Louisiana Law Blog

The Louisiana Medicaid Program has notified health care providers that they may be able to receive reimbursement for medical treatment provided to uninsured evacuees of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. To be reimbursed, the provider must have been enrolled in Medicaid as of August 24, 2005.

Kean Miller has contributed $20,000 to The Baton Rouge Area Foundation and its Hurricane Katrina Displaced Residents Fund. "Baton Rouge is our home. We work here, we live here, and we have been fortunate to work in partnership with The Baton Rouge Area Foundation for over 20 years," said Gary A. Bezet, Managing Partner of the 106-lawyer firm.

On September 23, President Bush signed into law H.R. 3768, the "Katrina Emergency Tax Relief Act of 2005." KETRA features a number of provisions designed to provide relief to individuals and businesses recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

The IRS has granted various extensions to taxpayers in areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. Generally, this relief extends the due dates for any business or individual return due on or after August 29, 2005 until January 3, 2006.

The Louisiana Department of Revenue released a bulletin today relating to state treatment of Hurricane Katrina related federal tax relief.

Kean Miller Hawthorne D'Armond McCowan & Jarman, LLP has established the "Kean Miller Relief Fund" in association with the Capital Area United Way. The partners in Baton Rouge's largest law firm seeded the fund with an initial donation of $50,000.00. The announcement was made at a September 8 meeting of the Capital Area United Way and following a presentation by the national CEO of United Way.

Kean Miller Hawthorne D'Armond McCowan & Jarman, LLP (Kean Miller) donated $10,000 today to help fund the initial development of the United Way Command Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The United Way Command Center has been established to efficiently and effectively meet the human service needs of Hurricane Katrina victims in the 10 parishes served by Capital Area United Way (CAUW).

The Louisiana Department of Labor has issued a notice advising of its efforts to make sure that all qualified UI recipients can file their claims and receive their checks.

From the notice:

"We want those in need to know that within the next 48 hours we will have dozens of Department of Labor employees and our local partners taking claims at shelters, hotels and wherever there are large groups of displaced people.

For those who are able, we ask that they go to the nearest One Stop or Job Center to file their claims. Others can file over the Internet by going to our Web site at www.LAWORKS.net. We will be establishing a 1-800 number so that victims can call for information."

Read the whole notice here: http://www.ldol.state.la.us/qm_pressrelease_details.asp?PRseqno=304

The United States Department of Labor has posted an advisory explaining the qualifications for Disaster Unemployment Assistance here. As stated in the notice:

"Before an individual can be determined eligible for Disaster Unemployment Assistance, it must be established that the individual is not eligible for regular unemployment insurance benefits (under any state or federal law)."

Here are some links to sites offering avenues to help and hurricane relief information:

The American Red Cross is taking donations to help the thousands of
victims at http://www.redcross.org/donate/donate.html.

Following is a list of other Web sites offering disaster relief
Information -

Federal Emergency Management Agency
Phone: 1-800-621-FEMA
http://www.fema.gov

Louisiana Homeland Security
http://www.ohsep.louisiana.gov

Louisiana Governor's Office
http://www.gov.state.la.us

Catholic Charities
Phone: 1-800-919-9338
http://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org

FEMA Charity tips
http://www.fema.gov/rrr/help2.shtm

National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster
http://www.nvoad.org

Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
http://www.la-spca.org

Local Red Cross contacts -