Doctors still reeling after Katrina, sue state for uncompensated care

Louisiana officials say they are trying to free up money, now set aside for a ruined hospital, so that physicians treating uninsured patients can be paid.

By Amy Lynn Sorrel, AMNews staff. May 28, 2007.

New Orleans-area general surgeon Todd Belott, MD, recently operated on a man who had waited six days before he went to the emergency department, seeking treatment for appendicitis. The uninsured patient delayed seeking help because Hurricane Katrina destroyed his usual source of care -- Charity Hospital.

The delay allowed infection to worsen so much that Dr. Belott had to remove part of the man's colon.

Nearly two years after the storm struck on Aug. 29, 2005, Dr. Belott and other physicians with privileges at West Jefferson Medical Center, just outside New Orleans, say they are still overwhelmed with patients who used to rely on Charity Hospital. The devastation Katrina wrought on the health care infrastructure not only continues to harm patient access but is making it hard for the physicians who remain to stay financially afloat.

"We want to make sure our community survives post-Katrina," said general surgeon David C. Treen Jr., MD, vice chief of West Jefferson's medical staff. "But doctors cannot afford to stay, when there are opportunities elsewhere, without having to give away services at levels so financially burdensome [that] we can't continue."

Since Katrina, doctors have turned away no one, regardless of their ability to pay, said plastic and reconstructive surgeon Jonathan C. Boraski, MD. But without being able to refer patients to Charity Hospital, "there's no way to ease the burden," said Dr. Boraski, chief of the West Jefferson medical staff.