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Marshall County’s only ER to close this month after mix-up with federal government

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12 months ago

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As an internal medicine doctor, Dr. Kenneth Williams knows the importance of continuity of care. That’s one of several reasons why the impending closure of the Holly Springs hospital’s emergency room – and its precarious financial position as a whole – pains him so.

After receiving special designation from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to operate the hospital as an emergency room-only and close its inpatient services, the federal government pulled the status less than a year later. Now, the hospital must close its ER and face the expensive and daunting process of reopening and becoming relicensed as an acute care hospital.

“At the end of the day, who suffers” from the emergency room’s closure and reduced services at the hospital? “My patients,” said Williams, who is co-owner and chief executive officer of Alliance Healthcare System in Holly Springs, a town of just under 7,000 residents about 50 miles from Memphis.

The news of the ER’s closure comes less than three months after state lawmakers approved a $350 million deal to bring a battery plant to Marshall County that’s expected to create over 2,000 jobs over the next few years. But the county’s only hospital is struggling mightily to stay open, placing continuity of care out of reach for some people in the community.

Spokespeople from PACCAR and Daimler Truck, two of the companies involved in the battery plant, declined to comment for the story. Representatives from Cummins did not respond to Mississippi Today’s request for comment.

The emergency room entrance is seen at Holly Springs Alliance Hospital in Holly Springs, Miss., on Tuesday, April 9, 2024. The federal government has rescinded the hospital’s rural emergency status. Credit: Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

Recently, one of Williams’ patients he sees at the clinic had an emergency and was taken to an ER outside Marshall County. Williams knew the woman had a severe UTI and was allergic to an antibiotic called cephalosporin.

But the other ER didn’t have her history, and she was given the drug, he said.

“She had a severe reaction and had to go to rehab. She almost died,” he said. “Something that simple means something. If she had come to our facility, it’s already in our records that she can’t take cephalosporin.”

Rural hospitals in Mississippi are struggling to stay afloat. One report puts 29% of the state’s rural hospitals at immediate risk of closure, and 62% are losing money on patient services.

Research has found that Medicaid expansion has a positive impact on hospitals, including via a reduction in uncompensated care. And while expansion is not a silver bullet, median operating margins in rural hospitals were higher in expansion states than non-expansion states, according to KFF.

Williams said Alliance incurs between $800,000 to $1 million a year in uncompensated care, or care the hospital provides for which no payment was received – often as a result of patients who are uninsured.

Williams said he’s “amazed” lawmakers are finally discussing the possibility, but damage has already been done to his hospital and the state as a whole.

“This state could be in so much better shape health care wise,” he said, noting the decision not to expand has been a “disservice” to communities like his.

Tim Moore, the former longtime head of the Mississippi Hospital Association, said expanding Medicaid would put significantly more money towards hospitals’ bottom line through a reduction in uncompensated care, and there’s “not a legitimate argument” against full expansion.

“Even if your concern is not for that individual that needs health care, you should have some concern for your local hospital that’s trying to take care of folks,” said Moore.

READ MORE: Negotiations begin: Where do House, Senate, governor stand on Medicaid expansion? Is there room for compromise?

Without the boost from Medicaid expansion, the hospital applied for a new federal designation that aims to keep rural hospitals open – though it requires the discontinuation of inpatient services.

Last year, the financially struggling Alliance received rural emergency hospital status, which allowed it to operate as an emergency room-only facility and receive monthly payments and increased reimbursements from Medicare. But on April 1, after Alliance HealthCare System had already laid off staff and shut down its inpatient services to comply with the requirements of the new designation, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services rescinded the designation.

An empty emergency room in Holly Springs Alliance Hospital in Holly Springs, Miss., on Tuesday, April 9, 2024. The federal government has rescinded the hospital’s rural emergency status. Credit: Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

Hospitals must either be a critical access hospital or a hospital with 50 or fewer beds in a rural county as of Dec. 27, 2020, to be considered for rural emergency status. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services eventually determined Alliance is too close to Memphis, Williams and State Health Officer Dan Edney said.

The federal agency first inadvertently granted the designation, according to a letter it sent Williams, then claimed the hospital failed to reapply for rural status by the deadline given.

But Williams and the hospital’s counsel Quentin Whitwell said there was no formal reapplication process that they could determine despite back-and-forth communications with agency officials over four months.

READ MORE: Under a new program, rural hospitals could get more money – but they have to end inpatient care

Williams said the federal government’s actions, in combination with the state’s refusal to expand Medicaid, has done “irreparable harm” to the hospital.

Now, after closing two of its floors, the hospital has to start the long process of again becoming licensed as an acute care hospital, which includes major building repairs.

“We’re spending a ton of money that we don’t have … just to get our old designation back,” Williams said.

And it notified the state Department of Health it will close its emergency department – which Williams says costs around $1 million a year just to staff with one around-the-clock physician – beginning April 15.

Mississippi Today’s Eric Shelton contributed to this story.

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

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Mississippi lawmakers end 2025 session unable to agree (or even meet about) state budget: Legislative recap

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12 hours ago

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April 7, 2025

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mississippitoday.org – @GeoffPender – 2025-04-07 11:50:00

by Geoff Pender, Mississippi Today
April 7, 2025

Infighting between Mississippi’s Republican House and Senate legislative leaders reached DEFCON 4 as the 2025 legislative session sputtered to a close last week.

Lawmakers gaveled out unable to set a $7 billion state budget — their main job — or to even agree to negotiate. Gov. Tate Reeves will force them back into session sometime before the end of the fiscal year June 30. At a press conference last week, the governor assured he would do so but did not give a timetable, other than saying he plans to give lawmakers some time to cool off.

The crowning achievement of the 2025 session was passage of a tax overhaul bill a majority of legislators accidentally voted for because of errors in its math. House leaders and the governor nevertheless celebrated passage of the measure, which will phase out the state individual income tax over about 14 years, more quickly trim the sales tax on some groceries to 5% raise the tax on gasoline by 9 cents a gallon, then have automatic gas tax increases thereafter based on the cost of road construction.

The error in the Senate bill accidentally removed safeguards that chamber’s leadership wanted to ensure the income tax would be phased out only if the state sees robust economic growth and controls spending.

The rope-a-dope the House used with the Senate errors to pass the measure also stripped a safeguard House leaders had wanted: a 1.5 cents on the dollar increase in the state’s sales tax, which would have brought it to 8.5%. House leaders said such an increase was needed to offset cutting more than $2 billion from the state’s $7 billion general fund revenue by eliminating the income tax, and to ensure local governments would be kept whole.

Reeves was nonplussed about the flaws in the bill he signed into law (at one point denying there were errors in it) and called it “One big, beautiful bill,” borrowing a phrase from President Donald Trump.

https://youtu.be/8ovOtFj0vFE

Quote of the Week

“Quite frankly, I think it’s chicken shit what they did.” — Gov. Tate Reeves, at a press conference last week when asked his thoughts about the Senate rejecting his nomination of Cory Custer, Reeves’ deputy chief of staff, to serve as four-year term on the board of Mississippi Public Broadcasting.

Full Legislative Coverage

What happened (or didn’t) in the rancorous 2025 Mississippi Legislative session?

Mississippi Today’s political team unpacks the just ended — for now — legislative session, that crashed at the end with GOP lawmakers unable to pass a budget after much infighting among Republican leaders. The crowning achievement of the session, a tax overhaul bill, was passed by accident and full of major errors and omissions. Listen to the podcast.

Gov. Tate Reeves, legislative leaders tout tax cut, but for some, it could be a tax increase

Many of those retirees who do not pay an income tax under state law and other Mississippians as well will face a tax increase under this newly passed legislation touted by Reeves and others. Read the column.

Trump administration slashes education funding. Mississippi leaders and schools panic

Mississippi schools and the state education system are set to lose over $137 million in federal funds after the U.S. Department of Education halted access to pandemic-era grant money, state leaders said this week. Read the story.

Gov. Tate Reeves says he’ll call Mississippi lawmakers back in special session after they failed to set budget

Gov. Tate Reeves on Thursday said he will call lawmakers into a special session to adopt a budget before state agencies run out of money later in the summer and hinted he might force legislators to consider other measures.  Read the story.

GOP-controlled Senate rejects governor’s pick for public broadcasting board. Reeves calls it ‘chicken s–t’

The Senate on Wednesday roundly rejected the nomination of Cory Custer, Reeves’ deputy chief of staff, to serve a four-year term on the board of directors of Mississippi Public Broadcasting, the statewide public radio and television network. Reeves reacted to the Senate’s vote on Thursday, calling it “chicken shit.” Read the story.

Early voting proposal killed on last day of Mississippi legislative session

Mississippi will remain one of only three states without no-excuse early voting or no-excuse absentee voting.  Read the story.

Mississippi Legislature ends 2025 session without setting a budget over GOP infighting 

The House on Wednesday voted to end what had become a futile legislative session without passing a budget to fund state government, for the first time in 16 years. The Senate is expected to do the same on Thursday.  Read the story.

Mississippi Legislature approves DEI ban after heated debate

Mississippi lawmakers have reached an agreement to ban diversity, equity and inclusion programs and a list of “divisive concepts” from public schools across the state education system, following the lead of numerous other Republican-controlled states and President Donald Trump’s administration.   Read the story.

Fear and loathing: Legislative session crashes with lawmakers unable to set a budget because of Republican infighting

Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and other Senate leaders on Saturday excoriated the Republican House leadership, after the House didn’t show up for what was supposed to be “conference weekend” to haggle out a $7 billion budget. Read the story.

‘We’ll go another year’ without relief: Pharmacy benefit manager reform likely dead

Hotly contested legislation that aimed to increase the transparency and regulation of pharmacy benefit managers appeared dead in the water Tuesday after a lawmaker challenged the bill for a rule violation. Read the story.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Mississippi lawmakers end 2025 session unable to agree (or even meet about) state budget: Legislative recap appeared first on mississippitoday.org

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On this day in 1909, Matthew Henson reached the North Pole

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2 days ago

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April 6, 2025

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mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-04-06 07:00:00

by Jerry Mitchell, Mississippi Today
April 6, 2025

April 6, 1909

Matthew Henson arrived ahead of the Admiral Peary Expedition to plant the American flag at the North Pole.

Matthew Henson reached the North Pole, planting the American flag. Traveling with the Admiral Peary Expedition, Henson reportedly reached the North Pole almost 45 minutes before Peary and the rest of the men. 

“As I stood there on top of the world and I thought of the hundreds of men who had lost their lives in the effort to reach it, I felt profoundly grateful that I had the honor of representing my race,” he said. 

While some would later dispute whether the expedition had actually reached the North Pole, Henson’s journey seems no less amazing. 

Born in Maryland to sharecropping parents who survived attacks by the KKK, he grew up working, becoming a cabin boy and sailing around the world. 

After returning, he became a salesman at a clothing store in Washington, D.C., where he waited on a customer named Robert Peary. Pearywas so impressed with Henson and his tales of the sea that he hired him as his personal valet. 

Henson joined Peary on a trip to Nicaragua. Impressed with Henson’s seamanship, Peary made Henson his “first man” on the expeditions that followed to the Arctic. When the expedition returned, Peary drew praise from the world while Henson’s contributions were ignored. 

Over time, his work came to be recognized. In 1937, he became the first African-American life member of The Explorers Club. Seven years later, he received the Peary Polar Expedition Medal and was received at the White House by President Truman and later President Eisenhower. 

“There can be no vision to the (person) the horizon of whose vision is limited by the bounds of self,” he said. “But the great things of the world, the great accomplishments of the world, have been achieved by (people with) … high ideals and … great visions. The path is not easy, the climb is rugged and hard, but the glory at the end is worthwhile.” 

Henson died in 1955, and his body was re-interred with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. The U.S. Postal Service featured him on a stamp, and the U.S. Navy named a Pathfinder class ship after him. In 2000, the National Geographic Society awarded him the Hubbard Medal.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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A win for press freedom: Judge dismisses Gov. Phil Bryant’s lawsuit against Mississippi Today

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2 days ago

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April 5, 2025

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mississippitoday.org – @GanucheauAdam – 2025-04-04 13:35:00

by Mississippi Today, Mississippi Today
April 4, 2025

Madison County Circuit Court Judge Bradley Mills dismissed former Gov. Phil Bryant’s defamation lawsuit against Mississippi Today on Friday, ending a nearly two-year case that became a beacon in the fight for American press freedom.

For the past 22 months, we’ve vigorously defended our Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting and our characterizations of Bryant’s role in the Mississippi welfare scandal. We are grateful today that the court, after careful deliberation, dismissed the case.

The reporting speaks for itself. The truth speaks for itself.

This judgment is so much more than vindication for Mississippi Today — it’s a monumental victory for every single Mississippian. Journalism is a public good that all of us deserve and need. Too seldom does our state’s power structure offer taxpayers true government accountability, and Mississippians routinely learn about the actions of their public officials only because of journalism like ours. This reality is precisely why we launched our newsroom nine years ago, and it’s why we devoted so much energy and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars defending ourselves against this lawsuit. It was an existential threat to our organization that took time and resources away from our primary responsibilities — which is often the goal of these kinds of legal actions. But our fight was never just about us; it was about preserving the public’s sacred, constitutional right to critical information that journalists provide, just as our nation’s Founding Fathers intended.

Mississippi Today remains as committed as ever to deep investigative journalism and working to provide government accountability. We will never be afraid to reveal the actions of powerful leaders, even in the face of intimidation or the threat of litigation. And we will always stand up for Mississippians who deserve to know the truth, and our journalists will continue working to catalyze justice for people in this state who are otherwise cheated, overlooked, or ignored.

We appreciate your support, and we are honored to serve you with the high quality, public service journalism you’ve come to expect from Mississippi Today.

READ MORE: Judge Bradley Mills’ order dismissing the case

READ MORE: Mississippi Today’s brief in support of motion to dismiss

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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