The Louisiana Department of Health’s (LDH) new Secretary, Bruce Greenstein, announced three key initiatives on Monday to address several of the state's most pressing healthcare challenges. These efforts also aim to ensure more stability in the programs the Department administers.
“Today, I hit the ground running. The Department has a great team in place that has started moving the needle for our state’s healthcare system. Our new initiatives will improve health outcomes while saving taxpayer money,” said Sec. Greenstein.
The three initiatives announced today make up a portion of the Department’s vision. The priorities include improving behavioral health, making the Louisiana Medicaid program more efficient, and doubling down to fight fraud, waste, and abuse while maintaining the highest standards of privacy and security of patients’ and members’ information.
Fraud Waste and Abuse Task Force
The Fraud Waste and Abuse Task Force will initially target three key areas:
LDH/Office of Motor Vehicles (OMV) data-sharing partnership: LDH and OMV launch a data-sharing partnership starting April 23 to help improve the accuracy of the Medicaid rolls. This will ensure that the state isn’t paying monthly premiums for individuals holding an active driver’s license in another state.
AI data project with the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (ULL): LDH is partnering with LA DOGE and ULL to utilize AI and data analytics to identify and address waste, abuse, and fraudulent practices within Louisiana Medicaid.
Enhanced collaboration between the LDH Program Integrity Unit and the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU): Enhanced collaboration with MFCU will increase LDH’s ability to detect, investigate, and prosecute fraudulent activity and maximize recoveries for the Medicaid program.
Reforming Medicaid Pharmacy Benefit Management (PBM)
The Department announced a new approach to the pharmacy program in Louisiana Medicaid. This will move LDH away from the single PBM toward a program that brings patients and providers closer together.
This policy change aims to reduce the impact of the middleman in the Louisiana Medicaid program. The Department will work closely with its frontline pharmacists and the managed care organizations (MCOs) to ensure the best approach to managing pharmacy benefits.
Continued closures of independent and chain pharmacies threaten patient access across Louisiana. As MCOs take on the responsibility of beneficiaries’ total healthcare, LDH will require them to operate a pharmacy program that ensures access, controls expenses, and safeguards the financial stability of the state’s Medicaid system.
Project M.O.M. (Maternal Overdose Mortality)
Recognizing the urgent crisis of accidental opioid overdose as the leading cause of pregnancy‑associated death, the Department is launching Project M.O.M., a statewide effort to reverse this trend across Louisiana.
To better support mothers, Project M.O.M. will advocate for evidence-based opioid use disorder training for prescribers in hospitals and residency programs, increased availability of lifesaving medications like naloxone and buprenorphine in pharmacies, and the allocation of opioid settlement funds by local leaders to critical resources such as peer recovery coaching, residential treatment beds, and outpatient clinics.
Building on the success of Louisiana pilots that place the opioid overdose reversal medication naloxone in mothers’ hands at discharge, boost universal substance-use screening in birthing hospitals, and link emergency department overdoses to rapid outpatient treatment, Project M.O.M. will scale those best practices across every region.
The initiative sets a bold target of cutting pregnancy‑associated opioid overdose deaths by 80% within three years. This will save the lives of an estimated 65 mothers annually and protect infants from loss or foster care placement. LDH will publish a detailed roadmap and appoint a program director within 30 days, convene hospital and community partners within 90 days to enhance data tracking, and align managed-care and hospital incentive payments over the next six months to support access to treatment.