One of the more entrenched bureaucratic disputes following Hurricane Katrina has been over how much the federal government ought to pay to reimburse Louisiana for damage to the old Charity Hospital in New Orleans, which has been shuttered since the 2005 storm.

Louisiana officials contend the state should be reimbursed $492 million for the damage caused by Katrina's wind and flooding, while FEMA has countered with a $150 million offer. Big difference.

The federal money is a key component in plans to rebuild Charity with a 424-bed teaching hospital that is projected to cost a total of about $1.2 billion. Although the state hopes to complete the project in 2013, uncertainty over the amount of the federal government's reimbursement has caused problems.

On Aug. 6, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced a new arbitration process to expedite resolution of outstanding Federal Emergency Management Agency public assistance projects stemming from hurricanes Katrina and Rita. For projects in excess of $500,000 (like Charity), an independent, neutral panel of arbitrators would be employed to settle disputes over public assistance.

This seems to have almost been created with Charity in mind. President Barack Obama told the Times-Picayune in August that the arbitration panel will provide quick resolution to the Charity impasse.

"It was important for us not to try by fiat to solve the problem," Obama told the New Orleans paper. "The key was to make sure that there was a process where everybody felt they were heard. We came up with a sensible resolution, and I think that's what's going to happen, and the nice thing is we know within 60 days it's got to happen."

Meanwhile, the Veterans Administration continues to move forward with its $925 million project to replace the VA medical center in downtown New Orleans with a 200-bed medical complex. In addition, the VA just awarded contracts worth more than $153 million to build new health care facilities and expand existing services that provide care to veterans in the Biloxi, Miss., area. And on June 10, 2009, the VA dedicated a new 65,000-square-foot benefits office in downtown New Orleans. The regional office delivers benefits and services to more than 300,000 Louisiana veterans and their families.

Lastly, in order to lure back health professionals who left after Hurricane Katrina, the administration says the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have provided funding for incentive payments to support recruitment and retention of primary care doctors, mental health providers, dental practitioners, pharmacists, registered nurses and allied health professionals and technicians.

The teaching and VA hospital projects in downtown New Orleans both have a long way to go. But the arbitration panel created by Napolitano should at least unclog the impasse in the dispute over how much the federal government needs to kick in for the teaching hospital. That's progress. And so we move this to a tentative In the Works.