HJBR Jan/Feb 2026

38 JAN / FEB 2026  I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE   Healthcare Briefs interactions between cell-surface proteins out- side the cell can be controlled, there’s a poten- tial for simplifying drug development and reduc- ing off-target effects, since the drug would not enter the cell. Next steps are to see whether this is a mech- anism specific to just a few proteins or part of a broader and underappreciated aspect of biology. Findings from that investigation could reshape treatment approaches for neurological and other diseases, Dalva said. The research was conducted in collaboration with Dalva, Price, and colleagues at the Univer- sity of Texas Health Science Center at San Anto- nio, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the University of Houston, Princeton Uni- versity, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, and Thomas Jefferson University. The research was supported by grants from indi- vidual institutes within the National Institutes of Health. 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 cele- brated medicating a disease, but, unfortunately, not solving its cause. Early in the announcement, the president said, “The United States is just four percent of the world’s population and consumes only 13 the health department would be able to shift hun- dreds of thousands of people from one Medicaid plan to another over the next two weeks without massive disruptions. They worried that Medicaid enrollees — as well as hospitals, doctors and other medical providers —were not prepared for such a massive overhaul 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/ Scientists Uncover NewOn Switch for Pain Signaling Pathway Researchers at Tulane University, with a team of colleagues from eight other universities, have dis- covered a new nerve cell signaling mechanism that could transform our understanding of pain and lead to safer, more effective treatments. The study, co-led by Matthew Dalva, the Phyl- lis M. Taylor Presidential Chair in Brain Science at Tulane, and Ted Price at the University of Texas at Dallas, reveals that neurons can release an enzyme outside the cell that switches on pain signaling after injury. The work, published in Science , offers new insight into how brain cells strengthen their connections during learning and memory and point to a safer way to influence pain pathways. Because the study finding also indicates how