Medical clinics in Monroe, Alexandria, Shreveport and rural areas in northern Louisiana may have to shutter their doors under the current proposed $39 million cut to the LSU Health Sciences Center-Shreveport’s budget, center Interim Chancellor G.E. Ghali told Manship School News Service Tuesday.
LSU Medical Center administrators were at the Capitol informing the House Appropriations subcommittee on Health and Human Services that the Shreveport branch of medical schools would need a $117-million overall budget comprised of state general funds, self-generated funds, public-private contracts and statutory fund dedications to continue current functions.
One influential member of the committee said he wasn’t necessarily buying the threat.
Rep. John Schroder, R-Covington, pressed medical center officials on finding ways to do more with less, pointing out a history of alarmist rhetoric from higher education officials.
“It’s time to transform and get out of the higher education business,” Schroder said.
A short time later, Schroder clarified to the Manship School News Service that he did not mean privatizing public universities, but wants to give higher education institutions more autonomy and take the legislature out of the decision-making process.
The proposed cut to the Department of Health & Hospitals, required to help fill a $750 million budget gap for the coming fiscal year, would bring the Shreveport center’s total budget to $86 million.
Ghali said a cut of that magnitude would affect the ability to recruit and retain faculty members, decrease the amount of research provided and diminish the public’s access to medical clinics around the state.
“For many of the people in these rural areas, these clinics are all they have for primary care physicians and surgeons,” Ghali said. “You’re going to have patients who aren’t going to be able to get basic things done like their diabetes, hypertension or cholesterol. Preventative care for all these individuals will be gone.”
LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans Chancellor Larry H. Hollier claimed that if deep cuts to hospitals partnered with the medical schools occur for the next fiscal year, the centers may have to send medical students out of state to complete their residency, and the state would have to pick up the cost.
Compounding that problem, Hollier said studies show medical professionals traditionally practice in the area of their residency which would cause a substantial economic loss to Louisiana because each doctor annually creates $1.2 million in state economic activity.