[StBernard] LRA takes action to deter fraud, abuse before first federal dollars spent

[Westley Annis]

LRA takes action to deter fraud, abuse before first federal dollars spent

Board also votes on key health care and infrastructure initiatives

BATON ROUGE, La. - Since Louisiana anticipates the receipt of at least $12.1
billion in federal recovery dollars, the Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA)
took action today to deter fraud and abuse before the first federal dollar
is spent. 

"If someone is going to steal- or even try to steal -- money that would
otherwise go to a homeowner who needs help, we are going to send them to
jail," said James Davison, Vice Chair of the LRA Audit Subcommittee.

According to the resolution, which was unanimously approved by the board,
"The world is watching as we rebuild, and we must send a message that
Louisiana will not tolerate attempts of individuals to abuse, defraud or
steal government funds illegally. We will investigate claims of fraud, we
will determine when fraud has occurred, and we will prosecute."

With this action, the board created an interagency working group, the Fraud
Prevention and Investigations Task Force, which has been charged with
creating a coordinated plan to identify potential areas of fraud, create a
mechanism to prevent fraud and investigate individual cases of fraud,
determine the method to prosecute those who are suspects of fraud and
propose penalties for those individuals or corporations who are convicted of
fraud.

The task force will be led and staffed by the Office of the Attorney General
and shall be compromised of representatives of the LRA Audit Subcommittee,
the State Inspector General's Office, the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development's Office of the Inspector General, the U. S. Attorney's
Office, the Division of Administration's Office of Community Development,
and the Office of the Legislative Auditor. The task force will report its
findings and plan of action to the LRA no later than June 14. 

In other action:

* Calling last year's hurricanes an opportunity to rebuild a more effective
system of health care for the communities impacted by the storms, the LRA
Board of Directors today immediately endorsed three specific
recovery-related recommendations which included: the need to create more
effective long-term care solutions; the immediate need for allocation of
funds for mental health services, including that for post-traumatic stress
disorder; and the LSU-Veteran's Affairs partnership to develop a new
hospital to replace Charity Hospital in New Orleans.

The proposed efforts are based on a sweeping report by national consultants
PricewaterhouseCoopers. The Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA) Support
Foundation retained the firm to produce the report, entitled Report on
Louisiana Healthcare Delivery and Financing System, which includes
recommendations that apply to both the immediate and long-term recovery of
the health care system in the hurricane impacted areas of Louisiana, as well
as the redesign of the overall statewide system. 

The board also voted today to submit for consideration the entire report to
Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, the Legislature and Department of Health
and Hospitals (DHH) Secretary Fred Cerise "to guide their planning for and
implementation of long-term redesign of a statewide health care system of
high quality and sustainability." 

The PricewaterhouseCoopers report addresses three critical areas of health
care recovery and redesign: emergency preparedness and disaster recovery;
healthcare workforce and medical education needs, especially in areas of
highest devastation; and design of a health system that will ensure equal
access to quality care for all Louisianians. Last month the LRA endorsed the
findings related to emergency response and disaster preparedness.

Secretary Cerise also invited the LRA to join forces with his department and
the Louisiana Health Care Redesign Collaborative (LHCRC) to rebuild health
care systems in Southeast and Southwest Louisiana that were decimated by
hurricanes Katrina and Rita. 

The LHCRC, which was created under the leadership of Secretary Cerise and U.
S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Secretary Michael Leavitt,
is charged with developing the redesign plan for Southeast Louisiana. Dr.
Cerise will work with the LRA and other stakeholders to design the
appropriate collaborative for Southwest Louisiana. 

Secretary Cerise said that Secretary Leavitt has personally endorsed the
reform initiative in the Greater New Orleans area to make Louisiana's Gulf
Coast "a model of health care for the state and nation." In a recent visit
to Louisiana, Secretary Leavitt encouraged Louisiana policy makers to
embrace progressive reforms, and pledged to work with the state to adjust
federal funding mechanisms to support the redesign.

Secretary Cerise said the LHCRC will focus its demonstration projects in
ways that will build on many of the principles and recommendations that were
included in the PricewaterhouseCoopers report, including: preventative
primary care, equivalent quality of care between public and private systems,
a greater availability of home and community services for long-term care,
and more efficient management of health information through the use of
electronic systems. 

* The board also received an update on regional planning activities, which
are being spearheaded by Calthorpe Associates, a team of world renowned
planners hired through the LRA Support Foundation to work with stakeholders,
community leaders and individuals to develop a long-term regional vision for
South Louisiana. 

Calthorpe reported its team is working with LRA staff, the Brookings
Institute, Coastal Louisiana Ecosystem Assessment and Restoration (CLEAR),
PolicyLink and others to build a network of more than one thousand
stakeholders, representing diverse groups statewide including elected
officials, private industry and community leaders who will come together in
July at a series of large workshops that will be hosted across the state. In
these workshops, this network of stakeholders will begin creating the
rebuilding scenarios that will guide the development of South Louisiana's
regional vision. The same workshops will be used by the state Coastal
Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) to help it refine its
levee-and-wetland scenarios for rebuilding. 

Ultimately, this long-term planning initiative will use a broad, multi-media
outreach effort to reach hundreds of thousands of Louisianians, at home and
displaced, to complete the development of South Louisiana's regional vision.


* The board also approved the use of federal Community Development Block
Grants as match dollars to help local communities rebuild the almost $10
billion in public infrastructure destroyed in hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
While FEMA's Public Assistance program will fund 90% of the repairs to sewer
systems, schools, universities, and other infrastructure, there is a
non-federal match required, which the LRA is recommending to Governor Blanco
and the Louisiana Legislature for approval. 

In addition to the infrastructure lost to the storms, the financial
positions and revenue streams of many local governments were also
devastated, leaving them unable to pay the non-federal match required to
access FEMA public assistance program funds. Only those governments that
adopt the latest available flood elevations and building codes will be
eligible to receive the match required for the FEMA assistance.

Board resolutions and presentations for today's board meeting are available
on the LRA web site at www.lra.louisiana.gov
<http://keelson.eatel.net/websites/la.gov/action.cfm?md=communication&task=a
ddClick&msg_ID=1711&ID=d%5Ejrk%28mOl%2Fmq&redirect=http://www.lra.louisiana.
gov> 

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated South Louisiana, destroying more than
200,000 homes and 18,000 businesses and inflicting about $25 billion in
insured losses. The Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA) is the planning and
coordinating body that was created in the aftermath of these storms by
Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco to lead one of the most extensive
rebuilding efforts in the world. The LRA is a 33-member body which is
coordinating across jurisdictions, supporting community recovery and
resurgence, ensuring integrity and effectiveness, and planning for the
recovery and rebuilding of Louisiana.

-end-