HJNO Jan/Feb 2026

38 JAN / FEB 2026  I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS   Healthcare Briefs during the holiday season. “There’s going to be confusion and chaos,” Senate Health and Welfare Committee chairman Patrick McMath, R-Covington, said of the origi- nal plan. Dispute over pharmacy benefits managers Attorney General Liz Murrill was behind the push for the state to terminate its relationships with UnitedHealthcare and, initially, Aetna. Her office is suing the companies and their affiliated pharmacy benefits managers for allegedly unfair business practices, and Murrill directed the health department to end their contracts as a result. Those lawsuits are part of a broader national campaign against corporate pharmacy benefits managers in which Landry and Murrill are deeply invested. This summer, Murrill launched three lawsuits against Aetna’s parent company, CVS Health, and its affiliated pharmacy benefits manager, CVS Caremark, alleging the company was engaging in unfair business practices that hurt locally-owned pharmacies. One lawsuit also accused CVS Health of inap- propriately using customer data to push out text messages to Louisiana residents about state leg- islation the company opposed. Murrill said she was finalizing a settlement agreement with CVS Health worth approximately $50 million that would end all three of those law- suits. As a result, the attorney general had signed off on Aetna’s Medicaid contract extension for 2026. But Murrill is still at an impasse with United- Healthcare, whose potential lawsuit liability is much higher, between $388 million and $768 mil- lion, she said. There’s a chance UnitedHealthcare would owe the state as much as $1 billion, accord- ing to Murrill, if it was forced to pay all the finan- cial penalties at stake. UnitedHealthcare has been fighting Louisiana for years in court in order to prevent sharing infor- mation that would allow the state to determine if the company had overcharged the Medicaid pro- gram, according to the attorney general. “[The 90-day extension] will give United an opportunity to come and talk to me and provide us with what we’ve asked for,” Murrill said in an interview with reporters. “They have to decide whether they want to do business with our state.” UnitedHealthcare’s spokeswoman disputed Murrill’s assertion that UnitedHealthcare has vio- lated laws by withholding documents. State lawmakers signed off on all six Medicaid contracts, including the one with UnitedHealth- care, at the urging of the Landry administration on Nov. 20. The following day, Louisiana’s First Circuit of Appeal ruled in favor of UnitedHealthcare over Murrill. She then asked the health department to end UnitedHealthcare’s contract 11 days later. Murrill told lawmakers she didn’t realize they were voting to allow the contract to move for- ward at the November meeting. “Let me be clear. I wasn’t invited to the com- mittee hearing at [the Joint Legislative Commit- tee on the Budget on Nov. 20],” she told sena- tors. “I didn’t know it was on the agenda at JLCB, and I’m not sure I would have gotten into litiga- tion strategy.” The Louisiana Illuminator article this news brief was taken from was shortened for space. To read the full article, go to: https://lailluminator. com/2025/12/16/louisiana-backs-off-medicaid- contract-cancellation-will-offer-extension- through-march/ Ralph Corsetti, MD, Joins Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center Ralph Corsetti, MD, has joined Mary Bird Per- kins Cancer Center as a surgical oncologist at the center’s Breast Surgery Clinic in Covington. Corsetti has a bachelor’s degree from Boston University and a medical degree from Boston Uni- versity School of Medicine. He completed a gen- eral surgery residency at Tulane University School of Medicine and a clinical and research fellowship in surgical oncology at Brown University School of Medicine in Providence, Rhode Island. While his practice includes breast, endocrine and melanoma surgery, he will also work closely with Mary Bird Perkins’ Breast Specialty Program. Tulane Scholar Elected to the National Academy of Medicine Tulane University’s Anita Raj, PhD, globally rec- ognized scholar for research on gender, public health, violence prevention, and numerous other areas, has been elected to the National Acad- emy of Medicine. Raj serves as the executive director of Tulane’s Newcomb Institute and the Nancy Reeves Dreux Endowed Chair and Professor of Public Health in the Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. She has more than two decades of leadership in advancing research at the intersection of health, gender, and global development. Before joining Tulane, Raj held faculty and lead- ership positions at the University of California San Diego and Boston University School of Pub- lic Health. Raj has authored more than 350 peer- reviewed publications and is recognized as one of the most referenced researchers in her field. TheWhite House Just Turned U.S. Obesity into a Pharma Goldmine By Dianne Marie Normand Hartley Soon we’ll be celebrating a thinner, but still- malnourished America. President Trump announced a deal in Novem- ber that is “a triumph for American patients.” Flanked by Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk Big Pharma executives and MAHA leadership, he revealed a historic agreement to slash the prices of the blockbuster GLP-1 weight-loss drugs Wegovy and Zepbound. Prices that once averaged over $1,300 a month would soon fall to $245, with future pill versions capped at $149. Medicare will now cover these drugs for obesity, and state Medicaid pro- grams will have the option to follow suit. The president and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. touted a negotiating “win-win.” This was not a victory for public health — it was a victory for the pharmaceutical industry, wrapped in populist language. The press conference Ralph Corsetti, MD