BATON ROUGE - The operator of two Louisiana state-owned hospitals is again in a dispute with Louisiana State University's medical school over unpaid debts.

The disagreement spilled out into a Senate Finance Committee budget hearing Friday, with the CEO of the hospitals handing over a $6 million check to LSU in front of stunned senators. The chairman of the committee called it pathetic.

G.E. Ghali, chancellor of LSU Health Sciences Shreveport, told senators the medical school was owed $12 million from the Biomedical Research Foundation of Northwest Louisiana, which runs the Shreveport and Monroe hospitals previously managed by LSU.

The CEO of the hospitals, Daniel Snyder, suggested LSU hadn't submitted sufficient documentation to back up the billings. But he also handed a $6 million check to Ghali amid heavy questioning about the dispute.