-2/1251436817133480.xml&coll=1
[BACK TO TOP]
By BEN EVANS and BECKY
BOHRER
WASHINGTON — As a presidential candidate, Barack
Obama pledged to right the wrongs he said bogged down efforts to rebuild the Gulf Coast
after Hurricane Katrina. Seven months into the job, he's earning high praise
from some unlikely places.
Gov. Bobby Jindal, R-La., says Obama's team has brought a more
practical and flexible approach. Many local officials offer similar reviews.
Even Doug O'Dell, former President George W. Bush's recovery coordinator,
says the Obama administration's "new vision" appears to be turning
things around.
Not too long ago, Jindal said in a telephone interview, Louisiana governors didn't have "very
many positive things" to say about the Federal Emergency Management
Agency.
But Jindal said he had a lot of respect for the current FEMA
chief, Craig Fugate, and his team. "There is a sense of momentum and a
desire to get things done," the governor said.
Added O'Dell:
"I think the results are self-evident."
The retired Marine
general served what he calls a frustrating stint as Bush's recovery
coordinator last year. "What people have said to me is that for whatever
reason, problems that were insurmountable under previous leadership are
getting resolved quickly," O'Dell said.
"And I really
hate to say that because (the top FEMA leaders) in my time there were good,
hardworking, earnest men, but they were also the victims of their own
bureaucracy."
It's not that
Obama has miraculously mended the Gulf
Coast since Katrina
struck on Aug.
29, 2005. The storm killed more than 1,600 people in Louisiana and Mississippi
and caused more than $40 billion in property damage. Hurricane Rita followed
nearly a month later, with billions of dollars in additional damage and at
least 11 more deaths.
On the fourth
anniversary of Katrina, many communities remain broken, littered with
boarded-up houses and overgrown vacant lots. Hundreds of projects — including
critical needs such as sewer lines, fire stations and a hospital — are
entangled in the bureaucracy or federal-local disputes over who should pick
up the tab.
Like Bush, Obama
has critics who say he's not moving aggressively enough.
Chris Kromm, director of the Institute for Southern Studies, an
advocacy group, said the coast is "still waiting for Washington to show leadership."
In many areas,
such as long-term coastal rehabilitation and rebuilding levees, it's too
early to determine whether Obama will live up to the many promises he made.
But on several
fronts, there is evidence of progress.
Victor Ukpolo, chancellor of Southern University at New Orleans, said the
administration has been able to "move mountains" for his school,
virtually wiped out by Katrina and the breached levees.
Homeland Security
Secretary Janet Napolitano has visited the campus twice and awarded $32
million to replace four buildings.
"It's really
awesome," Ukpolo said. "There's been so
much progress."
Tommy Longo, mayor
of Waveland, Miss., said it got so bad toward the end
of Bush's tenure that "you almost couldn't get them to return a phone
call, and you certainly weren't going to get them to make any big
decisions."
"It has been
refreshing to be back working with people who are hungry and want to make a
difference," said Longo, a Democrat. "Who knows, a few years from
now, at the end of Obama's term it may be back to the same ol', same ol', but it is
refreshing now."
Obama backed up
his pledge to name an experienced FEMA administrator by appointing Fugate, a
career emergency management professional from Florida. By contrast, Bush's director was
Michael Brown, a lawyer who worked at the International Arabian Horse
Association. He resigned after Katrina.
In half a year,
Obama's team says it has cleared at least 75 projects that were in dispute,
including libraries, schools and university buildings. The administration has
embraced a new, independent arbitration panel for the most stubborn disputes,
and assigned senior advisers to focus on the rebuilding.
The administration
recently reversed a FEMA rule that barred communities from building fire
stations and other critical projects in vulnerable areas. Local officials
said the rule could have effectively killed off some places.
The Bush administration's
flat-footed response to Katrina left a lasting stain on Bush's legacy, and
the sluggish pace of the long-term recovery has drawn continued criticism.
Local officials
and civic leaders long have complained about the changing cast of FEMA
representatives who review project worksheets and demand repeated inspections
or additional paperwork. In some cases, agency workers have subtracted costs
that local officials thought were settled.
Along with
battling red tape, community officials say FEMA often stubbornly refused to
pay for work that should have qualified for federal aid.
Under Bush, FEMA
frequently argued that local governments viewed the storms as a chance to get
rundown buildings replaced with federal dollars. Delays also were blamed on
disarray at the local and state levels, with some projects stalled until
local officials could decide their own priorities or provide documentation to
make their case.
Critics countered
that some Bush officials seemed more concerned with preventing fraud than
getting people back on their feet.
Jindal
and Paul Rainwater, the governor's recovery coordinator who once stormed out
of a meeting with Bush officials in frustration, said plenty of headaches
remain. Overall, Jindal gives the Obama
administration an "incomplete" because there is so much still to
do. A glaring example is the shuttered, 20-story Charity
Hospital, which served New Orleans' poor and
uninsured. The state claims it is owed nearly $500 million to replace it.
Despite high-level pleas, FEMA has denied
the claim under both administrations, saying Charity wasn't properly guarded
against further decay after the storm. The agency has offered $150 million,
the most it says it can do. The Obama administration rejected a request to
replace the hospital using economic stimulus money.
Jindal and Rainwater said the previous
administration often wouldn't recognize new information or acknowledge there
were real disputes. Sometimes, Rainwater said, Bush officials seemed blind to
the devastation around them and said they had to be good stewards of public
money.
"They never
recognized the enormity of what we're working through," Rainwater said.
"We're not just trying to rebuild buildings here but entire
communities."
"That's the
difference" under Obama, Rainwater said. "It's the recognition. ...
We're all able to sit down around the table."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h-PgWG_iMhEimHD6WGzcnCsMF_OwD9ABIL5G0
[BACK TO TOP]
By Jesse Muhammad
-Staff Writer-
Four years ago when Angel Robinson evacuated
from New Orleans, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, she only expected to be
away from home for a few days and looked forward to returning back to her job
at City Hall. “You really don't know how fragile things are and life is until
you have to throw everything you own into a garbage pile on the side of the
street. It is still painful because I will never forget that moment,” she
said.
The world watched
as Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf
Coast in2005, making landfall on
Aug. 29 in southeast Louisiana.
It has been recorded as the costliest hurricane, as well as one of the five
deadliest, in the history of the United States.
From central Florida to Texas,
Katrina caused severe destruction, much of it due to the high storm surge.
Then there were the failures that happened after the storm rolled through the
region. The most severe loss of life and property damage occurred in New Orleans, which
flooded as the levee system catastrophically collapsed. Eventually 85 percent
of the city became flooded along with neighboring parishes, and floodwaters
remained for weeks.
Nearly 1,900people
lost their lives in the actual hurricane and subsequent floods. Millions were
evacuated to all corners of the country via cars, planes, and charter buses.
Thousands are still displaced and in need of psychological repair.
“Four years later,
the mental weight of Katrina is still on many of us, including myself,”
longtime New Orleans
activist Mtangulizi Sanyika
told The Final Call. Mr. Sanyika is project manager
for the African-American Leadership Project. He has been commuting back and
forth to Houston
the last four years.
“There has been
some progress made in the city but most of the poor areas are still in need
of repair,” Mr. Sanyika said. “But I believe
Katrina fatigue has settled in more and more every year, meaning people have
forgotten about us. So the struggle continues.”
New
Orleans pain index
“Though New
Orleans has been somewhat shielded from the recession due to substantial
rebuilding activity, four years after Katrina the region still faces major
challenges due to blight, unaffordable housing, and vulnerable flood
protection,” according to the Brookings Institution and Greater New Orleans Community
Data Center annual New Orleans Index Anniversary Edition.
This year's report
highlighted the progress—or the lack thereof—in the areas of population,
economy, housing and infrastructure to go along with public services
presently available. Statistically, New
Orleans lost 0.9 percent of its jobs since last
June, compared to the 4.1 percent lost nationally. The city's unemployment
rate rose to 7.3 percent while the national rate climbed to 9.5 percent.
Over 8,500
households are actively receiving mail, the largest growth since 2007.
However home sales are down 39 percent and new construction down 48 percent.
Hurricane Katrina left New Orleans
with an unprecedented level of unoccupied residences. New Orleans has 65,888 unoccupied
residential addresses.
“Steep rent
increases have abated, but at 40 percent higher than pre-Katrina, rents
remain out of reach for many critical workers. Typical rent for an efficiency
apartment is $733 per month, unaffordable for food preparation, health care
support, and retail sales workers,” the report said.
Groups like the
Katrina Information Network (KIN) are pushing for Gulf Coast Civic Works Act,
legislation introduced in the 110th Congress but never called for a vote. The
bill would create a minimum of 100,000 jobs and training opportunities for
local and displaced workers.
“This is a very
important act to protect workers right to return to work who are displaced,”
said Neville Waters, KIN media adviser. “There is a lot of work left to do in
the recovery.”
Pain, starting over and honoring lost ones
Ms. Robinson
escaped to Texarkana, Texas, after Katrina. She lived there for
three years after landing a consulting job. “I was looking out the window of
a LaQuinta hotel in Texarkana and it hit me all at once that I
had lost my home, my job and I cried. But then I determined that I couldn't
sit by and wait for anyone to do anything for me,” she said.
That
self-determination prompted her in 2006 to also launch her dream business
Write Robinson, a stationery designing firm. She now has clientele nationwide
and moved back to New Orleans
in 2008. She lives in the home originally owned by her great grandparents.
“This company is a dream come true and I am happy I used Katrina as
motivation to get up and do something about my situation. And I would advise
others, although I understand the pain, to help yourself.
Stop waiting on the government, FEMA or anyone else,” she said.
Keisha Reed moved
forward as well. “When Katrina struck I thought I would only be gone for a
few days. I only had a few changes of clothes and my cat when my friend left,
not knowing I would lose everything,” she recalled.
Ms. Reed, a
college graduate, had just landed a job she loved at a restaurant in New Orleans before having to evacuate to Houston.
“Most of the time
the media only wants to talk about those who couldn't escape. What about all
of us who were educated and employed before the storm? We lost everything too
and it was just as painful for us. I believe people still do not know the
full story of what we all went through,” she told The Final Call.
She became a
permanent resident of Houston
and worked towards achieving her dream of opening a restaurant. That
restaurant was launched in 2006 in the Third Ward area, a little over a year
after Katrina.
“I am not the type
to just sit by and wait for someone to do for me what I can do for myself,”
said Ms. Reed. “I encourage others that after four years, it is time to get
up and make it happen. Put yourself in position that if it happens again your
family can leave too. In New Orleans
we have had generations pass on apartment units. Break the cycle now.”
For those unable
to start fresh elsewhere and to mark Katrina's toll, the Hands Around the
Dome gathering is an annual gathering to mark the anniversary of the storm.
The Louisiana Superdome was the refuge thousands sought and, with government
failures, a place of suffering and death in the storm's aftermath. “The Hands
Around the Dome is our way of remembering the human suffering and pain caused
by the unexpected flooding of the city, the human errors and the failure of
the emergency response system to adequately respond to the crisis,” said Mr. Sanyika.
“Despite the
suffering, loss of life and property, the Hands Around the Dome is also a way
of affirming the resilience of the people of New Orleans,” he added.
The
African-American Leadership Project will also host a town hall meeting to
discuss building a community-based agenda for next year's elections and
beyond. The three main issues to be discussed will be the present safety of
the levees, the state of the recovery and disaster preparedness lessons
learned from Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav.
Campaign to Save Charity
Hospital
Charity
Hospital, the largest medical
facility in New Orleans,
sustained severe flood damage during Hurricane Katrina and has been closed
since. In January 2008, the Louisiana Justice Institute filed a lawsuit
seeking partial reopening of the facility.
“Charity Hospital
was critical to serving the mentally ill of our community,” Jacques Morial told The Final Call. He is a member of New Orleans' famous Morial family—his father Ernest “Dutch” Morial and his brother Marc Morial
served as mayor. His brother is now the head of the National Urban League.
“Instead of people
with anti-social issues being imprisoned, they could be serviced at Charity.
People are suffering from serious mental health issues and now result to
things like self-medicating, drugs, and drinking to cope,” said Jacques Morial, who is co-director of the institute.
According to Mr. Morial, the institute is awaiting a decision by the
Louisiana State Supreme Court on whether to hold the hearing lawsuit in Baton Rouge or New
Orleans.
“Before Katrina,
Charity was one of the leading crisis intervention facilities in the country.
It was high quality service for the mentally ill. We need it back,” said Mr. Morial.
No hospitals in
New Orleans were providing in-patient mental health care as of September 2009
despite post-Katrina increases in suicides and mental health problems,
according to an analysis written by Davida Finger,
a social justice lawyer and clinical professor at Loyola University New
Orleans, and Bill Quigley, a human rights lawyer on leave from Loyola now
serving as legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights.
The authors noted
New Orleans ranked number one among U.S. cities in murders per capita for
2008, an estimated one-third of 134,000 FEMA trailers in which Katrina and
Rita storm survivors were housed by the federal government had formaldehyde
problems. There has been a 35 percent increase in demand at emergency food
programs with underemployment and rising food, housing, and fuel costs, they
added.
Louisiana ranks last among states for overall
healthcare and 128,341 Louisianians were looking
for jobs, while Governor Bobby Jindal rejected $9.5
million in federal Medicaid stimulus money, which would have expanded
temporary Medicaid coverage for families who leave welfare and get a job.
Gov. Jindal also rejected $98 million in federal
money available to bolster the unemployment compensation funds to assist
25,000 families in Louisiana,
according to writers Finger and Quigley.
Mixed feelings about Mayor Nagin
New Orleans Mayor
Ray Nagin is in his last term and has received
mixed post-Katrina reactions on his performance the last four years.
“Since my initial
visits to Washington, D.C. after the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina
and the breached levees, I have long advocated for reforms that specifically
include the need for arbitration and an appeals processes to expedite
recovery funding to communities in need,” said Mayor Nagin
in an Aug. 6 media statement.
In a 2009 voter
opinion poll, led by Tulane Universityand Democracy
Now, 64 percent of the respondents and nearly 50 percent of Blacks
disapproved of the job that Ray Nagin is doing as
mayor. His disapproval rating was 92 percent amongst Whites and 47 percent
amongst Blacks. Also poll results showed respondents believe the upcoming
mayoral race will be “the most important city election in my lifetime.”
“I honestly cannot
give him a grade and really don't care to because I'm just focusing on
rebuilding myself,” Rachel Murphy told The Final Call. “I believe he did the
best he could but I believe the federal government deserves the bigger blame.
But it doesn't matter to me anymore.”
In another poll in
April by the University
of New Orleans, Mr. Nagin was deemed the third “biggest problem” for the
city, following crime and education. Only 24 percent of residents approved of
him as mayor, which is the lowest rating ever given
to a mayor of that city.
“Many of Nagin's progressive efforts to further the city's
recovery have been opposed primarily by the White members of the city
council, some who have aspirations to be the next mayor of the city,” said
Nation of Islam Student Minister Willie Muhammad of New Orleans.
“Mayor Nagin will be the standard for which others who go
through similar disasters will be compared to. He is a pioneer in regards to
having the responsibility to rebuild a city that had its complete
infrastructure destroyed. Those who forge a way, that will be an example for
others, do not do so traveling down a mistake free road,” he said.
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/article_6338.shtml
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By JORDAN BLUM
Advocate Capitol
News Bureau
The LSU System
Board of Supervisors formally approved budget-cutting plans and a $3.46
billion overall budget Thursday.
The total
operating budget for the
LSU System — with five academic campuses, a law school,
agricultural center, biomedical research center, public hospitals and medical
schools — represents a $42.7 million reduction from the end of the 2008-2009
fiscal year.
That does not
count previous cuts in January.
The budget plans
include 158 layoffs statewide — but only 69 on the academic campuses — and
the elimination of more than 650 vacant positions.
The only significant
change from when the budget plans were submitted last month is that Michael
Martin, chancellor of the flagship LSU campus, opted to withdraw his proposal
for a mandatory furlough plan, which would have required employees to take
time off without pay.
Martin said he
withdrew the controversial aspect of the plan because of additional savings
through employee attrition, withholding merit pay raises, a hiring freeze and
additional revenue from tuition increases.
“We’re glad we
don’t have to do it now,” Martin said Thursday. “But the future is uncertain.
We’ll keep every piece of ammunition.”
The LSU System
actually was cut close to $200 million in state funds, but much of that was
offset through federal budget stabilization and stimulus dollars.
Those funds will
be gone by 2011. More budget cuts are anticipated.
That is why Martin
said furloughs will remain a viable option in the future.
The Baton Rouge campus is
coping with a nearly $20 million cut, about a 9 percent decrease in state
funds. That does not count close to $10 million slashed in January.
Factoring in extra
tuition revenue and annual inflationary expense increases, the main campus is
left with $28 million less than last year.
Gov. Bobby Jindal and the Legislature worked out a last-minute
compromise finalized June 25 to limit the budget cuts so colleges could
downsize more slowly and prepare for more budget reductions projected through
2012.
On the main
campus, only 24 employees are being laid off, but 189 vacancies will be
sliced.
The layoffs are
being kept small also because of large cuts made to LSU’s ancillary units,
such as the LSU Press, LSU Museum of Art and Center for Advanced
Microstructures and Devices.
Each academic
department is being cut by an average of 3 percent.
The main LSU
campus employs about 5,000 people and there are close to 20,000 employees in
the LSU System.
In other action,
the LSU board approved a new funding plan for the proposed $60 million
Business Education Complex for the E.J.
Ourso College of Business.
LSU has struggled
to raise enough private funds during the recession and plans to use an
internal bridge loan to fill the funding gap.
Martin said the
hope is construction costs will come in low during the current time of a
favorable construction market.
That way, the
internal loan will never be used, Martin said.
Martin said the
previous plan proved too complicated given the short timeframe.
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/55603417.html?index=1&c=y
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Scott Satchfield / Eyewitness News
RESERVE, La. – The fierce health care debate continued in south Louisiana, as Sen.
Mary Landrieu held a town hall meeting in Reserve.
A major security
presence was on hand, as another capacity crowd filled with raw emotion met
Landrieu to speak out on both sides of the hot button issue.
With a clearly
divided crowd of constituents on hand, Landrieu, a Democrat, encouraged
tolerance and respect.
“You may be
familiar with the [health insurance] you have, but you may not be familiar
with what everybody else has,” Landrieu said.
The ongoing
healthcare debate has caused anxiety, frustration and confusion, leaving
people determined to speak out.
Like this man, who
is worried illegal immigrants would get coverage under one plan.
"They don't
even belong here, and I'm paying for it,” he said.
Landrieu responded
by voicing his concern.
"That is a
very good question. I don't believe – I do not believe that people that are
not citizens should receive health benefits.”
Landrieu said
she's still undecided on the overall healthcare reform issue, and with the
debate still boiling over, she said Thursday’s town hall meeting was a chance
to hear what the people of her state want.
Still, at times,
Landrieu reminded folks of her beliefs – statements that were met with
backlash.
"Would you
make a commitment to us, and the taxpayers of America to oppose any bill, which
does not specifically exclude taxpayer funded abortion?" one woman
asked.
Landrieu
responded: "I do not support taxpayer-funded abortions, but I do support
people's choice, with insurance, I do support people's under the constitution
to make a choice."
Those in the crowd
say they're here to make a statement, as congress moves toward a critical
decision.
"The
constitution doesn't give the government the right to run businesses against
the private sector. It just tramples all over the constitution, and I'm
wondering where the oversight is,” said Darren Gaubert,
who attended the meeting. "I just want my country back. I just want them
to follow the constitution, and they not doing it."
Steve Walker, who
also attended the meeting, was concerned about what he feels are lies being
perpetrated by critics of the bill.
"You've got a
pretty well-funded campaign of fear and smear – people saying things that are
absolutely not true, just trying to scare people away from health insurance
reform."
People who did not
get a chance to speak were given cards to fill out with their concerns.
Landrieu said she'll answer each one.
http://www.wwltv.com/topstories/stories/wwl082709cbhealthcare.121378e9f.html
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By SARAH CHACKO
Advocate Capitol
News Bureau
RESERVE — U.S.
Sen. Mary Landrieu managed to keep a health-care forum Thursday from becoming
too unruly as people voiced their opinions on various insurance and coverage
options.
The New Orleans
Democrat said she has not made up her mind on bills that are floating around
in Congress, but she is generally not supportive of a nationalized health
insurance program.
“But I want to
keep this debate moving forward,” she said in a news conference after the
forum.
Before taking
questions, Landrieu made it clear she wanted to hear what people were facing
under different plans, whether it be government-run
programs such as Medicare, private coverage or those with no insurance at
all.
While outbursts
disrupted discussion on occasion, Landrieu asked that everyone there listen
to the situations and problems of other people.
“This isn’t about
party. This is about people,” she said.
The room were the forum was held at the National Guard armory
overflowed with people. Some held “Hands Off My Health Care” signs, while
others waved “Standing Together” signs with President Barack Obama’s
insignia.
A month ago,
members of Obama’s Cabinet were in the same place, being peppered with
questions and criticisms about the president’s plan. Other meetings held by
Democrats around the country have been disrupted by opponents of overhauling
the health-care system.
Mark Keiser,
director of St. Charles
Community Health
Center, said most
people are still trying to gather information so they can decide which side
to support.
“It’s not about
any particular plan but to identify issues that will be covered in the plan,”
he said.
People at the
meeting raised questions about cost, access, and choice. Some criticized the
government for fraud in its public programs and wasteful spending.
Others wanted to
know who was going to get access to care. One man pointed to language written
in a proposed bill that called for covering illegal immigrants.
When Landrieu
asked what he was referring to, the crowd booed her and some chanted “Read
your bill.”
Landrieu clarified
that there is more than one bill under debate and not all include the same
language.
Harriet Jones, of Baton Rouge, said she
couldn’t find insurance after working for 15 years as a nurse and another 10
years for a health insurance company.
After she was laid
off, she was turned down by three insurance companies for coverage, she said.
“They don’t tell
you why and they also keep your $50 application fee,” Jones said.
Landrieu said
Congress has to do its best to ensure that all Americans have a chance to get
health insurance.
“It’s not a
guarantee but a chance,” she said.
Then turning to
the crowd, Landrieu asked “Does she deserve a chance?”
Some may deserve a
chance, but not everyone should get the same care, said Scott Mire, of
Destrehan.
“Allowing people
to walk into the ER to get care for free is not American,” he said.
Landrieu said 16
percent of America’s
gross national product goes toward health care. That is twice the amount of
other developed countries, she said.
“Part of the issue
is trying to find a way to deliver health care to these different groups at a
better cost,” she said.
As the
legislation’s particulars are worked out in Washington,
D.C., Landrieu said she is not keeping her
eyes on the president or Congress but on the people in Louisiana.
But a poll
released Thursday found that 62 percent of respondents opposed Obama’s
health-care reform efforts.
The poll was
conducted by Southern Media & Opinion Research Inc. and included 600
“likely Louisiana
voters.” It was commissioned by “a coalition of Louisiana businesses concerned about the
affects of health-care reform efforts,” according to a news release.
The results have a
margin of error of 4 percentage points.
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/55607847.html
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Myron Walker
The debate on
federal health-care legislation is largely taken up with arguments over
what’s in the bill, how well it will work, what it will cost, who will lose
what etc.
People aren’t
being told the most important fact: that the details of how the legislation
will be implemented will be left to regulations to be written after its
enactment.
These regulations
will be adopted largely without public review or comment, virtually in
secret, which is how most federal legislation is implemented.
This is where the
real impact of the government’s takeover of the health-care system will be
manifested: The “health-care bill” will require the enactment of the federal
regulations, which will be written by unelected employees of the secretary of
health and human services, Kathleen Sebelius, or of
the “health commissioner” appointed by the president.
Their
interpretation of the enabling legislation will provide the final answers to
all of the concerns and questions now being raised in the public debate.
Until those regulations
are written, we won’t and can’t really know how health-care “reform” will
impact our lives. And once they’re written, those regulations won’t be
undone. It will be too late for calls and letters to your senators and
representatives.
Taken by itself,
this lack of opportunity on the part of the public to know or control the
details of the proposed “reforms” is enough to justify keeping the government
out of the private health-care business, unless we truly trust government to
care for us better than we can care for ourselves.
That’s a leap of
faith I can’t make.
Myron Walker
lawyer
Baton Rouge
http://www.2theadvocate.com/opinion/55584527.html
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Peter V. Moulder, M.D.
Health care is in
a state of chaos instead of a necessary flux; that is, appropriate change.
William Winters of
the Memorial DeBakey Heart and Vascular Institute
writes, "When it comes to the examining room, the only important
entities are the patient and the physician. . . . It is up to the physician
to identify and evaluate the significant issues and place those in proper
perspective for the patient."
This relationship
has been fractured, first by well-intentioned social entities (minor), second
by Medicare and third -- and worst -- by the Hillary Clinton travesty on
intentions (the only medical input on her group was a second-year medical
student).
The primary goal
in the health care plan should be to restore and strengthen the
patient-physician relationship, and the secondary goal to make it efficient
and affordable for most to all.
For any proposal,
ask how strong was the medical influence.
Peter V. Moulder, M.D.
New Orleans
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/letterstoeditor/index.ssf?/base/news-14/1251351155320500.xml&coll=1
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Nicholas Richard
Re: "Selling
out St. Tammany," Your
Opinions, Aug. 18.
Mental illnesses
exist in every corner of our country and certainly in St. Tammany Parish.
Southeast Louisiana
Hospital, in Mandeville, is a 348-bed state
operated psychiatric treatment facility serving adults, adolescents and
children which opened in 1952.
Mental illnesses
are not new. They exist; closing your eyes will not change that.
About 5.7 million
American adults or about 2.6 percent of the population age 18 and older in
any given year, have bipolar disorder. Major depression can lead to school
failure, alcohol and drug use and even suicide.
At any point in
time, 1 in 10 children and adolescents are affected by serious emotional
disturbances. Suicide is the third leading cause of death for 15-
to-24-year-olds. Among this age group, suicide accounts for 12.3 percent of
all deaths. Schizophrenia affects about 1 percent of all Americans.
Many of the
estimated 150,000-200,000 persons experiencing chronic homelessness appear to
have disabling health and or behavioral health problems. An estimated 40
percent of chronically homeless individuals have substance abuse problems, 25
percent have a disabling physical health problem, and 20 percent have a
serious mental health problem.
I am pleased that
St. Tammany Parish officials are recognizing these are real needs which will
only increase the longer we, as a community, try to turn away from the facts.
Nicholas Richard
Executive Director
National Alliance for the
Mentally Ill
Mandeville
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/letterstoeditor/index.ssf?/base/news-14/1251351151320500.xml&coll=1
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Mark Trudell, UNO research professor of chemistryScientists
at the University
of New Orleans have
developed a process for producing a new and potentially safer form of
acetaminophen, the pain reliever which has recently caused concern because of
its potentially toxic effects on the liver.
The scientists'
study, published recently in the American Chemical Society's bi-monthly
journal Organic Process Research & Development, could speed development
of a next-generation pain reliever.
The researchers,
led by Mark Trudell, UNO research professor of
chemistry, describe a simple, efficient method for producing the new pain
reliever using few materials and a short series of chemical reactions. In the
lab, the scientists used the new method to produce multigram
quantities of the substance with 99 percent purity.
In June, a U.S.
Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended banning certain
prescription pain relievers containing acetaminophen because of the drug's
potential for causing liver damage when used in high doses.
In the study, Trudell and colleagues noted that scientists recently
discovered a new form of acetaminophen with similar potency to the original
drug with a lower risk of liver toxicity. Until now, scientists have had difficulty
producing the substance in quantities large enough for industrial production.
The new process can be performed on a much larger production scale if needed,
Trudell said.
UNO chemistry
graduate students Lei Miao and Liang Xu worked with
Trudell on the research.
http://news.uno.edu/Public/Index.asp?page_id=30&Content_ID=1552
[BACK TO TOP]
By MIKE STOBBE, AP
Medical Writer
ATLANTA – Swine flu was four times more likely to
send blacks and Hispanics to the hospital than whites, according to a study
in Chicago
that offers one of the first looks at how the virus has affected different
racial groups.
The report echoes
some unpublished information from Boston
that found three out of four Bostonians hospitalized from swine flu were
black or Hispanic.
The cause for the
difference is probably not genetic, health officials said. More likely, it's
because blacks and Hispanics suffer disproportionately from asthma, diabetes
and other health problems that make people more vulnerable to the flu.
It's not clear if
a racial or ethnic difference will hold up when more complete national data
is available, one federal health official said. The findings are based on
fairly small numbers of cases from the early days of the pandemic.
"We don't
have anything definitive to say one group is more affected than
another," said Dr. Daniel Jernigan of the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
The Chicago findings,
released Thursday, are believed to be the first published study to detail a
racial or ethnic breakdown of swine flu's impact.
Researchers looked
at more than 1,500 lab-confirmed swine flu cases reported to the Chicago
Department of Public Health from late April through late July.
Blacks with swine
flu were hospitalized at a rate of 9 per 100,000, and Hispanics at a rate of
8 per 100,000. For whites, the rate was 2 per 100,000, the study found.
Earlier this
month, Boston
health officials released some unpublished information that found three out
of four Bostonians hospitalized with swine flu were black or Hispanic.
"It's very
disturbing," said Barbara Ferrer of the Boston
Public Health Commission, speaking about the higher rates of minority swine
flu hospitalizations.
"But
intuitively it's understandable, because we have tremendous inequities in
most areas of health," said Ferrer, the
agency's executive director.
Also, experts
noted that the Chicago and Boston data represent limited information from
only two cities and only the first two or three months of the pandemic. The
unpredictable manner of swine flu outbreaks means some parts of the city were
hit before others — a sequence that may have little to do with race.
"I think it
reflected more the neighborhoods the disease was first going through,"
said Jernigan, a CDC flu expert.
This fall, the
government will be doing national surveys to better track swine flu trends.
That should provide more reliable information about how the virus is
affecting different groups of people, he said.
http://yahoo.twi.bz/6c
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The New York Times | 08.27.09
By KEVIN SACK
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Max Shireman
says that when he looks in the mirror he does not see the monster the
politicians have made him out to be.
Sure, he could
stand to lose a few pounds. And there was that speeding ticket last year for
going 40 in a 30-mile-an-hour zone. But in his mind, he is just “a
hard-working guy,” the son of an autoworker, who put himself through college,
bought a house in the suburbs and occasionally volunteers at a local hospice.
His indulgences, he said, are limited to sampling local microbrews and
watching “Top Chef” with his wife.
“I’m certainly not
villainous or immoral in any way, shape or form,” said Mr. Shireman, 40, a project manager for Humana, the country’s
fourth-largest health insurer.
So Mr. Shireman does not like it one bit when he hears President
Obama declare that Americans “are being held hostage by health insurance
companies.” Or when the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi of California, characterizes insurers as
“villains” who have “been immoral all along.”
In interviews this
week at Humana’s headquarters in downtown Louisville, where the company was founded
in 1961, employees offered suggestions about why
their industry has come in for such heavy treatment.
Some said they
were paying a price for what Ms. Pelosi has called a “shock and awe” campaign
by the industry against Democratic proposals to create a new government
insurance plan, which would compete with commercial insurers.
“I believe we’re
getting the pushback because we are standing up for what we believe in,” said
Cheryl Tidwell, 45, Humana’s director of commercial sales training. “We
believe there’s a better way to control costs by controlling utilization and
getting people involved in their health care.”
Some workers said
that unlike other contributors to the country’s health care problems — the
doctors who overprescribe, the hospitals that fail to control infection, the
consumers who do not take care of themselves — insurance companies are
faceless, impersonal and distant.
They do not save
lives. They just pay the bills. When they have reason to interact with
patients, it is usually because something has gone wrong. “You’re not having
a good day when you’re talking to us, unfortunately,” Mr. Shireman
said.
That may make it
easy to demonize insurance companies. But Humana’s employees want the
politicians to know that, in the words of Aerion V.
Miles, a customer service team leader, “We are human beings, too.”
Lisa A. Toombs,
40, a technology project manager and mother of three, said she had been taken
aback by the attacks. “The way I see it,” she said, “the people who work for
the insurance companies are average people. We’re not crazy lunatics running
around trying to get at people.”
Such assertions
may paper over the industry’s record of double-digit price increases, medical
underwriting to exclude applicants from coverage, cancellation of policies
for incidental causes, denials of claims, deceptive marketing and generous
executive compensation.
But Humana workers
and executives said the industry tended to absorb blows that should be
directed elsewhere.
“Our industry gets
blame for virtually everything that goes on in health care that people don’t
like,” said Humana’s president, Michael B. McCallister,
over a cup of coffee in the corporate cafeteria. “I commonly get letters from
people that say, ‘Your doctor did this with me or to me,’ so I don’t think
people understand the system really well.”
Mr. McCallister, whose annual compensation amounts to $4.8
million, said he worried about the impact of the rhetoric on staff morale.
But he acknowledged that the industry bore some responsibility for its
reputation. “Our industry has not done a great job of improving clarity and
transparency,” he said.
A number of
employees said they accepted the Washington
rhetoric as a political device, and tried to let it roll off their backs.
There seems to be no appreciation, they said, of the financial risk that
insurance companies bear or the efforts they make to reduce costs through
innovations in wellness and prevention.
“You hear the
horror stories about individuals having coverage denied, not getting full
coverage, C.E.O.’s getting golden parachutes,” said Napoleon Dobbins, 57, a
manager of Humana’s Medicare call center. “You don’t hear about the good,
only the bad.”
The workers said
they found the political attacks surprising given the insurance industry’s
engagement in this year’s debate. The companies have agreed to stop rejecting
applicants with pre-existing health conditions if the government will mandate
health coverage, creating vast new markets.
Every Humana
employee interviewed, including Mr. McCallister,
predicted that a public plan would place private insurers at an impossible
disadvantage, without duplicating their efficiencies.
Mr. Obama
regularly argues that such a plan is needed to “keep the insurance companies
honest.” He has personalized the message by telling of his mother’s struggle
with her insurance company as she was dying of ovarian cancer.
Ms. Tidwell
observed, “If they don’t have a villain or enemy, how do they sell a story?”
Humana’s profit
margin was 2.2 percent in 2008 on revenues of nearly $29 billion. Its
revenues have more than doubled since 2004, with almost all of the growth
coming from the sale of privately administered Medicare Advantage plans.
Those plans now account for the vast majority of Humana’s business, a real
vulnerability if Mr. Obama succeeds in cutting Medicare Advantage because of
its comparatively high administrative costs.
Humana has 28,000
employees, including 10,000 in Louisville,
many of whom work in a monumental headquarters tower constructed of pink
granite. It is the second-largest employer here and has built good will
through philanthropy to the arts, the schools and health care.
The company’s
workers said they came to the office with a clear conscience, but received
their share of ribbing from friends. When Andrew P. Osterman,
31, was about to interview recently for his job as a technology manager, a
friend from business school sent him a pointed text message: “Remember,
you’re not denying coverage, you’re just withholding payment.”
Mr. Shireman said he endured “the normal evil insurance
company thing” from friends who work at the corporate headquarters for Papa
John’s Pizza in Louisville.
“I just kind of laugh and say, ‘Well, you’re putting people on the tables;
we’re just trying to fix them,’ ” he said.
A number of
employees said they were concerned about their jobs, particularly given the
emphasis in Washington
on reducing the administrative costs of health insurance.
“I am an
administrative cost,” Mr. Osterman said. “The
reason a public option would be able to get away with those low costs is if
they took people like me out of the picture.”
Next: Kevin Sack
will visit a struggling nonprofit health clinic in Milwaukee.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/28/health/policy/28insurer.html?ref=health
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