HJBR Sep/Oct 2019

Healthcare Journal of BATON ROUGE I  SEP / OCT 2019 47 Rebekah E. Gee, MD, MPH Secretary Louisiana Department of Health providers to screen patients for high-risk factors and vaccinate those who fit into a high-risk group or who interact with a high-risk group. In addition to people who are homeless or who use drugs, men who have sex with other men are also at risk, though that group is the smallest percent- age of diagnoses. To address this outbreak, the Louisiana Office of Public Health is alerting health- care providers about the importance of screenings. The Office has also provided more than 8,000 preventative vaccina- tions that can be administered to high-risk individuals, and we continue to do so. For more information on hepatitis A, visit ldh.la.gov/hepa Medicaid Expansion Anniversary Each summer since we expanded Med- icaid in July of 2016, we have celebrated the anniversary of expansion to help re- mind people of how truly transformative the change has been. This year, Gov. John Bel Edwards and I celebrated the anni- versary at , where the governor highlight- ed the improved access to healthcare the state has experienced since Medicaid ex- pansion, which he signed as one of his first official acts as governor. “When people are sick, they’re going to the doctor—that’s really important,” the governor told event attendees, outlining the highlights of a Tulane University study that looked at Medicaid expansion. “Two- thirds of the people are saying they’re taking their medicines as prescribed who couldn’t do that before. That’s how you im- prove health outcomes.” Before Medicaid expansion, people would often put off going to the doctor when they were sick because of the cost. Since expansion, the Tulane study found, primary care providers participating in Medicaid jumped by 400, and the total number of primary care providers filing Medicaid claims has remained relatively steady since then. Another compelling finding in the study was that the number of nurse practitioners and physician assistants in the state has continued to grow under Medicaid expan- sion. Before expansion, the number of NPs and PAs was already growing at a steady pace, but under expansion those providers are continuing their growth trajectory, even as the number of doctors has remained relatively steady. This statistic is import- ant because the study found that PAs are shouldering much of the increased patient load, increasing their Medicaid patients from 47 per month on average to 59 after expansion—a 26 percent increase. More good news from the study: Patients are traveling fewer miles to get healthcare, and the rate of Medicaid expansion en- rollee emergency department visits has dropped by 22 percent. The study shows how Medicaid expan- sion has helped us fulfill a promise of pro- viding better healthcare for all of the state’s residents. But most importantly, it has also helped us build a stronger healthcare deliv- ery system through our hospitals, our pri- mary care providers, and specialists who are saving the lives of some of Louisiana’s most vulnerable residents. The complete study is available at ldh. la.gov. n Gov. John Bel Edwards visited St. Bernard Parish Hospital in Chalmette July 31 to cele- brate the third anniversary of Medicaid expansion across the state. He was joined by SBPH and Ochsner officials, medical professionals and St. Bernard Parish Government officials.