Doctors still waiting to be paid after Katrina

Almost 400 doctors at a New Orleans hospital are suing the state for $100 million for treatment and care they provided to uninsured patients following Hurricane Katrina.

They doctors at the West Jefferson Medical Center say the state failed to reimburse them for treating needy and uninsured patients after the state-funded Charity Hospital in New Orleans closed on Aug. 29, 2005, following Hurricane Katrina.

According to the doctors the state has shifted its responsibilities onto private physicians while "depriving" doctors of compensation".

The hospital itself is not involved in the lawsuit but the medical director says the inadequate resources at the hospital are continually being severely strained.

Although funds to the tune of $120 million were set aside last year to cope with such situations by the state Department of Health and Hospitals, that money is earmarked for hospitals and not for doctors private practices.

The doctors estimate that 30 percent of the patients admitted to the medical center's emergency room after the hurricane were poor or uninsured; apart from the emergency room, the uninsured account for 13 percent of the hospital's patients, up from 5.4 percent before Katrina.

The hospital's increased workload is said to be deterring many young doctors from working there and makes it difficult for the medical center to recruit new staff; the dearth of funding is say the doctors, putting the whole community at risk.

The Department says the state helped secure $8 million in federal money for private physicians who provided care to the poor after Katrina and have been working to secure additional funding for the doctors.