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Health department hires D.C. lobbying firm

By The Associated Press

Posted: Nov 4, 2009 6:28 AM

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration has brought in the Washington lobbying firm of Patton Boggs to help try to convince Congress to give Louisiana a break from a costly change in the Medicaid match rate. Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine says the firm was hired by the private LRA Support Foundation and paid for with donations from private health care providers, who stand to be the biggest financial losers if the state is forced to make deep cuts to its health care budget. The federal Medicaid match rate is scheduled to drop from 80 percent to 63 percent in January 2011. The state would have to come up with $455 million in the fiscal year that starts July 1 to keep the program operating at current levels. State officials argue the match rate formula is skewed because hurricane relief dollars artificially inflated Louisiana's average personal income.

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