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Health care bills to watch in the 2024 Mississippi legislative session

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Health care bills to watch in the 2024 Mississippi legislative session

Editor’s note: This list will be updated throughout the legislative session. It was last updated on Feb. 9.

Somewhere around 3,000 bills are expected to be filed for the 2024 session of the Mississippi Legislature. Likely only a third or so will become law. The deadline for introducing general bills and constitutional amendments is Feb. 19. Taxing and spending bills face later deadlines, with the session to end on May 5.

Mississippi the intertwined crises of hundreds of thousands of uninsured people and hospitals facing financial disaster — is front and center with lawmakers this year.

Here are some bills filed to date to address health care issues.

Scope of practice, facilities

Senate Bill 2064, authored by Sen. Angela Burks Hill, R-, would repeal the state’s certificate of need law. CON laws require health care providers to get permission from the state before adding or expanding some healthcare facilities or services. Proponents, including many hospital leaders, say they help control costs, ensure quality of care and availability of services such as emergency rooms. Opponents, including Gov. Tate Reeves, say they stifle -market competition.

Senate Bill 2140, authored by Sen. J. Walter Michel, R-Ridgeland, would streamline “prior authorization,” the process by which insurance companies decide which medications and procedures are covered for consumers. It already passed unanimously in the Senate, and with a few revisions, also passed unanimously in the House. It will now go back to the Senate for approval of the revisions. But a similar prior authorization bill passed the Legislature last year, only to be vetoed by Gov. Reeves.

Senate Bill 2080, authored by Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, seeks to introduce the state’s first licensed midwifery program. As it stands, anyone can practice midwifery in Mississippi, but those who want certification have to go out of state — meaning Mississippi, a state riddled with health care deserts and the highest infant and maternal mortality rates, loses out on provider care.

Senate Bill 2079, authored by Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, would abolish nurse practitioner collaboration agreements. These agreements are financial contracts whereby NPs who want to practice in Mississippi must pay a physician with whom they are “in collaboration” with. These contracts can be expensive and sometimes have distance limitations, meaning rural lose out on care because NPs aren’t allowed to practice too far from their collaborating physicians — who are mostly based in urban areas.

House Bill 976 by Rep. Manly Barton, R-Moss Point, would expand podiatrists’ scope of practice to allow them to perform ankle surgeries, bringing Mississippi’s law in line with 48 other states.

Medicaid

House Bill 539, authored by Rep. Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg, introduces presumptive eligibility for pregnant women. It passed the full House 117-5 last week and now advances to the Senate. If passed, it would allow low-income pregnant women to timely prenatal care while they wait for their application to be officially approved — which can sometimes take months. Senate Medicaid Chair Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, has voiced his support of the policy, calling it a “serious issue for a lot of us on this side.”

Lawmakers are expected to address Medicaid expansion to cover the working poor, and several bills have already been filed, but the bills that will actually be used and debated are likely still forthcoming.

Reproductive health and rights

House Bill 32, authored by Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, would direct the Mississippi State Department of Health to have a nurse practitioner available at each county health department at least one day a week to provide and prescribe contraception. The bill would also mandate that contraception be made affordable on a sliding scale, and that it be made available to minors who are parents, married, have the permission of their parent or legal guardian, or have been referred for the service by another physician, nurse practitioner, clergyman, planning clinic, school or institution of higher learning, or any state agency.

Senate Bill 2163, by Sen. Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall, would establish legal protections and rights for the parents of born via surrogacy and in vitro fertilization.

Mental health

House Bill 336, by Rep. Kevin Felsher, R-Biloxi, would require counties to pay for psychiatric treatment for an indigent resident who has been ordered into treatment by a judge through the civil commitment process, if no publicly funded bed is available. It would cap the cost to the county at no more than the Medicaid reimbursement rate, and it would prohibit counties from jailing going through the commitment process someone solely because they lack a payor source.

House Bill 415, by Rep. Kevin Felsher, R-Biloxi, would prohibit counties from jailing someone without criminal charges while they go through the civil commitment process unless they are awaiting transportation to a medical facility and it is necessary for protective custody. Any such jail detentions would be limited to 72 hours.

Read Mississippi Today’s coverage of jail detentions during the civil commitment process here.

House Bill 990, by Rep. Sam Creekmore, R-New Albany, would create a tax on vape products and use the revenue to increase patient housing at the community mental health centers and to create a fund for the Department of Mental Health’s 988 Crisis Response System.

House Bill 1044, by Rep. Sam Creekmore, R-New Albany, would provide for the establishment and licensure of long-term adult supportive residential facilities for people with mental illness, and would direct Medicaid to cover the services at such facilities.

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

Mississippi Today

On this day in 1875

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-11-02 07:00:00

Nov. 2, 1875

Pictured here are U.S. Sen. Hiram Revels of Mississippi, left, with six Black members of the U.S. House, Ben J.S. Turner of Alabama, Josiah T. Walls of Florida, Jefferson H. Long of Georgia, and Robert C. De Large, Joseph H. Rainy and R. Brown Elliot, all of South Carolina. Credit: Library of

The first Mississippi Plan, which included violence against Black Americans to keep them from , resulted in huge victories for white Democrats across the

A year earlier, the Republican Party had carried a majority of the votes, and many Black had been elected to office. In the wake of those victories, white leagues arose to Republican rule and began to use widespread violence and fraud to recapture control of the state. 

Over several days in September 1875, about 50 Black Mississippians were killed along with white supporters, a school teacher who worked with the Black community in Clinton. 

The governor asked President Ulysses Grant to intervene, but he decided against intervening, and the violence and fraud continued. Other Southern states soon copied the Mississippi plan. 

John R. Lynch, the last Black congressman for Mississippi until the 1986 election of Mike Espy, wrote: โ€œIt was a well-known fact that in 1875 nearly every Democratic club in the State was converted into an armed military company.โ€ 

A federal grand jury concluded: โ€œFraud, intimidation, and violence perpetrated at the last election is without a parallel in the annals of history.โ€

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

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Mississippi Today

Mississippi Todayโ€™s NewsMatch Campaign is Here: Support Journalism that Strengthens Mississippi

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mississippitoday.org – Mary Margaret White – 2024-11-01 12:34:00

High-quality journalism like ours depends on reader ; without it, we simply couldn’t exist. That’s why we’re proud to join the NewsMatch movement, a national initiative aimed at raising $50 million for nonprofit newsrooms that serve communities like ours here in Mississippi, where access to reliable information has often been limited.

In a time when trusted journalists and sources are disappearing, we believe the stakes couldn’t be higher. Without on-the-ground, trustworthy , civic engagement suffers, accountability falters and corruption often goes unaddressed. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Here at Mississippi we act as watchdogs, holding those in power accountable, and as storytellers, giving a platform to voices that have been ignored for too long. And we’re committed to keeping our stories free for everyone because information should be accessible when it’s needed most.

Why NewsMatch and Why Now?

This year’s NewsMatch campaign runs from November 1 through December 31, giving us a special opportunity to make each dollar you give go even further. Through matching funds provided by local foundations like the Maddox Foundation, and national funders like the MacArthur Foundation, the Rural Partner Fund and the Hewlett Foundation, your gift will be matched dollar for dollar up to $1,000. Plus, if 100 new donors join us, we’ll unlock an additional $2,000 in funding, bringing us even closer to our goal. Boiled down: your donation goes four times as far.

Every dollar raised strengthens our ability to serve you with fact-based journalism on issues that impact your everyday lifeโ€”whether it’s covering local election issues or reporting on decisions affecting schools, safety and economic growth in Mississippi. Your support makes it possible for us to stay rooted in the community, offering nuanced perspectives that Mississippians understand and engage with what’s around them.

Special Event: โ€œFreedom of the Press: Southern Challenges, National Impactโ€

As part of the campaign, we’re to host a special virtual , โ€œFreedom of the Press: Southern Challenges, National Impact.โ€ Join Deep South Today newsrooms Mississippi Today and Verite News, along with national experts on press freedom, for an in-depth discussion on the unique challenges facing journalists in the Deep South. This one-hour session will explore the critical role local newsrooms play in holding power accountable, highlighting recent restrictions on press freedom such as Louisiana’s โ€œ25-foot law,โ€ which affects journalists’ ability to vital news.

We’ll examine what’s at stake if local newsrooms lose press freedoms and will discuss how you, as members of the public, can help protect it. This event is open to Mississippi Today and Verite News members as a special thank-you for supporting local journalism and standing with us in this mission. Donate today to RSVP!

How You Can Help

Make Your Gift Today

Together, let’s ensure Mississippi has the robust, independent journalism it needs to thrive. Your support fuels our ability to expose the truth, elevate marginalized stories and build a more informed Mississippi.

Thank you for believing in the power of journalism to strengthen the communities we loveโ€”not only during election season but year-round. With your help, we’ll keep Mississippi informed, engaged and connected for generations to .

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

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Mississippi Today

Hinds County loses fight over control of jail

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mississippitoday.org – Mina Corpuz – 2024-11-01 12:57:00

The sheriff and Board of Supervisors have lost an appeal to prevent control of its jail by a court-appointed receiver and an injunction that orders the county to address unconstitutional conditions in the facility.   

Two members from a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with decisions by U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves to appoint a receiver to oversee day-to-day jail operations and keep parts of a previous consent decree in place to fix constitutional violations, a failure to protect detainees from harm. 

However, the appeals court called the new injunction โ€œoverly broadโ€ in one area and is asking Reeves to reevaluate the scope of the receivership.

The injunction retained provisions relating to sexual assault, but the appeals court found the provisions were tied to general risk of violence at the jail, rather than specific concerns about the Prison Rape Elimination Act. The court reversed those points of the injunction and remanded them to the district court so the provisions can be

The court also found that the receiver should not have authority over budgeting and staff salaries for the Raymond Detention Center, which could be seen as โ€œfederal intrusion into RDC’s budgetโ€ โ€“ especially if the receivership has no end date. 

Hinds County Board of Supervisors President Robert Graham was not immediately available for comment Friday. Sheriff Tyree Jones declined to comment because he has not yet read the entire court opinion.ย 

In 2016, the Department of Justice sued Hinds County alleging a pattern or practice of unconstitutional conditions in four of its detention facilities. The county and DOJ entered a consent decree with stipulated changes to make for the jail system, which people facing trial. 

โ€œBut the decree did not resolve the dispute; to the contrary, a yearslong battle ensued in the district court as to whether and to what extent the County was complying with the consent decree,โ€ the appeals court wrote.  

This prompted Reeves to hold the county in contempt of court twice in 2022. 

The county argued it was doing its best to comply with the consent decree and spending millions to fix the jail. One of the they offered was building a new jail, which is now under construction in

The county had a to further prove itself during three weeks of hearings held in February 2022. Focuses included the of seven detainees in 2021 from assaults and suicide and issues with staffing, contraband, old and use of force. 

Seeing partial compliance by the county, in April 2022 Reeves dismissed the consent decree and issued a new, shorter injunction focused on the jail and removed some provisions from the decree.

But Reeves didn’t see improvement from there. In July 2022, he ordered receivership and wrote that it was needed because of an ongoing risk of unconstitutional harm to jail detainees and staff. 

The county pushed back against federal oversight and filed an appeal, arguing that there isn’t sufficient evidence to show that there are current and ongoing constitutional violations at the jail and that the county has acted with deliberate indifference. 

Days before the appointed receiver was set to take control of the jail at the beginning of 2023, the 5th Circuit Court ordered a stay to halt that receiver’s work. The new injunction ordered by Reeves was also stayed, and a three-person jail monitoring team that had been in place for years also was ordered to stop work. 

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

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