Louisiana looking for new Medicaid managed-care companies

Louisiana on Monday issued a request for proposals for managed-care companies hoping to serve the state's more than 1.5 million Medicaid members under new contracts beginning in January 2020. Louisiana will award contracts to up to four managed-care companies, down from five insurers today. Those five, whose current contracts will expire at the end of this year, are Aetna, AmeriHealth Caritas, Anthem's Healthy Blue, Centene's Louisiana Healthcare Connections and UnitedHealthcare. The new contracts will last for three years with an option to extend for an additional two years. The contracts are worth a total of roughly $12 billion, Leerink Partners analyst Ana Gupte wrote in a research note.