Officials redesign New Orleans health system

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt wants to use Katrina-devastated New Orleans as a laboratory to test a newly-coherent healthcare delivery and financing system in a city that's never had such a thing before. City and state officials have officially kicked off the Louisiana Health Care Redesign Collaborative, a 40-member group that's to spend the next three months coming up with a plan. The goal is to propose major changes in Medicare and Medicaid rules (which may get a friendly ear in Leavitt's office because of the city's crisis status), and to provide a "medical home" for everyone in the area, regardless of whether they're insured or by whom. The committee will try to figure out how to deploy the available dollars as efficiently as possible, maximizing prevention and primary care and minimizing the need for expensive emergency and intensive care services.

The members of the collaborative have been meeting informally since spring, but now the really hard part begins. The original plan was to include the whole state, according to this article in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, but the participants soon realized that without the clean slate provided by Katrina, there would be too many vested political interests opposing major change. Instead, they'll focus on the four parishes in the New Orleans area.

- read this Times Picayune article for more

Post a comment