LA saves for real with Medicaid user responsibility

Members from Louisiana’s House of Representatives blocked immediate approval of Medicaid managed care contracts over cost concerns, but requests for more efficient delivery only scratch the surface of how state government can save money.

The Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget last week asked the Department of Health to come back with better offers to the five providers of these services. Almost all Medicaid enrollees in the state potentially at least partially have services rendered to them mediated by these outfits. Without dramatic changes in spending patterns, the 23-month deals worth $15 billion will eat up a quarter of all state expenditures in this period.

Republican members of the committee, comprised of budget leaders from each chamber, led the charge to slow the process. Their Senate counterparts had no objection, but majorities of both must agree and the GOP makes up most of the House contingent. They argued the state should negotiate more savings and tighter oversight, pointing to recent audits that revealed problems in enforcing accountability.

Better chance lightning strikes than Schroder loses

It ain’t going to happen, unless he gets caught with a live boy or dead girl.

My Baton Rouge Advocate colleague Mark Ballard recently mused about whether Republican former state Rep. John Schroder possibly could lose the Nov. 18 special election for treasurer. While he finished runner-up to lawyer Democrat Derrick Edwards, trailing Edwards’ 31 percent by 7 points, other GOP candidates drew the remaining votes in this race. Schroder spent about 100 times what Edwards did and may do so again in the runoff; he remains a heavy favorite.

Ballard did his best to come up with a scenario that gave Edwards, who received votes merely as the only Democrat on the ballot, the victory. He figured that if statewide turnout could dip by almost half but Orleans Parish saw an increase by one third – stimulated by a mayoral runoff election – if the proportions voting for Edwards stayed the same, then it would be neck-and-neck.

Prator right to note how reform can go wrong

Last week Pandora’s box opened, according to some northwest Louisiana crime-fighters, when Democrats Gov. John Bel Edwards took the next step in making good on a risky campaign promise.

On Wednesday, the state began to release prisoners as a result of new guidelines. Legislation passed earlier this year shortened sentences for some, an estimated 1,900 or a bit over 5 percent of the state’s total prison population. Designed to give a break to non-violent, non-habitual offenders who did not misbehave while in prison, this meant the vast majority would come from parish prisons housing state offenders. Given that the typical month sees 1,500 or so set free, the freeing acted as if an extra month’s worth appeared, distilled into a few days.

Skeptics including both sheriffs and district attorneys spoke warily of the event’s impact. Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prator emerged as perhaps the biggest critic, maybe as Caddo saw the most convicts of any parish released early courtesy of the new law. He gained a lot of publicity for his negative remarks about it, including lamenting that the ones leaving early disproportionately could work on jail duties or on work release, saving or earning his office money.

Data must drive policy to halt LA STD epidemic

Grasping fully the implications and necessities of public policy in combatting sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) requires some amplifications and extensions of remarks I made in my recent Baton Rouge Advocate column.

Online publication not tied to a physical presentation liberates one from space constraints. Yesterday, I had published a barebones argument about government’s shaping and pursuing policy that would ameliorate Louisiana’s alarmingly-high rates in the three most commonly tracked STDs, syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia. To quote:

Political, civic and religious institutions must do what they can to affirm the values of chastity and self-respect for all citizens. By promoting government policies that advance self-reliance and celebrate the sanctity of life, the state’s leaders can nurture a culture that values delayed gratification as a personal and civic good. More aggressive enforcement and prosecution of sex trafficking and prostitution would help, too.

The Advocate column, Nov. 5, 2017

New ranking for Louisiana's overlooked STD problem should be a wake-up call for action
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/jeff_sadow/article_e5c0776e-c006-11e7-bba0-d303368a563c.html

Links:
http://www.nola.com/health/index.ssf/2017/10/std_health_louisiana_rankings.html
https://www.cdc.gov/std/stats16/CDC_2016_STDS_Report-for508WebSep21_2017_1644.pdf
https://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/atlas/
https://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/regional/spi/2017/pdf/spi0317.pdf
http://new.dhh.louisiana.gov/assets/oph/HIVSTD/2015_STDHIV_SurveillanceReport.pdf
http://dhh.louisiana.gov/assets/oph/Center-PHI/2016HealthReportCard/Live_Births_by_Parish.pdf

Landry frustrating Edwards' jackpot justice tactic

What has become a bad legal week for Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards doesn’t look to get any brighter in the future, thanks to Republican Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry.

At the week’s beginning, the U.S. Supreme Court served notice of its refusal to hear the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East’s suit against nearly 100 companies that explored and extracted oil for decades, leaving intact numerous lower court rulings against it. Thus ended with a whimper the attempt by a rogue government to squeeze money out of the private sector to finance its activities through a nuisance jackpot justice gambit.

(It also became a major financial setback for the Jones, Swanson, Huddell and Garrison firm, which had signed a huge contingency contract that could have swiped nearly a third of any award. Instead, they get nothing; how many millions of dollars they lost remains private.)

Antics in 19th JDC should affect decision on 32nd

A Louisiana 19^th Judicial District judge’s behavior provides the perfect illustration why federal courts should not disdain alterative electoral systems in other districts.

Seven months have passed, and East Baton Rouge Parish’s Judge Janice Clark has yet to act upon a tutorship request for the estate of Helen Plummer. The will for Plummer, who died in March, left a portion of her estate to a minor great-granddaughter, and the mother of the child in order to settle the estate must become legally empowered to act in her child’s name.

As originally written, this would not have caused a problem as the will had specified a trustee would have such power over a trust created for the child upon Plummer’s death. But that trustee turned out to be Tasha Clark-Amar, Clark’s daughter, who the will specified who get extremely generous remuneration for a very modest estate. Clark-Amar heads the East Baton Rouge Council for Aging, where Plummer was a client.

Medicaid contract renewal leads some to posture

Short memories and posturing politicians make for spreading blame aplenty as Louisiana considers how to extend management of Medicaid services to the end of Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards’ term.

The Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget last week considered renewing contracts with the five providers for Louisiana’s Healthy Louisiana program. These allow operators to manage the state’s Medicaid care, although for services not dealing with mental health not for the elderly nor disabled, nor including those who live in nursing homes. Amid calls for further study by committee members, the panel postponed consideration until this week.

Republican state Sen. Jack Donahue helpfully pointed out more and better metrics would help evaluating whether the deals best benefit taxpayers. Less productively, Democrat state Sen. Eric LaFleur said the time to take this approach had long passed, claiming that he and other lawmakers didn't dissect the deals enough when first put in place, criticizing the Republican then-Gov. Bobby Jindal Administration for a hurried contracting process with too little quality assurance.

LA must discard big govt to help children

You see the problem. You can have great data by which to understand it. But if you don’t think critically about it, you’ll never solve it but make it worse, musings from a special interest group about the issue of varying financial success by race in America shows.

Beginning three years ago, the Annie E. Casey Foundation compiled a report on the future prospects for children. The leftist organization advocates for government policies to benefit children, principally through expanding government and redistributing wealth.

The 2017 edition highlights disparity in financial resources enjoyed by the typical child among regions, races, and the intersection of both. It creates the index by combining a dozen indicators, some measuring context like whether parents have a high school diploma and others measuring achievement like proficiency in school, to come up with a score.

The Advocate column, Oct. 29, 2017

Democratic hypocrisy sinks no deeper than abandoning Derrick Edwards in treasurer race
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/letters/article_585b47b4-b9c6-11e7-acfb-03303525fc95.html

Links:
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/10/louisiana_democrats_may_give_l.html
http://www.ethics.la.gov/CampaignFinanceSearch/LA-65494.pdf
http://www.ethics.la.gov/CampaignFinanceSearch/LateFeesCandidates.aspx
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/mar/13/war-on-poverty-has-been-a-failure/