BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana’s health department will seek new bids for multibillion-dollar Medicaid contracts managing the health care of 1.5 million people. 

The agency is ending a legal dispute that has dragged out over a year about the four contractors the agency previously picked for the work. 

Health Department Secretary Courtney Phillips announced Friday she asked the governor’s Division of Administration to let her rebid the Medicaid contracts. Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne announced hours later he agreed to the request. 

The managed care contracts allow private companies to oversee services for about 90% of Louisiana’s Medicaid enrollees.

Phillips’ plan to redo the contractor search won’t disrupt care being delivered through existing contracts. 

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