Mississippi Today
Lawmakers weigh possible changes to certificate of need law
A new committee convened this week at the Capitol to discuss changes to the state’s law requiring medical facilities to seek state approval before offering new or expanded services.
Health leaders said there is room to strengthen the law with reforms but cautioned against doing away with it entirely.
The law, which requires medical facilities to apply for a “certificate of need,” aims to lower costs and increase the accessibility and quality of health care in the state by avoiding duplication of services.
Critics argue that the law stifles competition in the state’s already sparse health care ecosystem and does little to decrease costs. Advocates say it ensures that communities have access to a range of services, not just those that are profitable for providers.
Nationwide, the laws have not accomplished much of what they were intended to, like increase quality or reduce costs, State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney told committee members on Monday.
But the law has been “extremely” successful at preventing health care companies from choosing only to offer only the most profitable services to patients, he said.
“When we’re looking at a very fragile health care framework, especially in rural areas of the state, cherry-picking can be disastrous,” he said. “It can be catastrophic.”
When health centers choose to offer only services with a high-profit margin, he explained, it can draw business away from hospitals that provide services at a loss, like inpatient and emergency care. He said this applies in both rural and urban areas.
Rural hospitals in Mississippi are struggling to stay afloat. Over half are at risk of closing, and 64% are operating with losses on services. More than half of Mississippi residents live in a rural area.
Richard Roberson, the incoming president and CEO of the Mississippi Hospital Association, said he believes it is unlikely that removing certificate of need requirements will incentivize investment in areas of the state with the highest need for new health care services.
“What I suspect is you’re going to see an overproliferation of services in more commercially insured areas,” he said. “And if you’re talking about folks coming in and investing money, that’s where they’re going to put it, where they can make their money back.”
Gov. Tate Reeves has advocated for abolishing certificate of need laws in the state, arguing that it will allow more competition and innovative health care services to flourish.
Last session, a bill sponsored by Sen. Angela Burks Hill, R-Picayune, sought to repeal the state’s certificate of need law, but it died in committee.
Bills seeking to repeal or reform the law have become run-of-the-mill in the statehouse. Last year, over two dozen bills sought to modify the state’s certificate of need law.
Legislators in 2016 made several changes to the law, including shortening application review timelines and increasing capital expenditure thresholds.
States were first required to implement certificate of need laws in 1974 in order to receive funding for certain federal programs. Today, 35 states operate certificate of need programs, and 12 have repealed their laws entirely, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Laurin St. Pé, CEO of the nonprofit Singing River Health System, said that without the certificate of need law, private equity-backed companies could open health centers near existing hospitals, drawing away patients with insurance.
Hospitals with emergency departments are required to provide emergency care to patients regardless of insurance status under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. These hospitals depend on providing services to patients with insurance to offset losses from uncompensated care.
“If they siphon (insured patients) off, we’re not going to be able to take care of those with the most need,” he said.
Over 10 percent of Mississippians do not have health insurance, according to data from KFF.
Edney said that Medicaid expansion could offset risks associated with repealing the certificate of need law by lowering the rate of people in the state without insurance in response to a question from House Medicaid Chair Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg.
McGee authored the Medicaid expansion bill that died earlier this year. Mississippi remains one of 10 states in the country not to have expanded Medicaid.
“As we close the coverage gap, that does create more revenue into the system that flows to the hospitals,” Edney said.
Keith Norman, vice president and chief government affairs officer for Baptist Memorial Health Care, agreed.
“I believe expansion goes hand in hand with this conversation,” he said.
Though Edney and Roberson cautioned lawmakers of the impacts of repealing certificate of need law, they agreed that reforms could improve the program.
Roberson suggested that allowing hospitals to offer dialysis services without a certificate of need would reduce patient transfers to other hospitals. Many small hospitals do not have their own dialysis centers.
He also proposed allowing hospitals to operate home health services, which would reduce rates of readmission to the hospital. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services penalizes hospitals when readmissions top the national average. Hospitals in the Delta have in the past faced high penalty rates for readmissions.
Edney added psychiatric and perinatal care to the list of services he believed should not have to undergo the review process due to the state’s dearth of such care.
The application itself should also be reformed to prevent long, costly appeals, said Edney.
Last year, an applicant vying to provide “much-needed” ambulatory care in the Delta – a region of the state with limited health care services – withdrew its application after its certificate of need approval was contested. He said the hospital did not have the resources to sustain a potentially years-long legal struggle.
“We go through these long battles that are very costly, just to get to the same ruling,” Edney said.
The State Department of Health approves 95% of certificate of need applications, he said.
Edney also suggested that lawmakers consider more vigorous enforcement of existing certificates of need, noting that some health care facilities do not follow through on the commitments made in their applications.
“We’re lacking accountability and transparency in the CON world,” he said.
Rep. Henry Zuber III, R-Ocean Springs, co-chair of the committee, said the group will explore a range of possibilities for certificate of need reform before drafting any legislation. The group will meet again on Sep.10.
“Everything, everything is on the table,” Zuber said.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Crystal Springs commercial painter says police damaged his eyesight
CRYSTAL SPRINGS – Roger Horton has worked decades as a commercial painter, a skill he’s kept up with even with the challenge of having what his wife has called “one good eye.”
It hasn’t stopped him from being able to complete detailed paint jobs and create straight lines without the help of tape. But last year following a head injury, he and others said people have been pointing out a change in his work. Horton says the sight in his right eye is clouded, like he is looking underwater.
Affected vision, short term memory and periods of irritability – potential symptoms of concussion – followed after he was arrested last September. During an encounter with several police officers, Horton alleges more than one slammed his head into a cruiser and placed handcuffs on so tight that he started to bleed.
“(The officer) was kind of rough with me and all, and he takes my head and I said, ‘What’d I do?’” he recalled recently.
Horton ended up being convicted of two misdemeanor charges and has paid off the fines, but a year later he still has questions about the arrest and treatment by the police.
To date, he has not seen a doctor to evaluate his eye and check for vision or cognitive issues. Horton and his wife Rhonda don’t have a car, and transportation to doctor’s appointments in the Jackson area remains a challenge.
The Hortons have lived in Crystal Springs all their lives, and they have lived in the home the past five years that belonged to Rhonda’s mother.
More than a quarter of all people in Crystal Springs live below the poverty line, and that includes the couple. Rhonda Horton said it’s hard to make a living because there aren’t a lot of jobs, but they support themselves as painters.
That’s how they met Yvonne Florczak-Seeman, who lived in Illinois and purchased her first historical property in Crystal Springs in 2019. She splits her time between the two states.
“We painted that porch bar and the rest is history,” Rhonda Horton said, adding that they went on to complete detailed work on mantles, kitchen cabinets and a cigar room at Florczak-Seeman’s North Jackson Street residence.
Over the years, the couple built a relationship with Florczak-Seeman, who is seeking to open a women’s empowerment center called the Butterfly Garden, in the building next to city hall.
Florczak-Seeman has supported the couple numerous times, including helping them pay a late water bill and offering them work. She called them talented painters and hired them again to paint the interior of the future center, located at East Railroad Avenue.
In pieces, Rhonda Horton told Florczak-Seeman about her husband’s arrest and later the injuries she said he sustained from it. Florczak-Seeman had questions about the encounter and other potential injustices at play, so she offered to help.
“I just want them to pay for what they’ve done not just to him, but everybody,” Rhonda Horton said. “That’s what I want, justice.”
The Arrest
On Sept. 24, 2023, Horton was walking home from a friend’s house when officers approached him. One grabbed his arms to handcuff him, and he remembers them cutting his wrist and causing it to bleed.
Then, he said, a second officer slammed his head into the top of the police car, followed by another officer who slammed his head again. During the encounter, a bag of marijuana that Horton said he found fell out of his pocket onto the ground.
An officer put Horton in the back of the cruiser and took him to the station where Horton asked to speak to the police chief and call his wife. He said the police took his phone and clothes.
Afterward, he was taken to the Copiah County Detention Center in Gallman.
Police Chief Tony Hemphill disputed Horton’s allegation of mistreatment, saying he did not sustain any injuries that required hospitalization. He said Horton’s wrist was cut while he resisted arrest.
“He was not brutalized and targeted,” Hemphill said. “If he had just complied, he wouldn’t have had to come up there (to jail) that night.”
Two police reports from the night of the September 2023 arrest detail how officers had responded to a possible assault and were given the description of a white man. While in the area, they encountered Horton — the only person who fit that description.
Hemphill said a mother called police after her daughter told her she was assaulted. He said officers approached Horton on the street and tried to talk with him to rule him out as a suspect.
That’s when Horton began “fighting, pulling away, and kicking against (the officer’s) patrol vehicle, trying to run,” according to a police report from the night and Hemphill. Horton denies doing any of that.
The next day police took Horton from the county jail to the Crystal Springs police station. There, police informed him a teenage girl reported being assaulted. After learning about the assault allegation, Horton remembered feeling shocked and saying it couldn’t be true because he was not on the street where the alleged incident took place.
Hemphill confirmed the police investigated the assault allegation and found it not credible, meaning Horton wouldn’t face any related charges. He said he communicated this to Horton and his wife early on and since then, which the couple disputes.
As Horton was being arrested and detained, his wife grew worried because she had just spoken with him on the phone and expected him to arrive home shortly. Rhonda Horton and her adult son started calling Roger’s phone, each not getting an answer.
Then during one of the calls by her son, someone who did not identify himself answered Roger’s phone and said, ‘Your daddy’s dead’ and then hung up, Rhonda Horton said.
She was starting to assume the worst had happened. Rhonda Horton wouldn’t have confirmation her husband was alive until he called from the county jail in the early morning.
The next morning as she talked with the police chief, Rhonda Horton asked the chief about who answered the phone and told her son that Roger was dead. The chief told her the person who answered must have been from the county.
Hemphill later told Mississippi Today that he did not know about the call and that type of behavior by his staff “is not going to be tolerated.” Similarly, Copiah County Sheriff Byron Swilley said he had not heard about it and could not say whether a member of his department made the comment to Rhonda and Roger Horton’s son.
A Sept. 25, 2023, citation signed by Hemphill, shared with Mississippi Today, summoned Roger Horton to municipal court for the misdemeanor charges of possession of marijuana and resisting arrest and directed him not to have contact with the alleged victim in the assault case. No contact orders are typically for cases such as domestic violence and sexual assault and they are set by a judge.
LaKiedra Kangar, who works in municipal court services, said the no contact order was put in place because of the assault allegation. She confirmed Horton was not charged with the offense following the police department’s investigation of the allegation.
Weeks passed. Roger Horton went to court for the misdemeanor charges, to which he pleaded guilty. Felony assault charges were not part of the hearing. Municipal Court Judge Matthew Kitchens ordered Roger to pay over $900 in fines for the misdemeanors.
Horton was able to pay for some of the fine through at least 10 hours worth of court-ordered community service, which he said involved painting buildings for the city.
Months later after learning about Horton’s arrest and how he said the police treated him, Florczak-Seeman said she wanted to know more. Horton didn’t have access to his arrest documents, so she accompanied him and his wife to the police department to ask for them.
The first visit, Horton asked but did not receive the arrest report. Florczak-Seeman asked if he had a fine for any of the charges, which police said Horton did even after completing some community service hours. Florczak-Seeman paid for the remaining balance and had him work for her for two days to pay that off.
This year, they went to the police department a second time so Horton could ask for his arrest paperwork. An officer told him he didn’t need it and that the rape allegation had been investigated and found not to be credible, Horton told Mississippi Today.
Florczak-Seeman asked why Horton couldn’t receive the report. She said Hemphill asked if she was Horton’s attorney, and Florczak-Seeman clarified she was his representative.
The chief left for a few minutes and returned with two pieces of paper and handed them to Horton. Hemphill told Mississippi Today he did not recall whether he was the one who handed the report to Horton.
Florczak-Seeman took the document from Horton and began to read it as they stood in the lobby. She said she was horrified to see the name of the alleged, underage victim and her address in the report.
Hemphill said the victim’s personal information should have been restricted and not doing so was an oversight.
After reading the report, Florczak-Seeman went down the street to the mayor’s office at city hall to explain what happened, and how she believed the mayor had grounds to fire the police chief because he provided that document to Roger with the alleged victim’s information.
Mayor Sally Garland confirmed she had a conversation with Florczak-Seeman about the police chief’s employment.
She said she reviews all complaints about city officials, and Garland said she goes to the department head to get a better understanding of the situation. If she determines there are potential grounds for termination, a hearing would be scheduled with the Board of Aldermen, and the group would vote on that decision.
Garland did not find grounds for termination, and Hemphill remains police chief.
A Strange Visit
The Hortons and Florczak-Seeman hadn’t given much thought about the 2023 arrest, until weeks ago when a teenaged girl suddenly showed up in Florczak-Seeman’s yard.
At the end of September at the North Jackson Street home, Florczak-Seeman heard screaming and found the teenage girl who came onto her property. She asked what was wrong, and the teenager said she was chased by a dog, which Florczak-Seeman and Rhonda Horton did not see.
The teenager asked for a soda, and Rhonda Horton went inside to get one. Florczak-Seeman asked where the teenager lived, and she gave an answer that Florczak-Seeman said conflicted with what two girls who were standing nearby on the public sidewalk said she told them.
Then Florczak-Seeman asked the teenager’s name and recognized it as the name of the alleged victim on Horton’s arrest record. Immediately, Florczak-Seeman said she turned to Horton and told him to stay back, and she told the teenager to get off her property, which she did.
At the moment, they were not able to verify whether the teenager was the alleged victim from the report. Neither the Hortons nor Florczak-Seeman had seen her before, and they only knew her name from the arrest report.
“That didn’t make sense at all,” Rhonda Horton told Mississippi Today.
Florczak-Seeman called 911 to report the situation and ask for police to come, which they did not. Hemphill told Mississippi Today a dispatcher informed him about the call with Florczak-Seeman, including details with the teenage girl and how she wanted to report the girl for trespassing.
Florczak-Seeman is one of the people who have noticed a difference in Horton’s vision. It’s clear when comparing the detailed and clean paint job Roger completed at her Jackson Street property in 2019 and the center where he painted last year.
During an interview at the center in October, Florczak-Seeman pointed to the ceiling and noted spots that Horton did not paint. She remembers telling him about them and realized that he couldn’t see them.
“The spots on my ceiling are still not painted, and they’re not painted as a reminder of the injustices that happened in this situation and why I got involved,” Florczak-Seeman said.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Job opening: Jackson Reporter
Mississippi Today, a Pulitzer Prize-winning newsroom focused on investigative and accountability journalism, is building a dedicated team of reporters to provide in-depth coverage of Jackson, Mississippi.
As the state’s largest and capital city, Jackson matters greatly to us and all Mississippians. Launched in 2016 as the state’s flagship nonprofit newsroom focused on Mississippi government and policy, Mississippi Today is focusing our lens beyond the statehouse and to the city of Jackson, serving our readers with the watchdog reporting they’ve come to expect from Mississippi Today. Our newsroom, with a proven record of providing impactful government accountability, aims to serve the city more directly with this team.
Our Jackson team will focus on sharp investigative reporting, watchdog accountability journalism and meaningful cultural storytelling. We aim to both elevate the voices of those working for positive change in the community while offering a balanced perspective on the city’s obstacles and triumphs. Our goal is to deliver impactful, honest journalism that will inform, inspire and empower Jackson’s citizens.
The team will be led by Pulitzer Prize winner Anna Wolfe, an investigative reporter with a decade of experience covering Jackson.
Roles and Responsibilities:
- We are purposefully casting a wide net, hoping to connect with journalists of many different backgrounds who may be uniquely qualified to help us launch this team. If you’re a reporter with any of the following experience or attributes, this team may be for you.
- Investigative reporting focused on uncovering systemic issues within government and politics. The bigger the impact of your reporting on government leaders or systems, the better.
- Political reporting covering not only high-profile candidates for offices, but experience delving into issues and ideas that affect a community. We hope to delve deeply into a deep distrust in the city’s institutions.
- Cultural reporting that highlights the often-overlooked success stories of citizens who are making a positive impact on their communities.
- Strong understanding of Jackson (or similar large urban centers) and the unique challenges facing the city and its residents.
- Commitment to the mission of balanced, impactful journalism that centers and respects the voice of the community.
- Collaborative mindset and ability to work within a team-oriented newsroom.
The starting salary for this position is $58,000. Compensation is commensurate with experience level.
Expectations:
- Work with a small team of journalists who are focused on social inequities and racial equality in our area.
- Willingness to collaborate closely with a small team of like-minded journalists.
- Get people to talk, find willing sources and protect them while telling sensitive and timely stories.
- Build trust: Many people who have been impacted by inequities in Mississippi have been victims of predatory practices and forces. This will require empathy, patience and savvy.
- Work with our Audience Team and data and visual journalists to create compelling story presentations.
Qualified candidates should have:
- Experience working as a reporter in a newsroom.
- Ability to work quickly, with accuracy and good news judgment.
- Comfortability in digital or multimedia journalism spaces.
- Ability to independently develop and cultivate sources.
- Ability to use social media for research and to engage readers.
What you’ll get:
- The opportunity to work alongside award-winning journalists and make significant contributions to Mississippi’s top nonprofit, nonpartisan digital news and information sources.
- Highly competitive salary with medical insurance, and options for vision and dental insurance.
- Use of appropriate technology and equipment.
- 29 days paid time off.
- Up to 12 weeks of parental family leave, with return-to-work flexibility.
- Simple IRA with 3 percent company matching. Group-term life insurance provided to employees ($15,000 policy).
- Support for professional training and attending industry conferences.
How to Apply:
We’re committed to building an inclusive newsroom that represents the people and communities we serve. We especially encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply for this position, including women, people of color, LGBTQ people and people who are differently abled. Please apply here.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Central, south Mississippi voters will decide judicial runoffs on Tuesday
Some Mississippi voters head to the polls Tuesday to decide who should represent them on the state’s highest courts.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday. Absentee voting has begun, and in-person absentee voting at county circuit clerk’s offices ends at noon on Saturday.
In the Jackson Metro area and parts of central Mississippi, incumbent Supreme Court Justice Jim Kitchens will compete against Republican state Sen. Jenifer Branning of Neshoba County. In areas on the Gulf Coast, Jennifer Schloegel and Amy St. Pé will face each other for an open seat on the Court of Appeals.
Candidates for judicial offices in Mississippi are technically nonpartisan, but political parties and trade associations often contribute money to candidates and cut ads for them, which has increasingly made them almost as partisan as other campaigns.
In the Central District Supreme Court race, GOP forces are working to oust Kitchens, one of the dwindling number of centrist jurists on the high Court. Conservative leaders also realize Kitchens is next in line to lead the court as chief justice should current Chief Justice Mike Randolph step down.
Kitchens is one of two centrist members of the high court and is widely viewed as the preferred candidate of Democrats, though the Democratic Party has not endorsed his candidacy.
Kitchens, first elected to the court in 2008, is a former district attorney and private-practice lawyer. On the campaign trail, he has pointed to his experience as an attorney and judge, particularly his years prosecuting criminals and his rulings on criminal cases.
In an interview on Mississippi Today’s ‘The Other Side’ podcast, Kitchens said his opponent, who primarily practices real estate law, would be at a “significant disadvantage” because the state Supreme Court often reviews criminal cases and major civil lawsuits that are sent to them on appeal.
“I’m sure she has an academic knowledge about the circuit courts that she perhaps learned in law school or perhaps has been to some seminars, but she does not have the hands-on trial experience that I have,” Kitchens said. “And that’s so important to the work that I do.”
Branning, a private-practice attorney, was first elected to the Legislature in 2015. She has led the Senate Elections and Transportation committees. During her time at the Capitol, she has been one of the more conservative members of the Senate leadership, voting against changing the state flag to remove the Confederate battle emblem, voting against expanding Medicaid to the working poor and supporting mandatory and increased minimum sentences for crime.
While campaigning for the judicial seat, she has pledged to ensure that “conservative values” are always represented in the judiciary, but she has stopped short of endorsing policy positions — which Mississippi judicial candidates are prohibited from doing.
Branning declined an invitation to appear on Mississippi Today’s podcast.
“Mississippians need and deserve Supreme Court justices that are constitutionally conservative in nature,” Branning said in a recent interview with radio station SuperTalk Mississippi. “And by that, I mean justices that simply follow the law. They do not add or take away.”
The two candidates have collectively raised around $187,00 and spent $182,00 during the final stretch of the campaign, according to campaign finance reports filed with the Secretary of State’s office.
Since she initially qualified in January, Branning has raised the most amount of money at $879,871, with $250,000 of that money coming from a loan she gave her campaign. She spent around $730,000 of that money. Several third party groups have supported her campaign.
Kitchens has raised around $514,00 since he qualified for reelection. He’s spent roughly $436,000 of that money, and some of his top contributors have been trial attorneys.
For the open Court of Appeals seat, Schloegel and St Pe, two influential names on the Gulf Coast, are working to turn out their voters in a close election.
Schloegel is a Chancery Court judge in Harrison, Hancock and Stone counties. St. Pé is an attorney in private practice, a municipal court judge in Gautier, and a city attorney for Moss Point.
Schloegel has raised roughly $214,000 since she qualified, and has spent almost that same amount of money this election cycle. St. Pé has raised around $480,000 this year and spent approximately $438,067 during that timeframe.
Whoever wins the race, it ensures that a woman will fill the open seat. After the election, half of the judges on the 10-member appellate court will be women, the most number of women who have served on the court at one time.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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