Medicare Advantage

Medicare and Medicaid in Louisiana: 34 Dual Special Needs Plans for 2027

BATON ROUGE — Louisianans who qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid will have 34 Dual Special Needs Plans (D-SNPs) to consider for 2027, out of 124 Medicare Advantage plans counted statewide, according to the CMS Medicare Advantage Landscape Source Files for the coming plan year. Each plan is listed once statewide, but availability is set parish by parish, so a plan on the state list may or may not reach a given reader's address.

What is a D-SNP in Louisiana and who qualifies in 2027?

A Dual Special Needs Plan is a Medicare Advantage plan built for people who have both Medicare and Medicaid, and in Louisiana for 2027 enrollees must have their Medicaid status — full-benefit or one of the partial categories such as QMB — confirmed by the Louisiana Department of Health, which runs the state Medicaid program. D-SNPs coordinate Medicare benefits with the help a member already gets from Medicaid, and every D-SNP on the Louisiana 2027 list includes prescription drug coverage.

"Full dual" generally means a person qualifies for the full package of Louisiana Medicaid benefits in addition to Medicare. "Partial dual" categories, including the Qualified Medicare Beneficiary (QMB) program, help pay Medicare premiums and cost-sharing without the full Medicaid benefit package. Several plans on the 2027 list are named for the category they serve — for example, Aetna Medicare Full Dual Care, Aetna Medicare Partial Dual Care, Aetna Medicare QMB Only Care, Humana Dual QMB Only, and the Devoted Dual Choice FULL and QMB variants — but the controlling fact is the member's Medicaid status on file with the state, not the plan name.

How many D-SNPs are offered in Louisiana for 2027, and which carriers offer them?

Louisiana has 34 D-SNPs for 2027, part of 124 Medicare Advantage plans counted statewide; the other Special Needs Plan counts are 17 C-SNPs and 3 I-SNPs. Eight carriers offer D-SNPs in the state: Aetna (CVS Health) with 3, AmeriHealth Caritas VIP Care (HMO-SNP) with 1, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana with 1, Centene (WellCare) with 5, Devoted Health with 6, Elevance Health (Anthem) with 2, Humana with 7, and UnitedHealthcare with 9.

The full plan names, plan types (HMO, HMO-POS or PPO D-SNP), and whether a plan is new or renamed for 2027 are rendered in the tables on this page. A few examples of what readers will see there: Blue adVantage Dual Plus from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, Healthy Blue Dual Advantage and Healthy Blue Enhanced Care from Elevance Health (Anthem), the Wellcare Louisiana Connections family from Centene, the Peoples Health plans from UnitedHealthcare, and the UHC Dual Complete LA-Q1, LA-Q2 and LA-S4 plans. Several Centene, Devoted and UnitedHealthcare D-SNPs are flagged as new for next year, and several Aetna, Centene, Elevance, Humana and UnitedHealthcare plans are flagged as renamed from a 2026 plan — a detail worth checking if a reader is already in one of those plans.

How often can a dual-eligible person in Louisiana change plans in 2027?

A dual-eligible Louisianan has more chances to change plans than most Medicare members. The Annual Enrollment Period, October 15 – December 7, 2026, is the main window for Annual Enrollment 2027, with a January 1, 2027 effective date; the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment 2027 window then runs January 1 – March 31, 2027 for people already in a Medicare Advantage plan.

On top of those, since 2025 there is a monthly special enrollment period that lets people with Medicaid or Extra Help switch to Original Medicare with a stand-alone Part D drug plan, and full-benefit dual-eligible members can join an integrated D-SNP in any month of the year. The older rule that let dual-eligible people change Medicare Advantage or Part D plans once per calendar quarter in the first three quarters ended in 2025, so Louisiana readers should not rely on advice built around that quarterly pattern. Because enrollment rules can be updated, confirm the current version with 1-800-MEDICARE before acting.

How do I check which D-SNPs are offered in my Louisiana parish for 2027?

Even though Louisiana shows 34 D-SNPs statewide for 2027, no single parish gets all 34; each plan is approved for a specific set of parishes. The CMS Landscape file shows, for example, D-SNPs offered in as few as 5 parishes and others offered in as many as 64, so parish-level checking matters.

The simplest way to see what is actually available at a Louisiana address for 2027 is the Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov, which filters by ZIP code and by Special Needs Plan type, or a call to 1-800-MEDICARE, which is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Plan-specific details — premium, deductible, copays, drug list, provider network, extra benefits and star rating — belong to each plan's Evidence of Coverage, Summary of Benefits, pharmacy and provider directories, and the Plan Finder listing, not to a statewide article.

Where can a Louisiana reader get free help with D-SNP questions in 2027?

Free help is available from Medicare itself. 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227; TTY 1-877-486-2048) can confirm whether a person's Medicaid status is on file, explain the current enrollment periods, and walk through the Plan Finder results for a Louisiana ZIP code. Medicare.gov hosts the Plan Finder, the plan documents each carrier files with CMS, and the official explanations of enrollment periods and Special Needs Plans. For Medicaid-specific questions — eligibility category, renewals, and what Louisiana Medicaid pays toward Medicare cost-sharing — the Louisiana Department of Health is the authoritative source.