Protecting the Cap. Louisiana has an established malpractice cap which provides stability and a ordability of insurance assuring Louisiana’s health care providers that they will be able to obtain and maintain insurance and continue to practice medicine in the state. At the same time, the system provides a viable fund for compensating claimants. The law in place provides a total liability exposure for damages of $500,000 exclusive of medical expenses. Healthcare providers who choose to enroll in the Patient’s Compensation Fund – which is 100% self-funded by the participants - remain responsible for coverage for the rst $100,000 of each claim. The Fund then provides coverage for the second $400,000 plus lifetime related medical expenses for the injured party. The Louisiana Supreme Court has ruled that the legislature has sole authority to establish a cap which was instrumental in working toward continuing private and public healthcare costs. A shortage of physicians in Louisiana is acknowledged. Without this constraint on damages awarded for medical liability actions, wedrastically reduce the chances of attracting newphysicians or retaining the physicians currently providing healthcare in Louisiana. Protecting patient safety. Physicians currently practice in teams with other healthcare professionals to provide comprehensive patient care. These patient-focused teams are an excellent health care model but must be physician-led to ensure quality, continuity, and e ciency in care. The LSMS strongly opposes any e orts to expand scope of practice beyond what is safely permitted by non-physician practitioners’ education, training, and skills. We further encourage legislators to support stronger self-identi cation rules to promote transparency and ensure that patients know and understandwho is providing their health care. Ensuring an adequate healthcare workforce. It’s no secret that Louisiana does not have enough physicians to meet demand. To address this shortage, it is critical that Louisiana ensures stable, state support for a physician’s education and training to help cultivate future generations of Louisiana physicians. In turn, this ensures stable access to healthcare for the citizens of this state. The LSMS believes we need to support physician-led healthcare teams that can safely meet the diverse needs of the state’s population. As a part of that, the Legislature is encouraged to consider innovative residency incentives suchas forgiving loans (inpart or inwhole) for residents willing towork for a speci ed time in underserved locations or looking at creating regional residency programs with neighboring states.
Making Medicaid Sustainable. Physicians are critical to Louisiana’s healthcare system if it is to be cost-e ective, otherwise, the state’s e orts to increase preventative care, improve medically necessary treatment for the chronically ill, and reduce inappropriate emergency department utilization will falter. State leaders must realize that cutting physicians’ payments is not an e ective tool for controlling healthcare costs and often exacerbates the cost of care. The already arti cially low Medicare reimbursement is considered the oor for payments, but in Louisiana, Medicaid reimbursements are now roughly two thirds of what Medicare pays. In recent years, physicians who care for Medicaid patients have seen reimbursement rates cut by 15 to 45 percent, depending on their specialty. Providers cannot continue to make ends meet and pay common business expenses at this threshold. Expanding Medicaid eligibility to individuals with income levels at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty level added thousands of patients into a system plagued with ine ciency and facing regular budget shortfalls. Our duty is to address lingering issues hindering the Healthy Louisiana program to ensure adequate access and promote healthier outcomes for Louisiana’s most vulnerable patients. The LSMS continues to advocate for a Medicaid program that: • ProvidesMedicaid recipients with access to quality healthcare • Provides reasonable and timely payments to physicians who provide Medicaid services • Relieson fundingsources that arededicatedandstable, thereby allowing theprogramto remain scally soundandsustainable, even in timeswhen thestateof Louisiana is facingbudget de cits • Contains choices for patients, i.e. traditional insurance plans, managed care plans, bene t payment schedule plans, and purchasing pools to enable individuals to bene t from group rate premiums • Prohibits discrimination against any physician specialty • Provides incentives such as small business tax breaks, limited malpractice caps, or other non-reimbursement incentives for physicians who accept Medicaid patients • Provides complete nancial transparency so taxpayers can easily determine if their dollars are being used in a manner that maximizes access to quality care
7 J LA MED SOC | VOL 172 | NO. 1
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