FERRIDAY, La. – Louisiana health officials and Riverland Medical Center are working out an agreement under which the hospital would staff a health unit currently staffed by the state.

Riverland Administrator Vernon Stevens and Department of Health and Hospitals spokesman Bob Johannessen confirmed they met Tuesday to discuss such a plan but said a final contract is not close to being signed.

For one thing, the Ferriday hospital’s board needs to wait to take action on such an agreement until it sees whether voters renew a 1.80-mill, 10-year property tax. That tax pays utilities, maintenance and other operational costs for the health units in Ferriday and Vidalia. That item will be on the Nov. 7 ballot.

&uot;Without that funding, this whole thing would be a moot point,&uot; Stevens said. That tax brings in about $106,000 a year to help fund the public health units.

Those units provide services such as immunizations, child health screenings, food vouchers under the Women, Infants and Children program, and prenatal care.

The state has 109 full-time and part-time parish health units, and DHH announced plans recently to reduce that number to 84, as part of the department’s plan for a $50 million budget reduction this year.

Vidalia’s health unit was included in those cuts; Ferriday’s was not.

But Health Secretary David Hood said Tuesday that at least 10 of the 25 parish health units slated for closure by DHH will remain open now because contractors have been found to fund them.

And Johannessen said the department’s plan is not to close any of the units, instead finding contractors, like Riverland, to staff them all.

Stevens said he hopes to meet with regional health officials next week to get an idea of whether the number of people the clinic serves is high enough for such an agreement to be feasible.

He is also waiting for the Louisiana Rural Health Association to give its opinion of whether rural hospitals should enter such agreements with DHH.

&uot;It seems like a viable option now, but I want to wait until I&160;get that information&uot; to comment further, Stevens said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.