Private healthcare companies that operate Louisiana's safety-net hospitals have been offered less lucrative contracts by Gov. John Bel Edwards' administration this week, reports The New Star.
Under former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, the state legislature voted to privatize its charity care hospital system and extended operating contracts to various private healthcare partners in 2013.
But financial terms of the contracts became unsustainable this year, Gov. Edwards' commissioner of the administration Jay Dardenne told The News Star. "We don't have the money to satisfy all of the provisions of the (contracts)," she said.
Private companies running safety-net hospitals in Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Shreveport, Monroe, Alexandria, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Bogalousa, Houma and Independence have to option to accept the new contracts or allow another company to take over operations.