Mississippi Today
Nearly half of rural hospitals at risk of closure in Mississippi, new data shows
Almost half of Mississippi’s rural hospitals could close, according to a newly updated report.
The report from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform shows that 34 of Mississippi’s 74 rural hospitals are struggling financially and at risk of closure. Twenty-five of those are at risk of closing immediately, or within the next couple of years.
The previous version of the report, which the organization updates every three months, showed 27 hospitals at risk of closure in Mississippi, with 20 at risk of immediate closure.
The new data puts Mississippi third in the country — behind New York and Alabama — for states with the highest percentage of rural hospitals at risk of immediate closure.
The center decides closure risk by analyzing how long hospitals can stay afloat while losing money. Hospitals that can sustain losses for six to seven years are deemed at risk, while those that can offset losses for only two to three years are deemed at immediate risk.
Harold Miller, CEO of the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, said Mississippians should be concerned about the new data.
He attributed the hospitals’ worsening financial state to poor payments from private insurers. Miller’s organization advocates for hospital payment reform.
“They will not be able to stay open unless Blue Cross and other private insurance companies pay them enough to cover their costs,” he said.
Blue Cross insures the majority of Mississippians with private insurance. The company went head to head with the state’s largest public hospital, the University of Mississippi Medical Center, for months last year over its reimbursement rates.
An analysis by Mississippi Today and The Hilltop Institute at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County showed that during the throes of the dispute, Blue Cross’ negotiated rates were largely lower than other major private insurance companies for several common procedures.
The updated report is based on the most recent quarterly release of cost report data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services this month, according to Miller. This data covers hospital finances for 2022 for most hospitals, and in some cases, the first few months of 2023 in addition.
Mississippi’s hospitals have been bleeding out for months.
The pandemic worsened an already dire situation — it became more expensive to continue operations, while hospital profits generally did not increase. Now, health systems are struggling to recoup their losses.
Two-thirds of rural hospitals in Mississippi are losing money caring for patients, the report says.
In recent months, at least one hospital, KPC Promise in Vicksburg, has closed. Others, such as North Mississippi Health Services and Ochsner Health System, have laid off employees. St. Dominic Memorial Hospital not only announced layoffs in June, but also announced the closure of its behavioral health unit.
Miller said Mississippians could see an increasing number of hospitals eliminating important services in order to stay open in the coming months.
Before the end of the session, the Legislature announced a grant program that would bring hospitals a one-time influx of millions of dollars. At the time, hospital CEOs said they were counting on the money to survive the year.
However, hospital officials are now reporting difficulties getting their hands on that money because of restrictions on the federal COVID-19 relief dollars.
Despite support from the majority of Mississippians, Gov. Tate Reeves has continued to oppose Medicaid expansion. Experts say the policy change would not single-handedly solve the hospital crisis, but would help slow the bleeding.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.biloxinewsevents.com/?p=270278
Mississippi Today
Podcast: Ray Higgins: PERS needs both extra cash and benefit changes for future employees
Mississippi Today’s Bobby Harrison talks with Ray Higgins, executive director of the Mississippi Public Employees Retirement System, about proposed changes in pension benefits for future employees and what is needed to protect the system for current employees and retirees. Higgins also stresses the importance of the massive system to the Mississippi economy.
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
‘Bringing mental health into the spaces where moms already are’: UMMC program takes off
A program aimed at increasing access to mental health services for mothers has taken off at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
The program, called CHAMP4Moms, is an extension of an existing program called CHAMP – which stands for Child Access to Mental Health and Psychiatry. The goal is to make it easier for moms to reach mental health resources during a phase when some may need it the most and have the least time.
CHAMP4Moms offers a direct phone line that health providers can call if they are caring for a pregnant woman or new mother they believe may have unaddressed mental health issues. On the line, health providers can speak directly to a reproductive psychiatrist who can guide them on how to screen, diagnose and treat mothers. That means that moms don’t have to go out of their way to find a psychiatrist, and health care providers who don’t have extensive training in psychiatry can still help these women.
“Basically, we’re trying to bring mental health into the spaces where moms already are,” explained Calandrea Taylor, the program manager. “Because of the low workforce that we have in the state, it’s a lot to try to fill the state with mental health providers. But what we do is bring the mental health practice to you and where mothers are. And we’re hoping that that reduces stigma.”
Launched in 2023, the program has had a slow lift off, Taylor said. But the phone line is up and running, as the team continues to make additions to the program – including a website with resources that Taylor expects will go live next year.
To fill the role of medical director, UMMC brought in a California-based reproductive psychiatrist, Dr. Emily Dossett. Dossett, who grew up in Mississippi and still has family in the state, says it has been rewarding to come full circle and serve her home state – which suffers a dearth of mental health providers and has no reproductive psychiatrists.
“I love it. It’s really satisfying to take the experience I’ve been able to pull together over the past 20 years practicing medicine and then apply it to a place I love,” Dossett said. “I feel like I understand the people I work with, I relate to them, I like hearing where they’re from and being able to picture it … That piece of it has really been very much a joy.”
As medical director, Dossett is able to educate maternal health providers on mental health issues. But she’s also an affiliate professor at UMMC, which she says allows her to train up the next generation of psychiatrists on the importance of maternal and reproductive psychiatry – an often-overlooked aspect in the field.
If people think of reproductive mental health at all, they likely think of postpartum depression, Dossett said. But reproductive psychiatry is far more encompassing than just the postpartum time period – and includes many more conditions than just depression.
“Most reproductive psychiatrists work with pregnant and postpartum people, but there’s also work to be done around people who have issues connected to their menstrual cycle or perimenopause,” she explained. “… There’s depression, certainly. But we actually see more anxiety, which comes in lots of different forms – it can be panic disorder, general anxiety, OCD.”
Tackling mental health in this population doesn’t just improve people’s quality of life. It can be lifesaving – and has the potential to mitigate some of the state’s worst health metrics.
Mental health disorders are the leading cause of pregnancy-related death, which is defined by the Centers for Disease Control as any death up to a year postpartum that is caused by or worsened by pregnancy.
In Mississippi, 80% of pregnancy-related deaths between 2016 and 2020 were deemed preventable, according to the latest Mississippi Maternal Mortality Report.
Mississippi is not alone in this, Dossett said. Historically, mental health has not been taken seriously in the western world, for a number of reasons – including stigma and a somewhat arbitrary division between mind and body, Dossett explained.
“You see commercials on TV of happy pregnant ladies. You see magazines of celebrities and their baby bumps, and everybody is super happy. And so, if you don’t feel that way, there’s this tremendous amount of shame … But another part of it is medicine and the way that our health system is set up, it’s just classically divided between physical and mental health.”
Dossett encourages women to tell their doctor about any challenges they’re facing – even if they seem normal.
“There are a lot of people who have significant symptoms, but they think it’s normal,” Dossett said. “They don’t know that there’s a difference between the sort of normal adjustment that people have after having a baby – and it is a huge adjustment – and symptoms that get in the way of their ability to connect or bond with the baby, or their ability to eat or sleep, or take care of their other children or eventually go to work.”
She also encourages health care providers to develop a basic understanding of mental health issues and to ask patients questions about their mood, thoughts and feelings.
CHAMP4Moms is a resource Dossett hopes providers will take advantage of – but she also hopes they will shape and inform the program in its inaugural year.
“We’re available, we’re open for calls, we’re open for feedback and suggestions, we’re open for collaboration,” she said. “We want this to be something that can hopefully really move the needle on perinatal mental health and substance use in the state – and I think it can.”
Providers can call the CHAMP main line at 601-984-2080 for resources and referral options throughout the state.
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.
-
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
-
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
-
Local News2 days ago
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Biloxi Honors Veterans with Wreath-Laying Ceremony and Holiday Giving Initiative
-
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
-
News from the South - Texas News Feed4 days ago
Amazon workers strike at facilities around the country as Teamsters seek contract