IN THE PAST few years, many low-income Louisiana residents have taken greater control of—and in many cases, improved—their health thanks to Louisiana Healthcare Connections.

Louisiana Healthcare Connections is one of the five health plans available to members of Bayou Health, a network of managed care partners that the state enlisted in 2011 to provide basic, no-cost health care for most Medicaid enrollees. The plan covers about 375,000 Louisianans and gives them access to 15,000 health care providers around the state.

“About 80% of Louisiana Healthcare Connections members are children,” says Chief Medical Officer Dr. Stewart Gordon, noting that good health care early on has a lifelong impact. “Health is the most important thing in life,” he says, “You can’t go to school, get a job or pursue the normal things that make life good if you’re sick.

“For example, one of our members, a young boy with autism, needed a special device to help him communicate. Under legacy Medicaid, the device would’ve cost $9,600 and was heavy and bulky. Louisiana Healthcare Connections was able to provide him with an iPad containing all the necessary applications already installed for $1,125. That’s a savings of 88%. Not only was this child able to communicate better with his family, but he is also able to take his iPad to school and do school work. According to his mom, he is unbelievable with PowerPoint.”

Between 2011—the last year for Louisiana’s old Medicaid system—and 2014, Louisiana Healthcare Connections saw its members make great strides. Children and adults alike go to their primary care physician for their annual checkups more often, resulting in a 61% increase in adult primary care visits and a 30% increase in child primary care visits. Also, child immunization rates have gone up 169%.

As a Bayou Health plan, Louisiana Healthcare Connections can offer extra benefits out of their own pocket to close gaps in Medicaid. For instance, dental pain in adults is a common cause of emergency room visits, but isn’t a Medicaid-covered service. By covering dental services, members are more likely to visit the dentist’s office before it becomes an emergency. This improves the member’s health, cuts down on wasteful spending and breaks down the old Medicaid culture that was centered on expensive emergency room services. Between 2011 and 2014, Louisiana Healthcare Connections saw adult non-urgent emergency room visits decrease by 29%. The result is better health for patients, which in turn makes health care costs lower and more predictable for the state.

According to an independent, actuarially sound report, the Bayou Health program saved the state as much as $437 million in 2015 alone. The study, conducted by Wakely Consulting Group, identified that health care costs were between 6.7% and 11.2% lower than what legacy Medicaid would have cost.

Louisiana Healthcare Connections is serving the most vulnerable in Louisiana by helping them gain access to quality health care while saving the state millions in health care costs.