Hospitals still feeling Katrina sting

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

The third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is this month, and, to hear the interim CEO of Touro Infirmary explain it, hospitals are still reeling.

In a CityBusiness story this week, Michael Sniffen, who was brought on at Touro on April 28 after Les Hirsch’s departure, said, “Organizations like Touro and the other hospitals all are challenged financially. Everyone is losing money this year.”

Charity Hospital has been shuttered since the storm, forcing patients to seek out other hospitals. Hospitals, including Touro, have been hurt financially because of uncompensated care and rising labor costs coupled with inadequate reimbursement from the feds and state for Medicare and Medicaid, he said.

“Touro was the first hospital back after the storm,” he said. “It did all the right things, but now it’s struggling because the people who said ‘Don’t worry, we’ll take care of it’ are still telling us that the check is in the mail.

“Not getting money from the state for Medicaid was very disappointing, especially when the state has a huge surplus. It makes no sense. As a result we’ve been forced to go into our reserves, and we’d rather invest our reserves than use it to cover payroll.”•