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BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
T h u r s d ay, d e c e m b e r 11, 2025
La.’s Medicaid contract decision has deep roots
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5 indicted in Southern hazing death Police say Caleb Wilson died during fraternity ritual BY MATT BRUCE Staff writer
STAFF FILE PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK
Gov. Jeff Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill have been embroiled in a legal battle with major health companies over prescription drug prices.
Dispute stems from drug prices, pharmacy benefit managers BY ALYSE PFEIL
Staff writer
Louisiana’s last-minute decision this month not to renew a $4.2 billion contract with UnitedHealthcare to provide Medicaid benefits for roughly 330,000 people is the latest front in a larger battle some state officials are waging against major health companies over prescription drug prices. That decision, made weeks before new health policies are set to take effect, caught legislators off guard and raised concerns about disruptions for patients. The Louisiana Department of Health has said it will transition recipients to one of the
five other existing companies providing Medicaid services. The problem does not appear to be with the UnitedHealthcare contract itself — in fact, the Health Department asked lawmakers last month to renew it — Attorney General Liz Murrill has tied it to another issue: a lawsuit over pharmacy benefit managers. Pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, negotiate drug prices on behalf of health plans. OptumRx has provided that service for the state government, and its parent company, UnitedHealth Group, also owns UnitedHealthcare. Gov. Jeff Landry, who was then attorney general, sued UnitedHealth-
care and OptumRx in April 2022, alleging they used the complexity of their business model to inflate the prices of drugs. The company denies the allegations. Landry also alleged the companies violated the terms of their contracts with the state by not providing documents the state requested, which UnitedHealth Group also denies. The lawsuit has been mired for years in procedural fights. It’s that dispute that spurred Murrill on Dec. 2 to write a letter to the Department of Health urging it not to renew UnitedHealthcare’s Medicaid contract.
ä See CONTRACT, page 6A
Five men were indicted by an East Baton Rouge grand jury Wednesday on charges in connection with the hazing death of Southern University engineering student Caleb Wilson. Isaiah Earl Smith, 29, Caleb McCray, 24, and Kyle Thurman, 25, were arrested in March following an investigation into the Feb. 27 incident. The three Baton Rouge men were each indicted on felony hazing charges. In addition, McCray was indicted on a charge of manslaughter, Smith was indicted for principal to manslaughter and obstruction of justice, and Thurman was indicted for obstruction of justice. Winston Craig Sanders, 22, and Jaydn Landrum, 24, were indicted on principal to felony hazing and obstruction of justice. Sanders, of Monroe, and Landrum, a Texas man, have yet to be arrested. Nineteenth Judicial District Commissioner Nicole Robinson issued arrest warrants for their respective charges on Wednesday. The grand jury also indicted Smith, Thurman, Sanders and Landrum on nine misdemeanor counts of hazing apiece. McCray received seven of the misdemeanor indictments. The panel determined there wasn’t sufficient evidence to pass down indictments for Jaylen Grissom, a 21-year-old Houston-area man. Prosecutors sought to charge him with principal to felony criminal hazing for aiding and abetting in Wilson’s fatal beating. The state also aimed to
ä See HAZING, page 6A
PHOTO PROVIDED By SOUTHERN UNIVERSITy
Caleb Wilson, who played trumpet with Southern University’s Human Jukebox, died after an alleged off-campus hazing ritual at a Baton Rouge warehouse.
La. Supreme Court finds no corruption at Family Court Court didn’t find it, ac- the family court, issued a scathing parent into submission,” Hughes parish. But one justice pushes Supreme What comes of it is uncertain. cording to a long-awaited report retort Monday. Hughes alleges the wrote in a letter to state Rep. back on report released to lawmakers this week family court is led by a runaway Kathy Edmonston, R-Gonzales, In his letter, Hughes suggests the
on the Family Court of East Baton Rouge. But one Supreme Court justice Staff writer says his colleagues didn’t look If the state’s only dedicated fam- nearly hard enough. Justice Jefferson Hughes III, ily court is the den of corruption some leaders fear, the Louisiana who has led an unusual probe of
BY JOHN SIMERMAN
WEATHER HIGH 63 LOW 42 PAGE 6B
cabal of lawyers and judges who wield abusive tactics upon “unfavored” litigants at will. The court often wrings litigants dry and smears them, its judges prone to abusing their contempt powers to “beat the nonfavored
who helped spur the court review. The court’s 14-page report and Hughes’ incendiary reply have put two opposing spins on a downtown Baton Rouge courthouse that handles divorce and custody matters in Louisiana’s most populous
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Legislature could disband the family court altogether. The dispute comes more than a year after the Supreme Court, in response to a state Senate
ä See COURT, page 4A
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