LSU Shreveport hospital operator misses payment deadline

The manager of LSU's charity hospitals in Shreveport and Monroe hasn't paid $5.3 million into an escrow account as required by its reworked contractual arrangement with the state, Gov. John Bel Edwards' administration said Thursday.

Cody Wells, a spokesman for Edwards' Division of Administration, said the Biomedical Research Foundation of Northwest Louisiana missed a deadline this week to deposit the money and "remains delinquent on its payment to the escrow account."

It was unclear what action, if any, the Edwards administration would take to seek payment.

The hospital operator was required to pay $5.3 million for billings it disputes with LSU, leaving it in escrow while an outside arbiter determines whether the university's Shreveport medical school should receive the money.

The payment was part of renegotiated terms the Edwards administration reached with the research foundation, known as BRF, earlier this month.

The hospital operator did pay $6.9 million to LSU for unpaid bills, money that also was owed this week, Wells said.

BRF didn't immediately respond Thursday to questions about the missed payment deadline.

The research foundation is operating the Monroe and Shreveport hospitals as University Health, under a 2013 contract struck by former Gov. Bobby Jindal and the reworked terms added in the negotiations with the Edwards administration.

The privatization deal in north Louisiana has been contentious over the past three years, with both LSU and BRF trading accusations of financial mismanagement.

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