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Senators hear about crisis facing state hospitals, but make no commitments on solutions

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2 years ago

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The bleak outlook for hospitals across the state, especially those in rural areas, was highlighted Monday during a hearing of the Senate Public Health Committee.

While possible solutions were discussed, senators indicated that long-term fixes might not be coming during the upcoming 2023 session.

State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney told committee members that 38 rural hospitals across the state “are in danger of immediate closure or closure in the near term.” Some of those hospitals are larger regional care centers, such as Greenwood Leflore Hospital.

Edney said nearly all of 111 hospitals across the state are facing financial difficulties with many areas – particularly in the Delta and some parts of southwest Mississippi – becoming “health care deserts.” Edney, representatives with the Mississippi Hospital Association and others have been warning of the crisis facing health care in Mississippi for some time caused in part by rising costs and changes in the structure of health care in the nation – all of which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Public Health Committee met Monday to be updated on the crisis and to hear possible solutions.

The Hospital Association offered six possible steps that could be taken to help the hospitals survive – ranging from increasing the state-federal Medicaid supplemental payments to hospitals, to eliminating the taxes hospitals pay to expanding Medicaid. Of those steps, the one that would not require legislative action and is most likely to occur would be the state Division of Medicaid seeking federal approval to increase payments to hospitals.

Tim Moore, chief executive officer of the Hospital Association, said all of those steps are needed to increase the financial viability of the state’s hospitals. But according to a Hospital Association chart handed out to senators, expanding Medicaid is the options that would provide the most benefit. Medicaid expansion would provide a financial boost to the hospitals, while improving the state economy, based on multiple studies. It also would benefit Mississippi citizens by providing health care to primarily the working poor.

During the committee hearing, Sen. Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, said Medicaid expansion would not solely fix the problem facing the hospitals. Richard Roberson, vice president for policy with the Mississippi Hospital Association said, “it might not solely fix it, but I would argue it would go a long way.”

Wiggins replied, “It would go a long way because it would provide a revenue stream for hospitals, but 10 years down the road could be another situation.”

But Roberson said if the state enacted Medicaid expansion, people, primarily the working poor, would have access to health care other than in a hospital emergency room. Under current law, hospitals are mandated to provide emergency services regardless of a patient’s ability to pay.

Medicaid expansion would cut down on more expensive emergency room care while providing Medicaid expansion beneficiaries the opportunity for preventive care from primary care physicians, Roberson said. In addition, Medicaid expansion would substantially cut down on the amount of uncompensated care – about $600 million a year and increasing – that hospitals currently incur because there would be fewer uninsured patients being treated.

After the meeting, Sen. Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, when asked about the possibility of expanding Medicaid in the upcoming 2023 session, responded, “Why are you asking me about that?” DeBar then added it might be pointless for the Senate to try to take up the issue while the House leadership and Gov. Tate Reeves are entrenched in their opposition to Medicaid expansion.

Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, who chairs the Senate Medicaid Committee, said after Monday’s Public Health Committee hearing that he remains opposed to Medicaid expansion. He said Medicaid provides less money to medical providers for the services rendered than private insurance. He said he would prefer other options, such as helping poor people purchase private insurance.

The federal government pays 90% of the health care costs for those covered by Medicaid expansion – those earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level or about $19,000 annually for an individual. Whether the state could develop a Medicaid expansion substitute where the federal government pays the bulk of the cost for private insurance is not known.

At any rate, Blackwell said it probably would be the 2024 session – after 2023 statewide elections – before such options are considered.

In the meantime, Edney pointed out there is a growing area in the state where there is no hospital to deliver babies. He said that only worsens Mississippi’s position as the state with the nation’s highest infant mortality rate.

Edney said the state Department of Health would try to step in as a last resort “safety net” in those areas lacking adequate health care.

The post Senators hear about crisis facing state hospitals, but make no commitments on solutions appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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Meet the 2 Candidates for Mississippi Supreme Court’s Nov. 26 Runoff Election

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8 hours ago

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November 25, 2024

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mississippitoday.org – The Marshall Project – 2024-11-25 09:30:00

On Tuesday, Nov. 26, voters will determine who will hold one of central Mississippi’s three seats on the nine-member state Supreme Court. This 22-county area includes Hinds County and Jackson.

Justice Jim Kitchens is seeking a third, eight-year term on the high court. State Sen. Jenifer B. Branning is the challenger.

The state Supreme Court often has the final say in cases involving criminal, civil and death penalty appeals, questions on the state’s laws and constitution, and legal issues of public interest. It hears appeals from lower courts, such as the chancery and circuit courts. The court decided 260 cases in 2023 and issued rulings in 2,656 motions and petitions.

The Marshall Project – Jackson and Mississippi Today compiled information about each candidate to help you make an informed decision at the polls.

Admitted to Mississippi Bar: 1967

Residence: Crystal Springs, Copiah County

Relevant experience: Completing second term as Supreme Court justice; 41 years as practicing attorney, including nine as district attorney of Copiah, Walthall, Pike and Lincoln counties.

Campaign finance: As of Oct. 10, his campaign committee has raised $288,502, mostly from trial lawyers, and spent $189,675, leaving the campaign with $98,827. Read the latest report here.

Statement of economic interest: Kitchens and his wife are partners in a real estate company, Kitchens Properties, LLC, in Copiah County. Read the latest report here.

Kitchens was first elected to this seat in 2008, after more than 40 years practicing law, which includes nine years as a district attorney across four counties. He is one of two presiding justices, who have the most years on the bench, following the chief justice. Presiding justice is a role on the court’s executive committee that includes administrative duties, such as enforcing the court’s deadlines, and presiding over panels during oral arguments.

Campaigning at the 2024 Neshoba County Fair, Kitchens stressed his experience in the courtroom, especially on criminal cases, and promised impartiality.

Kitchens said he is “the guy that carries his oath of office around in his pocket as a daily reminder of what he swore to do. That oath teaches me that I’m not supposed to care whether people before the court are rich, poor, Black, White, Republican, Democrat, Libertarian or Independent. And I don’t care.”

Mississippi College of Law Professor Matthew Steffey described Kitchens as a “middle-of-the-road centrist.” On the bench, Kitchens’ dissents have keyed in on what the justice called oversteps in judicial power and scrutinized prosecutorial decisions.

Kitchens wrote a partial dissent on the decision about House Bill 1020, calling the creation of the court in Hinds County a “fiction of convenience that overreaches our judicial function, and of ultimate importance, our constitutional duty.” He also joined a dissenting opinion in the case that killed Mississippi’s ballot initiative.

Ensuring defendants who can’t afford representation have court-appointed lawyers is a theme throughout Kitchens’ career. He was the chair of the Public Defender Task Force, which was created in 2000 to study and make recommendations on the public defender systems in the state. In a 2018 interview with Mississippi Today, Kitchens expressed support for a more well-organized and adequately funded state public defender system for Mississippi.

The bulk of Kitchens’ campaign donations through Oct. 10 have come from trial lawyers. In addition to Mississippi attorneys, the campaign also received contributions from lawyers as far away as Oregon and Pennsylvania. In the three months since the July finance report, Kitchens’ campaign raised over $200,000, more than it had previously raised in the entire race. He has also received an endorsement from the Southern Poverty Law Center, an advocacy group specializing in civil rights litigation.

? Read Kitchens’ response to the candidate questionnaire from The Marshall Project – Jackson and Mississippi Today.

Admitted to Mississippi Bar: 2004

Residence: Philadelphia, Neshoba County

Relevant experience: State senator since 2016.

Campaign finance: As of Oct. 10, Branning’s campaign committee has raised $665,624, including a $250,000 loan from the candidate, and spent $343,728. The campaign reported a balance of $319,876, which left a discrepancy of about $2,000. Read the latest report here.

Statement of economic interest: Branning is listed as member, owner, stockholder or partner in several companies located in Philadelphia, including her law firm, Branning Properties, LLC, and Triple E Investments. Read her latest report here.

Republican state Sen. Jenifer B. Branning is running on a platform to represent Mississippians’ conservative values on the Supreme Court, she said at the 2024 Neshoba County Fair candidate forum.

Branning has no judicial experience. Since she joined the Mississippi Bar in 2004, she has practiced as an attorney, primarily representing businesses through her private practice in areas including real estate development, banking and agribusiness. She has also served as a special prosecutor in Neshoba County, a guardian ad litem in Neshoba and Winston counties, and as a staff attorney in the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Division of Business Services & Regulation.

Branning described herself as a “Christian conservative.” She has been endorsed by the state’s Republican Party and the National Federation of Independent Business Mississippi PAC, a special interest group for small businesses. She has been outspoken about overturning Roe v. Wade and supporting the state’s abortion ban, and about reducing taxes on businesses. Branning is also a member of the National Rifle Association. On criminal justice issues, Branning has voted in favor of mandatory and increased minimum sentences for crimes including shoplifting, motor vehicle theft and fleeing law enforcement.

In the state Senate, Branning chairs the Highways and Transportation Committee. She has touted her record on lowering taxes and reducing regulations on farmers and small business owners.

Branning comes from multiple generations of business owners in Neshoba County. Her grandfather, Olen Burrage Jr., owned and operated a truck farm, hauling timber and corn, according to previous news reports.

Her election committee has received contributions from political action groups including Truck PAC, Mississippi Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Stores Association PAC and the Mississippi REALTOR PAC.

Much of Branning’s campaign funding, however, comes from the candidate herself. She kicked off her campaign with a $250,000 candidate loan. She has also bankrolled her previous senate campaigns, with candidate loans as high as $50,000 in 2018. This year, her campaign committee also received funding from other Republican politicians and their campaign funds, including Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, the Committee to Elect Jeremy England (state senator), Harkins for MS (state Senator Josh Harkins), and Friends of Jason White (Mississippi House speaker).

Branning did not acknowledge or return the candidate questionnaire from The Marshall Project – Jackson and Mississippi Today.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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On this day in 1915

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8 hours ago

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November 25, 2024

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-11-25 07:00:00

Nov. 25, 1915

Credit: Wikipedia

A week before the silent film, “Birth of a Nation,” premiered at an Atlanta theater, William Simmons, along with 15 other men (including some who lynched Leo Frank) burned a cross on Stone Mountain, Georgia, signaling the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan. 

The movie’s racist portrayals of Black Americans prompted outrage by the NAACP and others, leading to huge protests in towns such as Boston and the film’s closing in Chicago. 

Despite these protests, the movie became Hollywood’s first blockbuster, making as much as $100 million at the box office (the equivalent of $2.4 billion today). In the wake of the movie, the KKK became a national organization, swelling beyond 4 million members.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Podcast: Mississippi Hospital Association’s Roberson discusses Medicaid expansion outlook under Trump, other 2025 legislative health care issues

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11 hours ago

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November 25, 2024

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mississippitoday.org – Bobby Harrison and Geoff Pender – 2024-11-25 06:30:00

Richard Roberson, president and CEO of the Mississippi Hospital Association, tells Mississippi Today’s Bobby Harrison and Geoff Pender a new Trump administration would likely approve Mississippi Medicaid expansion work requirements. He says revamping the state’s certificate of need laws is likely to be a major issue before lawmakers, and he discusses a new alliance of hospitals that left the MHA and formed a new organization.

READ MORE: As lawmakers look to cut taxes, Mississippi mayors and county leaders outline infrastructure needs

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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