[StBernard] Rep. Melancon Announces $719, 000 Federal Grant for St. Bernard Health Center

[Westley Annis]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon (D –LA) announced today that the St. Bernard Health Center in Chalmette would receive a $719,849 federal grant to support and expand the clinic’s operations.  In August, Rep. Melancon brought a delegation of 14 members of Congress, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Majority Whip James Clyburn, to tour the St. Bernard Health Center.  The delegation met with doctors, nurses, patients and administrators to discuss the clinic’s role in providing healthcare to the parish since the 2005 storms and highlight the need for additional federal funding to support its services (see links to pictures below).

 

“The St. Bernard Health Center has valiantly worked to fill the healthcare void left in the parish after Katrina, and I am very pleased they will be receiving more support from the federal government for their efforts,” Rep. Melancon said.”

 

Rep. Melancon continued, “Since the start of the new Congress, there has been a renewed focus on standing up healthcare in hurricane-affected communities of south Louisiana, and this grant is in large part the fruit of our labors.  I am grateful to the Democratic leadership and the Energy and Commerce Committee for holding the Administration’s feet to the fire on releasing more funding for rebuilding the healthcare network in south Louisiana.  We will continue partnering with the doctors, nurses, and healthcare administrators who are trying to provide for this most fundamental need in communities that saw their hospitals and clinics devastated by the storms.”

 

After Hurricane Katrina destroyed St. Bernard Parish’s only hospital, local doctors and healthcare workers opened the St. Bernard Health Center to provide basic healthcare to the people of the parish.  Since the storm, this temporary clinic has been housed in a series of trailers located next to the WalMart SuperCenter on W. Judge Perez Drive and provides primary care for residents of the parish.  

 

Rep. Melancon has worked to bring Congressional attention to the desperate state of health care in south Louisiana following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. At his urging, the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee – which Rep. Melancon vice chairs – held a hearing in March on post-storm health care conditions and heard directly from health care providers and administrators in south Louisiana.  Dr. Bryan Bertucci, a family physician at the St. Bernard Health Center and the Coroner of St. Bernard Parish, testified before the subcommittee about healthcare conditions in the parish (read his testimony here: http://energycommerce.house.gov/cmte_mtgs/110-oi-hrg.031307.Bertucci-Testimony.pdf <http://energycommerce.house.gov/cmte_mtgs/110-oi-hrg.031307.Bertucci-Testimony.pdf> ).  Dr. Bertucci also met with the Congressional Delegation during their August visit.

 

Following the March hearing, and as a result of ongoing pressure from the Committee, in May the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced it would release almost $200 million to the Gulf Coast for primary care healthcare services.  The grants are funded through the Deficit Reduction Act, which provides the HHS Secretary with the authority to make payments to states to restore access to health care in communities impacted by Hurricane Katrina.  

 

Of the $200 million provided for primary healthcare services along the Gulf Coast, $100 million is dedicated to expanding access to primary care in the Greater New Orleans area. The funding, which today’s grant to St. Bernard Health Center is one of the first awards from, will go to certain non-profit and public health care clinics in the parishes of Jefferson, Orleans, St. Bernard and Plaquemines.  The funding will be used to expand access to outpatient primary care, including medical and mental health services, substance abuse treatment, oral health care and optometric care, with a goal of decreasing the reliance on emergency room usage for primary care services by Medicaid and those people without insurance or who are under-insured.

 

The funding will be awarded and distributed through the Primary Care Access and Stabilization Grant program and will be administered by the Louisiana Public Health Institute, serving as the local partner of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. 

 

Picture 1: Speaker Pelosi and Rep. Melancon listen to hospital executive John Finan describe the challenges the St. Bernard Health Center has faced since Katrina.

 

Picture 2: Whip Clyburn discusses health care recovery with Rep. Melancon and Speaker Pelosi at the St. Bernard Health Center.

 

Picture 3: Rep. Melancon thanks a healthcare worker for staying in St. Bernard while the community rebuilds following Katrina.

 

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