LSU seeking hospital partners amid funding woes

The head of the LSU System, William Jenkins, says he's talking to private hospital leaders about ways to partner and keep the university-run hospitals open despite ongoing budget woes.

But he acknowledged Monday that with shrinking funding and large numbers of uninsured patients, LSU will have a lot of persuading to do.

Jenkins said LSU will need to bring in private health care facilities to operate some of the public hospitals, if all will be able to remain open.

However, many of the hospitals care for large percentages of uninsured patients. That care comes with limited funding because of budget decisions from Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration and looming federal funding reductions.

Jenkins said that funding situation creates problems in attracting private companies interested in partnering to run the hospitals.