About Magellan in Louisiana

Meet Our Team

Craig J. Coenson, M.D., Chief Executive Officer, Magellan Behavioral Health in Louisiana

A board-certified psychiatrist, Dr. Craig Coenson's passion for helping people drives his work to ensure the quality and care of services managed by Magellan Behavioral Health in Louisiana. Dr. Coenson joined Magellan in 2012 as Chief Medical Officer, and, shortly there after, he accepted an even larger leadership role as the Chief Executive Officer of Magellan in Louisiana. His depth of knowledge and expertise is instrumental in guiding him as a true strategic leader in working with state partners, legislators, service providers and other stakeholders as we ensure members receive the right care in the right setting.

Dr. Coenson is a central figure in day-to-day operations. He draws upon his clinical experience to steer and analyze customer reporting as we transform behavioral health care in Louisiana. His depth of knowledge helps measure quality clinical outcomes while bridging the connection between the member and the services of the LBHP providers. Dr. Coenson regularly meets with our stakeholders to present the data, discuss what it means and encourage open conversations about the system as we continue to move towards improved services for our members.

Before joining Magellan, Dr. Coenson held the Chief Medical Officer position for the Metropolitan Human Services Authority in New Orleans. In that role, he helped rebuild and reshape behavioral health care in a post-Katrina New Orleans region. There, he helped lead initiatives to bring more crisis and community-based services as well as a strategic care management approach to a safety net of care.

In 2000, Dr. Coenson joined Cigna Behavioral Health as Chief Medical Officer, and later moved into the position of National Medical Director.  In 2004, Dr. Coenson was a key participant on the Quality Management team that acquired a three year accreditation from both URAC and NCQA.

Additionally, Dr. Coenson served as Regional Chief of Inpatient Psychiatry at Kaiser Permanente. He has been a key liaison as a consulting psychiatrist at the Hazelden Youth and Family Service, and he is a member of the New York Business Group on Health. He currently serves on the faculties of the Schools of Medicine at Tulane University and Louisiana State University.

As a summa cum laude graduate of Tulane University, he completed a fellowship in consultant liaison psychiatry at the University of California San Diego, and published an article on general hospital psychiatry.

Dr. Coenson is available to all the stakeholders of the LA Behavioral Health Partnership. He can be emailed at CJCoenson@MagellanHealth.com.