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LSU board approves rewritten hospital contracts

by Walter Pierce

LSU's governing board has backed new hospital privatization contracts that give hospital managers greater ease to leave the deal and fewer restrictions about must-have services.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - LSU's governing board has backed new hospital privatization contracts that give hospital managers greater ease to leave the deal and fewer restrictions about must-have services.

The Board of Supervisors approved the rewritten contracts without objection Wednesday. The reworked deals are part of an effort by Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration to win federal approval to keep Medicaid dollars paying for the privatization arrangements.

The contracts govern the management transfer of hospitals in New Orleans, Lafayette, Bogalusa, Shreveport and Monroe and a deal that closed LSU's Lake Charles hospital, moving its inpatient services to a private hospital.

Federal health officials rejected prior financing plans.

Several LSU board members raised concerns about the ease with which hospital managers can now exit the deals, saying they want the university system to devise backup plans.