A private healthcare consultant has recommended that the new University Medical Center, the Charity Hospital successor, be a $1.09 billion project constructed without assuming any state debt, a model that would reduce the long-projected price tag by almost $200 million and farm out part of the construction cost to a third party. The plan, authored by Verite Healthcare Consulting, does not reduce the size or scope of the previous 424-bed, $1.2 billion plan long advanced by the Louisiana State University System, and it projects an average annual state appropriation of $52.5 million during the first six years of operation, as much as half previous projections included in a separate analysis presented by Kaufman Hall & Associates in June. Verite's range goes from $44.1 million in 2015, the first year of operation, to $60.3 million in 2020.
