Provides relative to the Local Healthcare Provider Participation Program. (gov sig)

Senate Bill 113 amends the Local Healthcare Provider Participation Program by enacting a new subsection C to Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1248.3 that creates a conditional delegation of authority from Calcasieu Parish to municipalities within the parish. The statute establishes a June 1, 2026 deadline, after which if Calcasieu Parish has not authorized a local hospital assessment payment under the existing program, any municipality in the parish with a population exceeding sixty thousand residents may independently authorize such an assessment. The institutional healthcare providers subject to the assessment payment are restricted to those located within the authorizing municipality's boundaries rather than the entire parish. To facilitate municipal participation in a program originally designed for parishes, the legislation provides that municipalities exercising this authority shall be treated identically to parishes for all purposes under the Local Healthcare Provider Participation Program statutes, meaning all legal requirements and obligations that apply to parish governing bodies shall equally apply to municipal governing bodies.

The practical effect of this legislation directly impacts Calcasieu Parish and any municipality within its boundaries having a population greater than sixty thousand. If Calcasieu Parish does not implement a local hospital assessment by the specified date, municipalities such as Lake Charles, which exceeds this population threshold, gain independent authority to establish and administer their own hospital assessment programs targeting only healthcare providers within their municipal limits. This creates a two-track funding mechanism whereby municipalities can secure local healthcare provider participation revenue without waiting for or depending on parish-level action. Healthcare institutional providers operating within participating municipalities would become subject to assessment obligations, and the municipalities themselves would assume the administrative and compliance responsibilities traditionally handled by parish governments.

This legislation operates within the existing framework of the Local Healthcare Provider Participation Program established under Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1248.1 and related sections, which authorize governmental entities to require institutional healthcare providers to make participation payments that fund local healthcare initiatives and services. The amendment creates a fallback mechanism for local healthcare funding in Calcasieu Parish specifically, recognizing that municipalities may need independent authority to implement participation assessments when parishes do not exercise their primary authority. The effective date provisions indicate the legislation becomes operative immediately upon gubernatorial action or at the conclusion of the constitutional ten-day signing period, creating a known implementation timeline that precedes the June 1, 2026 trigger date by several months.