Fact Sheet - HHS Announces Additional Grants to Improve Health Care in Hurricane Katrina Affected Areas

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Contact: HHS Press Office
(202) 690-6343

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt announced an additional $195 million in grants for Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi today. HHS has established these grants to help improve health care in areas affected by Hurricane Katrina.

The grants are funded through the Deficit Reduction Act, which provides the HHS Secretary with the authority to make payments to states to restore access to health care in communities impacted by Hurricane Katrina.

$100 million will help primary care clinics in four Greater New Orleans parishes stabilize and expand primary care access, regardless of a resident’s ability to pay.

The parishes of Jefferson, Orleans, St. Bernard and Plaquemines were targeted because of the unique impact of the storm and its resulting floods on the uninsured and those with low income. The severe impact has been heard in testimony and been corroborated by Secretary Leavitt through regular visits to Greater New Orleans area, and through input received from HHS staff.

The grant money will go to primary health care clinics to expand access to outpatient primary care, which includes medical and mental health services, substance abuse treatment, oral health care and optometric care.
$4 million will be used to restore capability to the city of New Orleans Health Department to provide primary care in city neighborhoods that are not adequately served.
To help administer and oversee the grants, Louisiana must use a local non-profit organization that meets certain criteria. The organization may not be a recipient of funds under this grant, except for administrative funds.
Eligible clinics will meet certain criteria and the money must be used to fund specific health care services.
Grantees will be required to submit, at least annually, detailed accountings of how the funding is used and how it was able to increase access to care.
The grant funding mechanism was used to expand primary care access in the timeliest manner possible.

This is emergency funding and these grants should be viewed as a bridge to a long-term solution. We continue to believe that Louisiana’s best interests will be served if it submits a large-scale waiver request. For now, these grants address immediate needs.

$60 million in grants will help Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippialleviate financial pressures experienced by health care providers. Because changing wage rates have not yet been reflected or adjusted for in Medicare payment methodologies, these monies will provide immediate help.

44 percent, or just over $26 million, is for Louisiana
39 percent, approximately $23 million, is for Mississippi
17 percent, $10.5 million, is allocated for Alabama

The funding allocations are based on general acute care hospitals’, inpatient psychiatric facilities’, community mental health centers’ and skilled nursing facilities’ relative shares of total Medicare payments made in FEMA designated impacted counties for the 2006 calendar year.

This $60 million dollar grant comes in addition to $160 million already awarded to the three states in February for stabilizing providers.

$35 million will help Louisiana to recruit and retain health care workers.

Health care professionals include physicians, dentists, registered nurses, nurse practitioners and physician assistants, other licensed professional health care staff. Clinical faculty for medical schools, dental schools and other health training programs are also included and targeted in these efforts.

This funding is in addition to $15 million in funding awarded to Louisiana for these efforts in March, 2007. As of May 2, 2007, Louisiana had received 32 recruitment applications and 68 retention applications.

To date, HHS has provided the region with more than $2.5 billion to assist in funding for social services, health care and efforts to rebuild the health care system in the Gulf Coast region since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck. This amount and those shown below include the grants announced today.

$1.413 billion has gone to Louisiana
$838 million has gone to Mississippi
$356 million has gone to Alabama

Through the Administration for Children and Families funding has been provided to help with Head Start programs, for social services block grants and temporary assistance for needy families.

Through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services funding has gone for medical and child health assistance, grants to hospitals and special nursing facilities and funding for Katrina and Rita victim aid. A small amount of this total funding was granted through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for mosquito and pest abatement, which was a serious problem after the storms and flooding; and for an emergency communications network for health centers, administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration.