The recipient entity's physical address:
           Breastoration, Inc.
21 Muirfield Place
New Orleans, LA 70131

The recipient entity's mailing address (if different):
           Breastoration, Inc.
21 Muirfield Place
New Orleans, LA 70131

Type of Entity (for instance, a nonprofit corporation):  Non-Profit Corporation

If the entity is a corporation, list the names of the incorporators:
          Kim Sport

The last four digits of the entity's taxpayer ID number:  5169

What is the dollar amount of the request?  $250,000

What type of request is this?  General Appropriation

Is this entity in good standing with the Secretary of State?  Yes

Provide the name of each member of the recipient entity's governing board and officers:
           Elizabeth Anne Biundo
522 Montegut Street, #210
New Orleans, LA 70117

Liz Bodet – Vice Chairman
41 Versailles Blvd.
New Orleans, LA 70125

Shepard Alan Buckman – Treasurer
6073 Louisville Street
New Orleans, LA 70124

Dr. Chontel Carter
200 Henry Clay Ave.
New Orleans, LA 70118

Chelsea Brener Cusimano
3638 Magazine Street
New Orleans, LA 70115

Norma Elizabeth Grace
27 Allard Boulevard
New Orleans, LA 70119

Cameron Link
930 Tchoupitoulas St.
New Orleans, LA 70130

Diane McGraw – Secretary
34987 Lotts Lane, Unit 3
Denham Springs, LA 70706

Lisa Plunkett
472 Pencarrow Circle
Madisonville, LA 70447

Kim Sport – Chairman
21 Muirfield Place
New Orleans, LA 70131

Gillian Stagg
3500 Nashville Avenue
New Orleans, LA 70125

Julie S. Stokes
246 Garden Road
River Ridge, LA 70123

Michelle Marie Burtch – Program Director
1054 Linda Lou Lane
Abita Springs, LA 70420

Provide a summary of the project or program:
           Louisiana has long recognized barriers to breast reconstruction. In R.S. 22:1077, Legislative Findings recognized Louisiana as having the nation's highest mastectomy rate (51%) and that seven in ten women were not informed that reconstruction was insured. These historical findings led to stronger protections, but insurance coverage alone cannot pay the practical costs of obtaining surgery.

Breastoration, Inc., established in 2012, removes barriers through patient grants, education and advocacy. Working with many legislators, but particularly former Representative Helena Moreno, former Senator Troy Carter, former Representative Julie Stokes, Senator Kirk Talbot, and Representative Amy Adatto Freeman, Breastoration advanced landmark legislation. Moreno's 2016 law eliminated insurance loopholes, including the requirement that mastectomy and reconstruction occur under the same plan; comprehensively defined reconstruction to include all stages, symmetry, donor-site repair and complications; and protected decisions made by patients with their physicians.

Breastoration's legislative initiatives received unanimous support in House Insurance and Health and Welfare Committee proceedings. It also updated and placed back into circulation the Breast Cancer Treatment Alternatives brochure with the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners and Louisiana Department of Health.

Since 2012, Breastoration has provided more than $1.38 million in financial assistance to 435 patients undergoing 550 reconstructive surgeries. Of applicants reporting income, 71% reported households below $50,000 annually. Its historical records include approximately $400,000 for lost wages, $349,000 for housing and $134,000 for transportation, plus food, utilities, lodging and dependent care. A 2021 JAMA Network Open study found greater incremental medical out-of-pocket costs for breast cancer than for lung or colorectal cancer. These costs precede additional household losses associated with reconstruction.

Reconstruction may require several operations, including microvascular transfer of living tissue from the abdomen, buttocks or other donor sites, prolonged recovery and restrictions on work, driving, lifting and caregiving. Microsurgical reconnection establishes blood circulation in the transferred tissue. Louisiana has advanced reconstructive expertise, yet financial hardship may force patients to abandon a preferred medically appropriate procedure, choose implants for economic reasons or forgo a qualified specialist. In some cases, the barriers are so extreme that women desiring reconstruction will suffer life-long disfigurement. Breastoration supports informed choice, not a particular technique or provider.

Breastoration’s historical grants records identify 63 referring physicians, 38 affiliated surgical facilities, and patients from 26 Louisiana parishes. More than 80% of supported surgeries occurred in facilities in five southeastern parishes, illustrating the travel burden borne by women across the state. Repeated visits magnify lost wages, transportation, lodging and caregiving costs.

Breastoration awarded $104,472 in 2024 and $171,340 in 2025 and projects a record $185,000 in 2026. Its preliminary 2027 budget anticipates 90 grants totaling $225,000. Existing individual awards often cover only a fraction of patients' documented losses.

Breastoration requests $250,000 for the upcoming fiscal year: $225,000 to expand grants to eligible Louisiana residents and increase awards for extraordinary need; and $25,000 for statewide physician and hospital education, legally required patient-information outreach and referral development, prioritizing rural and underserved communities. Improved information will increase referrals and demand for grants; grants make that information actionable. State funds will supplement private donations. The program is proposed for three years, subject to future appropriations.

What is the budget relative to the project for which funding is requested?:
          Salaries. . . . . . . . . . . . . $0
          Professional Services. . . $0
          Contracts . . . . . . . . . . . $0
          Acquisitions . . . . . . . . . $0
          Major Repairs . . . . . . . $0
          Operating Services. . . . $25,000
          Other Charges. . . . . . . $225,000

Does your organization have any outstanding audit issues or findings?  No

If 'Yes' is your organization working with the appropriate governmental agencies to resolve those issues or findings?
          Not Applicable

What is the entity's public purpose, sought to be achieved through the use of state monies?
          The public purpose is to ensure that Louisiana's longstanding protections for breast reconstruction produce meaningful access to medically necessary care. The Legislature has recognized patients' rights to information, comprehensive insurance coverage and reconstructive choices made in consultation with their physicians. Those rights remain incomplete when a woman cannot afford the nonmedical expenses necessary to obtain surgery.

Breastoration's advocacy helped Louisiana progress from requiring disclosure of treatment alternatives to closing insurance loopholes and protecting informed surgical choice. Former Representative Helena Moreno's landmark legislation addressed gaps affecting delayed reconstruction, procedures following partial mastectomy, breast symmetry, donor-site repair and complications. Reconstruction is not merely cosmetic.

Yet breast cancer treatment can exhaust savings before reconstruction begins. Published research identifies substantial medical out-of-pocket costs and persistent financial hardship after breast cancer and reconstructive surgery. Reconstructive procedures may require several operations, prolonged recovery and time away from work. Insurance generally does not replace wages or pay rent, utilities, food, transportation, lodging or childcare. Breastoration's assistance addresses these documented needs, but current awards often provide only partial relief. Increasing individual grants is therefore as important as reaching additional patients.

Patient choice is especially consequential where specialized techniques are involved. Louisiana has expertise in advanced autologous reconstruction, including microvascular transfer of living tissue from the abdomen, buttocks or other donor sites. Other techniques may use tissue from the back. A woman should not have to select implants against her preference, abandon reconstruction or forgo consultation with a surgeon trained in her medically appropriate procedure solely because she cannot afford travel, recovery or household costs. Neither implants nor autologous reconstruction is appropriate for every patient; the choice belongs to the patient and her treating physicians.

Geography further restricts access. Since 2012, Breastoration has assisted 435 patients undergoing 550 reconstructive surgeries, including Louisiana residents from 26 parishes. Its historical ledger identifies 63 referring physicians. Yet more than 80% of supported surgeries occurred in five southeastern parishes. Rural patients often travel long distances for consultations, surgery and follow-up, with added transportation, lodging and caregiving costs.

Breastoration is, to its knowledge, Louisiana's only nonprofit principally devoted to direct financial assistance for access to post-mastectomy reconstruction. Among applicants reporting income, 71% had household incomes below $50,000. Beneficiaries generally cannot finance the charity that serves them; Breastoration relies on donors and fundraising events. To its knowledge, no prior state appropriation has specifically targeted these practical barriers.

The $250,000 request combines $225,000 for need-based grants to Louisiana residents with $25,000 for physician and hospital education, rural outreach and referral development. The components are interdependent: better information will identify more patients needing financial help, while additional and larger grants will allow patients to act on their choices. State dollars will supplement private fundraising, not replace it. Breastoration will promote awareness of existing information requirements, not undertake regulatory enforcement or favor any surgeon, facility or procedure.

The public benefit is equitable access: a patient's income or parish of residence should not determine whether Louisiana's reconstruction protections can be exercised.

What are the goals and objectives for achieving such purpose?
          GOAL 1 — REACH MORE LOUISIANA PATIENTS. Allocate $225,000 annually in state funds to direct, need-based grants for eligible Louisiana residents undergoing medically necessary post-mastectomy reconstruction. Supplement Breastoration's privately funded program and respond to increasing demand. Track applications, patients assisted, surgeries supported, parishes served, total expenditures and categories of need. No state-funded grants will go to out-of-state beneficiaries or directly to surgical providers.

GOAL 2 — INCREASE THE ADEQUACY OF INDIVIDUAL GRANTS. Award greater assistance for documented extraordinary hardship, subject to approved grant policies. Consider lost wages, housing, utilities, groceries, transportation, lodging and dependent care, including repeated financial disruption from multiple surgeries. Track average and median awards, extraordinary-need grants, and documented needs that remain unfunded. Success means more meaningful relief, not merely a higher grant count.

GOAL 3 — IMPROVE PATIENT INFORMATION AND REFERRALS. Allocate $25,000 annually to education for physicians, hospitals, cancer programs, patient navigators and community organizations. Promote awareness of Louisiana's treatment-alternatives and reconstruction-information requirements, including R.S. 40:1103.4 and 40:1103.5, and distribute accurate information on available reconstructive options, insurance protections and Breastoration grants. Encourage appropriate referrals without assuming regulatory enforcement responsibilities. Use the historical ledger’s 63 referring physicians as a baseline; track new referring physicians, participating facilities, referral volume and parishes represented.

GOAL 4 — ADDRESS RURAL DISPARITIES. Prioritize parishes beyond the southeastern Louisiana surgical and referral concentration. Establish relationships with rural hospitals, physicians and navigators; explain how travel, lodging, missed work and caregiving expenses can affect access. Build on patients already assisted from 26 Louisiana parishes; track additional parishes reached, rural applications and awards. Eligibility remains statewide.

GOAL 5 — PROTECT INFORMED SURGICAL CHOICE. Explain that implant-based and autologous reconstruction are different medically appropriate options for different patients. Encourage consultation with appropriately trained surgeons, including specialists in microvascular techniques when indicated. Financial aid will support patient choice without steering recipients to a particular surgeon, facility or procedure.

GOAL 6 — MATCH OUTREACH WITH GRANT CAPACITY. Review applications, referrals, award adequacy and unmet needs throughout the year. Increased education should produce more informed referrals, which require corresponding financial resources. Coordinate the two program components so expanded awareness leads to practical access rather than additional unmet demand.

GOAL 7 — ACCOUNTABILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY. Maintain separate accounting for state funds, documented eligibility, physician verification, grant decisions and expenses. Report expenditures and outcomes as required. Continue private fundraising so appropriations add to existing charitable assistance. Review annual results to refine the program.

The request is $250,000 for the first year of a proposed three-year initiative; later funding requires separate appropriations.

What is the proposed length of time estimated by the entity to accomplish the purpose?
           Twelve months for the requested fiscal-year appropriation, constituting the first year of a proposed three-year statewide initiative. Subsequent years are contingent upon separate appropriations.

If any elected or appointed state official or an immediate family member of such an official is an officer, director, trustee, or employee of the recipient entity who receives compensation or holds any ownership interest therein:
     (a) If an elected or appointed state official, the name and address of the official and the office held by such person:
                
    
     (b) If an immediate family member of an elected or appointed state official, the name and address of such person; the name, address, and office of the official to whom the person is related; and the nature of the relationship:
                

     (c) The percentage of the official's or immediate family member's ownership interest in the recipient entity, if any:
                

     (d) The position, if any, held by the official or immediate family member in the recipient entity:
                 

If the recipient entity has a contract with any elected or appointed state official or an immediate family member of such an official or with the state or any political subdivision of the state:
(a) If the contract is with an elected or appointed state official, provide the name and address of the official and the office held by such person: 
               

(b) If the contract is with an immediate family member of an elected or appointed state official:
          Provide the name and address of such person:
              

          Provide the name, address, and office of the official to whom the person is related:
               

          What is the nature of the relationship? 

(c) If the contract is with the state or a political subdivision of the state, provide the name and address of the state entity or political subdivision of the state:
                

(d) The nature of the contract, including a description of the goods or services provided or to be provided pursuant to the contract:
               


Contact Information
name:  Kim Sport 
                                       address:  21 Muirfield Place
New Orleans, LA 70131
                                       phone:  5044533313
                                       fax: 
                                       e-mail:  ksport1955@gmail.com
                                       relationship to entity:  Board Chairman