Mississippi Today
Feds give Greenville grant for primary care clinic as Delta faces loss of health care services
Feds give Greenville grant for primary care clinic as Delta faces loss of health care services
Local leadership in the Delta says the region’s crumbling health system has been abandoned by the state – so they’re figuring out how to fix it on their own with the help of federal funds.
Greenville’s mayor and a local health clinic say they’re working to give people in the Delta better access to doctors and primary care, as hospitals around them shutter and strip back specialty care. As a result, the city of Greenville received $2 million in federal funds to construct a new health clinic in partnership with the Delta Health Center.
“This is a bottom-up action in response to the state’s failure to act,” said Greenville Mayor Errick Simmons. “We went straight to the solution, and we will continue to do these types of projects to make sure our folks get the health care they need.”
Simmons accepted a symbolic check from U.S. Congressman Bennie Thompson who helped secure the funds from a House spending bill earmarked for community projects during a Tuesday press conference. Thompson announced close to $18.8 million in federal funds for his district, which covers much of Western Mississippi.
“A lot of you have heard of the trouble that health care is having in the Delta,” Thompson said during the press conference. “Our governor, for some reason, doesn’t want to help.”
Thompson was referring to Gov. Tate Reeve’s firm stance against Medicaid expansion, despite a mounting statewide hospital crisis. New data from mid-January shows that 38% of Mississippi hospitals are at risk of closing. Of the 28 rural hospitals at risk of closing, 19 are at risk of shuttering immediately.
Mississippi news — direct to your inbox.
Reeves’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Mississippi Today.
Greenwood Leflore Hospital recently shuttered its labor and delivery unit, primary care clinic and reduced other services. Delta Health-The Medical Center in Greenville also closed its neonatal intensive care unit and cardiac rehabilitation department last year.
Simmons said he applied for the grant last year because he feared the Delta would continue to lose access to doctors. Already, he said, there is only one pediatrician for every 4,000 children in the region.
He hopes other cities may copy his approach to help fund sorely needed primary care options to lessen the burden on the hospital system, which continues to struggle against massive staffing shortages.
“I think the Biden-Harris administration has a wealth of opportunities to begin grabbing pockets of money, working from local government to federal government, providing better access to quality health care to the folks that deeply need it,” Simmons said.
Delta Health Center CEO John Fairman said the new facility is projected to cost about $10 million to construct. He said he is in conversations with other funding sources and hopes to break ground on the new building before the end of the year.
The vision is for the clinic to better make use of telehealth options to connect rural residents who may not have internet access in their homes with specialists virtually. A nurse or a physician assistant would be in the room in person, too, helping facilitate care.
“Then they can make an assessment for intervention and as to whether or not they need to arrange transport to get to a specialist (in person),” Fairman said. “Once we get a better understanding of the data, we can have a specialist where the most acute cases are (scheduled weekly in person).”
The new clinic would also have a pharmacy open until 11 p.m. – most Delta pharmacies close at 6 p.m.
Fairman said the future of health care in the Delta needs to be collaborative, and he’s already in discussion with county hospitals on how to better partner. The Delta continues to be among the unhealthiest parts of the state with high percentages of uninsured residents. Fairman and Simmons want better health care intervention to prevent hospital visits.
“We need other ways to offer care after hours so people are not crowding up the emergency room, and we’re preserving trauma centers and emergency rooms for the people who really need that,” Fairman said.
Medicaid expansion would mean between 200,000 and 300,000 more Mississippians would have access to health insurance and hospitals would have an easier time being reimbursed for care rendered. More than 15 state bills that would have expanded Medicaid to provide coverage to the working poor died earlier this month without any debate or vote in the House or Senate.
“Had Mississppi accepted the expansion nine years ago, they would have accrued about $14 billion dollars that would go toward health care,” Thompson said. “But somehow they think people don’t need that.”
Simmons has little faith in the state stepping up to support what his community needs. He hopes more mayors are emboldened to think creatively.
“An unhealthy child cannot go to school to learn; an unhealthy adult cannot work,” Simmons said. “This is a way for us to begin addressing an epic state failure.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1997
Dec. 22, 1997
The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the conviction of white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith for the 1963 murder of Medgar Evers.
In the court’s 4–2 decision, Justice Mike Mills praised efforts “to squeeze justice out of the harm caused by a furtive explosion which erupted from dark bushes on a June night in Jackson, Mississippi.”
He wrote that Beckwith’s constitutional right to a speedy trial had not been denied. His “complicity with the Sovereignty Commission’s involvement in the prior trials contributed to the delay.”
The decision did more than ensure that Beckwith would stay behind bars. The conviction helped clear the way for other prosecutions of unpunished killings from the Civil Rights Era.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Medicaid expansion tracker approaches $1 billion loss for Mississippi
About the time people ring in the new year next week, the digital tracker on Mississippi Today’s homepage tabulating the amount of money the state is losing by not expanding Medicaid will hit $1 billion.
The state has lost $1 billion not since the start of the quickly departing 2024 but since the beginning of the state’s fiscal year on July 1.
Some who oppose Medicaid expansion say the digital tracker is flawed.
During an October news conference, when state Auditor Shad White unveiled details of his $2 million study seeking ways to cut state government spending, he said he did not look at Medicaid expansion as a method to save money or grow state revenue.
“I think that (Mississippi Today) calculator is wrong,” White said. “… I don’t think that takes into account how many people are going to be moved off the federal health care exchange where their health care is paid for fully by the federal government and moved onto Medicaid.”
White is not the only Mississippi politician who has expressed concern that if Medicaid expansion were enacted, thousands of people would lose their insurance on the exchange and be forced to enroll in Medicaid for health care coverage.
Mississippi Today’s projections used for the tracker are based on studies conducted by the Institutions of Higher Learning University Research Center. Granted, there are a lot of variables in the study that are inexact. It is impossible to say, for example, how many people will get sick and need health care, thus increasing the cost of Medicaid expansion. But is reasonable that the projections of the University Research Center are in the ballpark of being accurate and close to other studies conducted by health care experts.
White and others are correct that Mississippi Today’s calculator does not take into account money flowing into the state for people covered on the health care exchange. But that money does not go to the state; it goes to insurance companies that, granted, use that money to reimburse Mississippians for providing health care. But at least a portion of the money goes to out-of-state insurance companies as profits.
Both Medicaid expansion and the health care exchange are part of the Affordable Care Act. Under Medicaid expansion people earning up to $20,120 annually can sign up for Medicaid and the federal government will pay the bulk of the cost. Mississippi is one of 10 states that have not opted into Medicaid expansion.
People making more than $14,580 annually can garner private insurance through the health insurance exchanges, and people below certain income levels can receive help from the federal government in paying for that coverage.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, legislation championed and signed into law by President Joe Biden significantly increased the federal subsidies provided to people receiving insurance on the exchange. Those increased subsidies led to many Mississippians — desperate for health care — turning to the exchange for help.
White, state Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney, Gov. Tate Reeves and others have expressed concern that those people would lose their private health insurance and be forced to sign up for Medicaid if lawmakers vote to expand Medicaid.
They are correct.
But they do not mention that the enhanced benefits authored by the Biden administration are scheduled to expire in December 2025 unless they are reenacted by Congress. The incoming Donald Trump administration has given no indication it will continue the enhanced subsidies.
As a matter of fact, the Trump administration, led by billionaire Elon Musk, is looking for ways to cut federal spending.
Some have speculated that Medicaid expansion also could be on Musk’s chopping block.
That is possible. But remember congressional action is required to continue the enhanced subsidies. On the flip side, congressional action would most likely be required to end or cut Medicaid expansion.
Would the multiple U.S. senators and House members in the red states that have expanded Medicaid vote to end a program that is providing health care to thousands of their constituents?
If Congress does not continue Biden’s enhanced subsidies, the rates for Mississippians on the exchange will increase on average about $500 per year, according to a study by KFF, a national health advocacy nonprofit. If that occurs, it is likely that many of the 280,000 Mississippians on the exchange will drop their coverage.
The result will be that Mississippi’s rate of uninsured — already one of the highest in the nation – will rise further, putting additional pressure on hospitals and other providers who will be treating patients who have no ability to pay.
In the meantime, the Mississippi Today counter that tracks the amount of money Mississippi is losing by not expanding Medicaid keeps ticking up.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1911
Dec. 21, 1911
Josh Gibson, the Negro League’s “Home Run King,” was born in Buena Vista, Georgia.
When the family’s farm suffered, they moved to Pittsburgh, and Gibson tried baseball at age 16. He eventually played for a semi-pro team in Pittsburgh and became known for his towering home runs.
He was watching the Homestead Grays play on July 25, 1930, when the catcher injured his hand. Team members called for Gibson, sitting in the stands, to join them. He was such a talented catcher that base runners were more reluctant to steal. He hit the baseball so hard and so far (580 feet once at Yankee Stadium) that he became the second-highest paid player in the Negro Leagues behind Satchel Paige, with both of them entering the National Baseball Hame of Fame.
The Hall estimated that Gibson hit nearly 800 homers in his 17-year career and had a lifetime batting average of .359. Gibson was portrayed in the 1996 TV movie, “Soul of the Game,” by Mykelti Williamson. Blair Underwood played Jackie Robinson, Delroy Lindo portrayed Satchel Paige, and Harvey Williams played “Cat” Mays, the father of the legendary Willie Mays.
Gibson has now been honored with a statue outside the Washington Nationals’ ballpark.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
-
News from the South - Arkansas News Feed7 days ago
Faith-inspired ministry opens health clinic in Little Rock
-
News from the South - Florida News Feed6 days ago
‘Dirty Dancing,’ ‘Beverly Hills Cop,’ ‘Up in Smoke’ among movies entering the National Film Registry
-
Our Mississippi Home6 days ago
The Meaning of the Redbird During the Holiday Season
-
Mississippi Today5 days ago
Mississippi PERS Board endorses plan decreasing pension benefits for new hires
-
Local News2 days ago
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Biloxi Honors Veterans with Wreath-Laying Ceremony and Holiday Giving Initiative
-
News from the South - North Carolina News Feed2 days ago
Social Security benefits boosted for millions in bill headed to Biden’s desk • NC Newsline
-
News from the South - Missouri News Feed3 days ago
Could prime Albert Pujols fetch $1 billion in today's MLB free agency?
-
Mississippi News Video3 days ago
12/19- Friday will be breezy…but FREEZING by this weekend