CHRISTUS Health As A Safety Net In Louisiana (Download as a PDF)

The Issue

CHRISTUS Health facilities, among others, provide a safety net essential to members of our communities who are uninsured, under-insured, or have inadequate access to health care.  Maintaining and expanding federal funding of this safety net, through Medicare and Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) payments, the Community Access Program, and other initiatives, is imperative.

While CHRISTUS Health facilities struggle to meet the ever-increasing need for health care services, discussions about the health care safety net too often consider only public hospitals and health clinics, seemingly overlooking the fact that the majority of uncompensated care is provided by private facilities such as those in the CHRISTUS Health System.

CHRISTUS facilities often serve as major providers of trauma, burn, and neonatal intensive care services, as well as services for AIDS patients and the terminally ill.  For Catholic hospital systems such as CHRISTUS, the provision of these services is indeed part of our mission. 

In Louisiana, at least one in five adults between the ages of 19 and 65 has no health insurance – or 21 percent of the state’s population.  These people can be difficult to reach, because they are either too old for Medicaid LaCHIP services, too young for Medicare, or cannot afford private insurance. Meeting this ever-growing need pushes the limits of our facilities’ resources.

The CHRISTUS Health Position: Advocate for a stronger safety net.
CHRISTUS Health advocates strengthening the important safety net programs that fulfill our ministry’s mission and role of providing services for low-income and under-served families.

CHRISTUS Health joined Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco’s efforts to bring state and national leaders together to discuss Louisiana’s health care crisis, leading to the formation of the Governor’s Health Care Reform Panel, which has been formulating long- and short-term solutions to the problem.

CHRISTUS Health successfully worked with health care organizations and members of the state Legislature to increase Medicaid funding for low income Louisianans in 2007.

In addition, CHRISTUS Health is seeking to strengthen the federal role in Medicaid, particularly payments to hospitals, home care agencies and long-term care facilities.

April  2007