NEWS RELEASE

Committee on Energy and Commerce
Rep. John D. Dingell, Chairman

Committee Releases Leavitt Response to
Concerns About Health Care Crisis in New Orleans

Washington, D.C. – Today, Reps. Bart Stupak (D-MI) and Ed Whitfield (R-KY), the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, released a letter from Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt responding to concerns raised at a hearing last week about the continuing health care crisis in New Orleans.

Leavitt outlined the Department’s efforts to date and laid out both long and short-term goals for rebuilding the health system in New Orleans. Specifically, the Secretary pledged to work with the State of Louisiana to concentrate efforts to improve access to health care primarily in Region I, which includes the four parishes hit the hardest by Hurricane Katrina. The Secretary is also considering how to distribute remaining funds under the Deficit Reduction Act to devastated areas and additional Medicare Graduate Medical Education payments to dislocated medical residents to continue their training.

“It is vital that the Department continue to work closely with the stakeholders in Louisiana on the issues that are key to the recovery of their health care system,” said Rep. John D. Dingell, Chairman of the full Committee on Energy and Commerce. “In the aftermath of the storm, despite the virtual destruction of the region’s public health care system, we are beginning to see a medical home system of care emerge that is struggling to provide community-based primary care. It is critical that we nurture those efforts, and that we continue to support the other priorities identified by Louisiana in its Health Care Redesign “Collaborative.”

“I am pleased that following our Subcommittee’s hearings, Secretary Leavitt is taking a fresh look at how well the federal government’s initial responses to the emergency are working,” said Stupak. “I am particularly pleased that the Secretary will work with the State of Louisiana on the four parishes in New Orleans hit hardest by Katrina. As became apparent during our hearings, while long term solutions are needed to repair New Orleans’ healthcare infrastructure, immediate relief is also needed for the residents of the Gulf Coast who lack access to healthcare.”

Stupak continued, “I encourage Secretary Leavitt to convene, as early as possible, a summit in Louisiana to address the state's pressing medical workforce issues. For Louisiana's healthcare system to fully recover, the region will need to be capable of 'growing its own doctors' and I look forward to hearing Secretary Leavitt's ideas for advancing that goal.”

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(Read letter from HHS Secretary Leavitt)