MHA Press Room

Study: Many displaced by Katrina in MS report unmet health needs

Many Mississippi residents who were displaced to trailer parks by Hurricane Katrina continue to report unmet mental health and other health service needs, according to a study published online Aug. 29 by Health Affairs. The survey of people living last September in trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency found more than two-thirds of those with major depressive disorder or suicide thoughts had not received mental health services since displacement.

Half of respondents reported delaying primary care for children and four in 10 reported delaying primary care for adults, primarily due to a lack of money or insurance. Among other action, the authors recommend federal legislation to ensure long-term mental health services for those who remain displaced after a disaster.

Mississippi Hospital Association President and CEO Sam Cameron said, “The emotional damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina is just as real as the physical damage. We need to continue to work towards mental health parity in disaster response, just as we are working towards it in Congress.”

GAO examines federal funding allocations for Katrina

A new report from the Government Accountability Office examines how the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has allocated up to $2 billion in Medicaid and State Children’s Health Insurance Program funds included in the Deficit Reduction Act for health care costs related to Hurricane Katrina. As of Sept. 30, 2006, CMS had allocated $1.9 billion of the funding to states.

Thirty-two states received funds for eligible individuals affected by the hurricane, and eight states received funds for uncompensated care services. Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi received funds for existing Medicaid and SCHIP beneficiaries from directly affected states, which accounted for about 85% of the roughly $1 billion in claims filed as of Oct. 2, 2006.

[ via AHA News Now ]

Health Care on Mississippi Gulf Coast Struggling

Information and Quality Healthcare recently helped assemble information for a survey requested by the Governor's Office on the status of health care in the six coastal counties.

The findings included:

• About 25% of physician manpower has been lost.
• Of the physicians still on the Coast, 85 to 90 percent of their offices are still open for business.
• Two percent of clinics were destroyed and are not going to be rebuilt.
• About 1/3 of physicians said they had their full patient load.
• 60% of physician offices said they were fully staffed.
• 25% of physician offices said they were looking for staff but have had difficulty finding trained applicants.
• 1/3 of the nurses said they were considering leaving.
• More than 60% of the nurses said they had been contacted by recruiters offering competitive pay for out-of-state jobs.
• About 80% of the dentists' offices are fully operational.

The number one reported problem was uncompensated care. Other problems included slow payments and difficulty referring to specialists.

There has been a decrease in the number of available hospital beds as a result of fewer doctors and staff. Hospitals also reported issues with uncompensated care.

Health Care in Mississippi After Hurricane Katrina

The Clarion-Ledger published an article by Lora Hines on Feb. 19 that had some interesting post-Katrina health care statistics...

• The Coast has lost 20 percent of its residents since Hurricane Katrina
• The unemployment rate is 21% for Hancock County, 22.1% in Harrison County and 15.2% in Jackson County
• Physicians affected by the hurricane are saying it will cost them approximately $100,000 to reopen their offices
• Less than three-quarters of Bay St. Louis' pre-Katrina population of 8,200 has returned.
• The only doctors in both D'Iberville and Pass Christian have left their cities.

• Emergency management officials estimate 64 percent of Hancock County's homes were damaged or destroyed in the storm. Forty percent of the tax base, including that generated by Casino Magic in Bay St. Louis, is gone.

• Hancock Medical Center in Bay St. Louis is struggling to survive as it waits for $24 million in reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to pay for equipment it bought to reopen. So far, it has gotten $1 million, administrator Hal Leftwich said. The hospital has about $3 million left, which Leftwich said will last about six weeks. The hospital earned as much as $12 million a month before the storm, Leftwich said. It lost about $7 million while it was closed Aug. 31 to Oct. 5. The hospital's 400 full-time positions have been reduced to 180.

Doctors in Distress

Bill Roberts, executive director of the Mississippi State Medical Association, told Ana Radelat of The Clarion-Ledger (9/25/05) that as many as half of the 700 physicians practicing in Mississippi's coastal counties were impacted by Hurricane Katrina and may decide to relocate. Many have already left the area, he said.

New Survey of Hurricane Evacuees in Houston Shelters

The Washington Post, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health conducted a unique survey of evacuees in shelters in the Houston area. More than 1 in 10 (14%) Hurricane Katrina evacuees report a family member, neighbor or friend was killed by the storm or subsequent flooding and more than half report that their home was destroyed (55%) and that they are separated from or missing members of their immediate family (53%). The survey also found that evacuees in Houston shelters face serious health challenges that will complicate relief and recovery efforts.

Key health-related findings include:

- 52% report having no health insurance coverage at the time of the hurricane. Of those with coverage, 34% say it is through Medicaid and 16% through Medicare. Before the hurricane 66% of the people evacuated to Houston shelters used hospitals or clinics as their main source of care and of those, a majority (54%) used Charity Hospital of New Orleans, substantially more than the second most common care site (University Hospital of New Orleans, at 8%).

- 33% report experiencing health problems or injuries as a result of the hurricane and 78% of them are currently receiving care for their ailments.

- 41% report chronic health conditions such as heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and asthma.

- 43% say they are supposed to be taking prescription medications, and of those, 29% percent report having problems getting the prescription drugs they need.

- Of the 61% who did not evacuate before the storm, 38% said they were either physically unable to leave or had to care for someone who was physically unable to leave.

Among those surveyed, 98% are from the New Orleans area and about three-quarters of those (73%) have lived there their whole lives. In surviving this tragedy, an overwhelming majority of the evacuees in Houston shelters (92%) say that religion played an important role in helping them get through the past two weeks.

The Survey of Hurricane Katrina Evacuees is based on sample of 680 randomly selected adults ages 18 years and older, staying in the Houston Reliant Park Complex (which includes the Reliant Astrodome and the Reliant Center), the George R. Brown Convention Center, and five smaller Red Cross shelters in the greater Houston area. Interviews were conducted face-to-face September 10-12, 2005. The survey was conducted and analyzed jointly by The Washington Post, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health. Interviews were conducted by 28 professional, Houston-based interviewers under the supervision of staff from Kaiser and ICR/International Communications Research, and with input from The Post staff in Houston. The Red Cross gave The Post/Kaiser/Harvard interviewing team permission to interview at the various centers, but was not a co-sponsor of the survey and bears no responsibility for results presented here.

Full survey toplines and methodology and a link to the Washington Post article are available online here

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Hospital evacuation notes

Several reporters have asked for information on which hospitals have evacuated what patients where in Mississippi. I will continue to collect the information here as I get it.

Gulf Coast Medical Center, Biloxi - Patients have been transferred to Alabama. 

Hancock Medical Center, Bay St. Louis - 14 patients were transferred to the University of Mississippi Medical Center and St. Dominic-Jackson Memorial Hospital

Crosby Memorial Hospital, Picayune - 25 patients were transferred to the National Guard Armory in Picayune

Also, Baptist Medical Center has a list on their Web site of patients evacuated to their hospital.