[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 164 (Friday, August 24, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 48649-48650]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-16594]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services


Medicaid Program; Notice of Single-Source Grant Award to the 
State of Louisiana for the Grant Entitled ``Deficit Reduction Act-
Hurricane Katrina Healthcare Related Professional Workforce Supply''

AGENCY: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

ACTION: Single-Source Non-Competitive Supplemental Award.

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    Funding Amount: $35,000,000.
    Period of Performance: June 18, 2007-September 30, 2009.
    CFDA: 93.779.

    Authority: Section 6201(a)(4) of the Deficit Reduction Act of 
2005 (DRA).

Purpose

    These supplemental grant funds will be made available to the State 
of Louisiana to fund additional State payments for professional 
healthcare workforce fulfillment in Greater New Orleans, which has 
continued to face unique health professional shortages as a result of 
Hurricane Katrina and its subsequent floods. With nearly 4,500 doctors 
displaced and approximately 50 percent of the physicians who worked in 
Region 1 before Hurricane Katrina, no longer practicing there, Greater 
New Orleans is experiencing a shortage of primary care doctors to see 
Medicaid and uninsured patients.
    Funding awarded under this grant program must be used by the State 
to make payments for purposes of recruitment and retention of 
professional health care staff for the impacted communities. For 
purposes of this grant, impacted communities are those four parishes 
located in the State of Louisiana that comprise Region 1, as defined by 
the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, namely, Orleans, 
Jefferson, St. Bernard, and Plaquemines.
    The grant funds must be used only for purposes of recruitment or 
retention of healthcare workforce professionals in Greater New Orleans. 
The State has been given flexibility in determining the payment 
methodology, the scope and type of activities, criteria for awarding 
payment, and the amount of payments to be made to such professionals. 
Payment recipients are limited to licensed healthcare professionals. 
Activities include those that were recommended by the Louisiana Health 
Care Redesign Collaborative (LHCRC) in their concept paper submitted to 
the Secretary on October 20, 2006. These activities include but are not 
limited to: income guarantees, annual medical malpractice payment 
relief, loan repayments, and incentive payments (relocation expenses 
and sign-on bonuses). Grant funds may not be distributed to staff who 
are no longer providing professional healthcare services in the Greater 
New Orleans area at the time of the disbursement of grant funds. All 
payments must be made under this grant program by September 30, 2009.
    Payments to physicians, nurses, and other professional healthcare 
workforce staff under this program are not allowed to be considered 
payments for Medicare, Medicaid or other specific services, and are not 
available as the non-Federal share of expenditures or for supplemental 
disproportionate share hospital payments. Payments cannot be made 
conditional on the provision of any particular items or services by the 
professionals.
    Under the authority of section 6201(a)(4) of the Deficit Reduction 
Act (DRA), the Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services 
(DHHS) has invoked his authority to restore health care in impacted 
communities affected by Hurricane Katrina by offering this unique 
funding opportunity which will give further incentive to the retention 
and recruitment of health care workforce professionals in Greater New 
Orleans. Louisiana is the only State with knowledge and ability to 
administer a grant designed to affect impacted Louisiana communities. 
For this reason, the Secretary has directed the Centers for Medicare & 
Medicaid Services to issue a single-source award to the State of 
Louisiana to increase access to health care services and to relieve 
economic pressures suffered by health care providers resulting from 
both the hurricane and its subsequent flooding.
    For Further Information Contact: Wendy J. Taparanskas, Ph.D., 
Health Insurance Specialist, Office of the Center Director, Centers for 
Medicaid and State Operations, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid 
Services, Mail Stop S2-26-12, 7500 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 
21244, (410) 786-5245.


[[Page 48650]]


    Dated: July 2, 2007.
Leslie V. Norwalk,
Acting Administrator, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
[FR Doc. E7-16594 Filed 8-23-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4120-01-P