Mississippi Today
Feds approve part of Gov. Reeves’ plan to help Mississippi hospitals
A plan championed by Gov. Tate Reeves to draw down more money for the state’s hospitals has been partially approved by the federal government.
Thanks to the stamp of approval, hospitals could receive payments within weeks.
For years as hospitals across the state have struggled, health care experts and hospital leaders have been asking for help, most calling for Medicaid expansion. Instead, at a press conference announcing his plan in September, Reeves doubled down on his opposition to expansion and pitched a plan to draw more federal money to hospitals.
According to Reeves’ office, the changes are estimated to infuse the state’s hospitals with nearly $700 million in total.
The plan relies on two changes to hospital Medicaid reimbursements that increase supplemental payments to hospitals. This is extra money hospitals receive to offset low reimbursement rates from Medicaid and for uncompensated care, or money hospitals lose caring for people who are uninsured.
The component of that plan approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which reimburses hospitals for low Medicaid payments at an average commercial rate for services, will generate approximately $600 million, according to the press release. It’s not clear what average commercial rate (state, regional or national) the plan utilizes to yield these results — Mississippi has a low average commercial rate, according to experts.
The second component of the plan, which modifies another form of supplemental payments, has not yet been approved.
“This plan is going to strengthen our state’s healthcare system and I’m glad that we could get it done for the people of Mississippi,” Reeves said in a press release. “This is the product of meetings with a range of medical professionals and healthcare leaders, and I’m truly thankful to all of them for helping to get us to today.”
Experts say the reforms will bring more money to the state’s hospitals, but it won’t insure more people in Mississippi, one of the most uninsured states in America. Additionally, the hospitals that appear to benefit most from the plan appear to be larger facilities, not the small rural hospitals feeling the stress of the health care crisis most acutely.
Former state hospital association director Tim Moore previously told Mississippi Today that Reeves’ proposals do “nothing to help the low-wage earners in Mississippi who do not have the disposable income to pay for medical care.”
Researchers estimate the Medicaid expansion, by increasing the wage level that Mississippians would be eligible for Medicaid, would insure 200,000 to 300,000 people who currently don’t qualify for Medicaid but don’t make enough to pay for marketplace insurance.
While emergency rooms cannot turn down patients regardless of their insurance status, doctor’s offices and clinics can. That means one of the only ways uninsured people can receive health care in Mississippi, one of the unhealthiest states in the country, is through emergency care. Preventative care, though, is inaccessible.
At the press conference, Reeves encouraged the population of Mississippians without health insurance to get a job or a better job and derisively referred to expansion as “welfare.”
In other states that have adopted similar measures, experts say the policy reforms make the biggest difference when combined with Medicaid expansion.
The federal government is still considering the second proposal. It’s not clear why the plan is being considered separately.
The changes are retroactively effective beginning July 1, so the Mississippi Division of Medicaid will deliver the first round of payments to hospitals in the coming weeks, according to the press release.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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Mississippi Today
On this day in 1750
Nov. 4, 1750
Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, the “Father of Chicago,” was born.
A man of African descent, he became the first known settler in the area that became the city of Chicago. He married a Potawatomi woman, Kitiwaha (Catherine), and they had two children.
According to records, the property included a log cabin with two barns, a horse-drawn mill, a bakehouse, a poultry house, a dairy, a smokehouse, a fenced garden and an orchard. At his trading post, DuSable served Native Americans, British and French explorers and spoke a number of languages.
“He was actually arrested by the British for being thought of as an American Patriot sympathizer,” Julius Jones, curator at the Chicago History Museum told WLS, but DuSable beat those charges.
In Chicago today, a school, street, museum, harbor, park and bridge bear his name. The place where he settled near the mouth of the Chicago River is now a National Historic Landmark, part of the city’s Pioneer Court.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Podcast: Mississippi’s top election official discusses Tuesday’s election
Secretary of State Michael Watson talks with Mississippi Today’s Geoff Pender, Bobby Harrison and Taylor Vance ahead of Tuesday’s election. He urges voters to remember sacrifices many have made to protect Americans’ voting rights and get to the polls, and he weighs in on whether a recent court ruling on absentee vote counting will impact this year’s elections.
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.
Mississippi Today
Insurance chief willing to sue feds if Gov. Reeves doesn’t support state health exchange
State Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney is willing to sue the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services if it does not allow Mississippi to create a state-based health insurance exchange because of Republican Gov. Tate Reeves’ potential opposition.
Federal officials, who must approve of a state implementing its own health insurance exchange, want a letter of approval from a state’s governor before they allow a state to implement the program, according to Chaney.
“I don’t know what the governor’s going to do,” Chaney told Mississippi Today. “I think he’ll probably wait until after the election to make a decision. But I’m willing to sue CMS if that’s what it takes.”
The five-term commissioner, a Republican, said his requests to Reeves, also a Republican, to discuss the policy have gone unanswered. The governor’s office did not respond to a request to comment on this story.
Earlier this year, the Legislature passed a law authorizing Chaney’s agency to create a Mississippi-based exchange to replace the federal exchange that currently is used by Mississippians to obtain health insurance. The bill became law without the governor’s signature.
States that operate their own exchanges can typically attract more companies to write health insurance policies and offer people policies at lower costs, and it would likely save the state millions of dollars in payments to the federal government.
Chaney also said he’s been consulting with former Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, who also supported some version of a state-based exchange while in office, about implementing a state-based program.
Currently, 21 states plus the District of Columbia have state-based exchanges, though three still operate from the federal platform. Should he follow through and sue the federal government, Chaney said he would use outside counsel and several other states told him they would join the lawsuit.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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