UPDATE: Louisiana extends UnitedHealthcare Medicaid contract for 90 days.
LOUISIANA (KTAL/KMSS) — If you receive Medicaid through UnitedHealthcare of Louisiana, you will soon have another provider.
Louisiana will end its Medicaid contract with UnitedHealthcare on December 31, affecting 330,700 residents. According to the Louisiana Illuminator, Seth Gold, the state’s Medicaid director, sent brief letters to the CEOs of both Aetna Better Health of Louisiana and UnitedHealthcare of Louisiana, informing them that their contracts for 2026 were canceled.
However, on Tuesday, December 9, it was announced that the state would move forward with its contract with Aetna Better Health of Louisiana rather than cancel it. The contract with Aetna was valued at $1.8 billion for the calendar years, while the contract with UnitedHealthcare for the same period was $4.2 billion.
The state’s Health Secretary Bruce Greenstein announced that his department plans to transition those enrolled with UnitedHealthcare to new health plans before the end of the year. The health department will reportedly use an algorithm to select a plan for each person who needs to switch from UnitedHealthcare.
This transition is expected to happen over the next two weeks.
