Medicaid plans › Louisiana
Louisiana Medicaid Managed-Care Plans for Providers
Enrollments are billed 50% at the start and 50% at submission; everything else 100% at the start.
Louisiana Medicaid (Healthy Louisiana) is run by the Louisiana Department of Health. 1,403,109 people were enrolled in its 6 managed-care plans in 2024. To see their patients, a provider enrolls with Louisiana Medicaid (Healthy Louisiana) through the Louisiana Medicaid Provider Enrollment Portal (Gainwell), then applies to each plan separately.
| Plan | Members (2024) | Share | Parent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Louisiana Healthcare Connections | 400,299 | 28.5% | Centene |
| UnitedHealthcare Community Plan | 343,798 | 24.5% | UnitedHealth Group |
| Healthy Blue | 253,620 | 18.1% | Elevance Health |
| AmeriHealth Caritas Louisiana | 153,970 | 11% | Independence Health Group |
| Aetna Better Health of Louisiana | 131,535 | 9.4% | CVS Health |
| Humana Healthy Horizons | 119,887 | 8.5% | Humana |
How Joining Works in Louisiana
First the state: Louisiana Medicaid (Healthy Louisiana) enrollment through the Louisiana Medicaid Provider Enrollment Portal (Gainwell), which gives you the Medicaid ID every plan asks for. Then the plans: each takes its own participation request and credentials you from your CAQH ProView (DataSpring) profile. 6 parent companies run plans here, and plans owned by the same company still contract state by state.
How to Join Each Louisiana Plan
Louisiana Healthcare Connections (Centene): Centene runs this plan alongside its Ambetter and Wellcare products. Each Centene plan takes its own contract request on the plan's provider website, credentials from your CAQH ProView (DataSpring) profile, and will not load a provider without the state Medicaid ID.
UnitedHealthcare Community Plan (UnitedHealth Group): UnitedHealthcare Community Plans use UnitedHealthcare's provider onboarding: a participation request on the UnitedHealthcare provider site, credentialing from your CAQH ProView (DataSpring) profile, then a state-specific Community Plan agreement.
Healthy Blue (Elevance Health): Elevance Health plans take participation requests through the plan's provider site for that state, most of them now inside Availity Essentials, and credential from your CAQH ProView (DataSpring) profile. Each state is its own contract.
AmeriHealth Caritas Louisiana (Independence Health Group): Plans in the AmeriHealth Caritas family take participation requests on each plan's own provider website and credential from your CAQH ProView (DataSpring) profile.
Aetna Better Health of Louisiana (CVS Health): Aetna Better Health plans each have a state-specific "Join our network" request on aetnabetterhealth.com. They are separate from Aetna's commercial network, so an Aetna commercial contract does not carry over.
Humana Healthy Horizons (Humana): Humana's Medicaid plans take participation requests through Humana's provider site for that state and credential from your CAQH ProView (DataSpring) profile.
Also in Louisiana: Medicare, Louisiana Medicaid (Healthy Louisiana) and commercial credentialing.
Questions
Which Louisiana Medicaid plan is the largest?
Louisiana Healthcare Connections, with 400,299 members in 2024, 28.5% of the 1,403,109 people enrolled in Louisiana's Medicaid managed-care plans.
Do I have to join every Louisiana Medicaid plan?
No. Each plan is a separate contract. Practices usually start with the two or three largest plans in their county, then add others as patients ask for them. All of them require Louisiana Medicaid (Healthy Louisiana) enrollment first.
Membership from KFF, Medicaid MCO Enrollment by Plan and Parent Firm, 2024. Plans change when the state rebids its contracts; we confirm the current list on every file.