Three years after the Louisiana Legislature voted to require more information about the cost and benefits of the state’s various tax break programs, a new report finds that state agencies are doing a poor job of complying with the law. Act 191 of the 2013 session said state agencies must report by March 1 of each year how much each tax break costs the state and what economic benefit it produces. But star reporter Melinda Deslatte of the AP writes about a new state audit that found 46 of the 79 required reports to be either incomplete or missing.

(Legislative Auditor Daryl) Purpera’s office says that means that state lawmakers don’t have the information to decide if the tax break programs are performing as intended. Two of the agencies said they didn’t report on tax breaks that aren’t being used. Lawmakers have been trying to get a better handle on the money spent on tax breaks, to determine if they want to make changes as Louisiana grapples with continued budget problems.

Medicaid expansion is working

Louisiana is 80 percent of the way toward its goal of enrolling 375,000 working age adults in the state’s expanded Medicaid program, which broadened its eligibility guidelines July 1. Gov John Bel Edwards’ office announced Monday that enrollment has topped 305,000. The expansion population consists of adults 18-64 who make below 138 percent of the federal poverty rate, or about $16,000 per year for a single person. Nola.com/The Times-Picayune’s Julia O’Donoghue has lots of details about who’s signing up.

Prior to July, most Louisiana adults only had access to the Medicaid program if they were disabled or pregnant. But Edwards’ Medicaid expansion now means people who are able-bodied and working, but too poor to afford private insurance, are able to enroll.     “To have working individuals who are not getting paid enough to afford insurance to meet the basic needs of their health care is just unacceptable, in my view, from a human rights standpoint,” said Dr. Rebekah Gee, head of the Louisiana Department of Health. “We’re making it possible for people to achieve the American Dream.”

No bail? Stay in jail

An attempt to end what some describe as “debtors’ prisons” in New Orleans by eliminating a bail requirement for some minor offenses stalled Monday before it could advance to the full City Council. Nola.com/The Times-Picayune’s Kevin Litten explains that the measure was designed to help poor defendants who sometimes can’t come up with even small amounts of money required to spring them from custody while they await trial.

During much of the four-hour meeting, many of the committee members said they liked the idea of allowing people jailed on nonviolent misdemeanors to leave on their own recognizance. The committee also heard testimony from a panel of criminal justice experts who said the ordinance was needed; dozens of people who attended the hearing also testified in support with only a few expressing opposition. But as the meeting began wrapping up, support for the ordinance began to show cracks. Council members Jason Williams and Nadine Ramsey said they had reservations about the ordinance, with Williams airing grievances about the police department.

The Shreveport hospital mess

Last Friday’s deadline has come and gone for a deal to be struck between state government and the private foundation tapped to run the former LSU charity hospitals in Shreveport and Monroe, leaving the future of those hospitals – and their patients – in limbo. As Melinda Deslatte reports, the state has been trying to renegotiate contracts struck by Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration.

It’s unclear which provisions have drawn objections from the research foundation – or what leverage the state has to force (the Biomedical Research Foundation) to agree to new terms since an existing contract remains in place. Jindal privatized nine LSU-run hospitals and their clinics that cared for Louisiana’s poor and uninsured through no-bid contracts, with the earliest deal starting in April 2013. In most instances, the management company of a nearby hospital took over operations. Three hospitals – in Baton Rouge, Lake Charles and Pineville – closed and their services were shifted to private hospitals. All the other hospital and clinic operators have signed renegotiated agreements with the Edwards administration that include similar terms to what is being sought with BRF.

Number of the Day

65 – Percentage of enrollees in Louisiana’s expanded Medicaid program who are women (Source: Louisiana Department of Health via Nola.com/The Times-Picayune)