Louisiana extends Medicaid deadline in healthcare contract dispute

BATON ROUGE, La. - Louisiana officials have agreed to a 90-day extension for United Healthcare’s Medicaid contract after the state threatened not to renew the agreement over the company’s failure to provide payment records going back to April 2021.

The Louisiana Department of Health and Attorney General Liz Murrill appeared before the Senate Health and Welfare/Insurance Committee on December 16 to defend the decision to deny the contract renewal. Nearly 320,000 people would be forced onto new healthcare plans if United Healthcare does not turn over the documents.

The extension pushes the deadline from December 31 to mid-February, giving United Healthcare more time to provide the requested documents and allowing beneficiaries more time to switch to new Medicaid providers if necessary. If United does not comply, those beneficiaries would be split evenly among the other five existing Medicaid providers. LDH Secretary Bruce Greenstein said families will be able to stay together in their plans and retain their existing doctors.

Lawmakers express frustration over timing

State lawmakers pressed Attorney General Murrill during a meeting at the Capitol about why communication about the contract issues didn’t happen when lawmakers approved the contract renewal in November.

“Can you see the frustration though with the legislature when it comes to the consideration that could have taken place four, five months prior to this and not three weeks,” said Sen. Patrick McMath.

Responding to those concerns, Murril said: “It is what it is and I’m happy to work with you any way you want but I don’t think United needs to continue to be rewarded for obstructing our investigation into fraudulent and abusive tactics.”

State alleges fraud, seeks financial records

Murrill claimed United Healthcare won’t turn over payment receipts because it has been committing fraud. She said if that is the case, the state would be entitled to roughly $300 to $760 million, not including penalties.

“The documents show we are entitled to a whole bunch of money back, that’s why I think they don’t want to give us the documents,” Murrill said.

The attorney general said United Healthcare has a contractual obligation to provide access to documents for transparency on the $2.5 billion the state pays the company annually for Medicaid coverage.

Concerns about patient disruption

Lawmakers agreed that if fraud allegations are true, United Healthcare should be held accountable, but said pushing people to new Medicaid plans with short notice is unfair.

“People don’t care about this per se, they care about their healthcare and coverage being continued,” said Sen. Kirk Talbot.

Sen. McMath said the specific circumstances of reassigning so many people in such a short period has never happened before. “I think it’s impossible to say there aren’t going to be any disruptions,” he said.

State plans communication efforts

The Louisiana Department of Health said it will communicate changes to affected beneficiaries through mailers, phone calls, emails and social media messaging.

If United Healthcare fails to provide the requested documents by the February deadline, the nearly 320,000 people on United Healthcare Medicaid plans will be automatically switched to new providers.

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