Mississippi Today
Speaker White’s Holmes County background colors his views on Medicaid expansion
There is a reason first-term House Speaker Jason White has been more out front in his support of Medicaid expansion than perhaps any other Mississippi Republican leader.
Granted, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann for years has talked favorably about Medicaid expansion, but he was slow to act – primarily because he knew getting a bill out of his conservative Senate would be difficult.
But even before White was officially selected as the Republican nominee to serve as speaker during the current 2024-2028 term, he made it clear that Medicaid expansion would be seriously debated and considered during his first year as the House’s presiding officer. White’s commitment was stunning since other leaders in his party, such as his predecessor former Speaker Philip Gunn, and Gov. Tate Reeves, had publicly opposed Medicaid expansion and even blocked debate on the issue.
But true to his word, a bill to expand Medicaid to provide health care for the working poor was one of the first measures passed by the House – by an overwhelming 99-20 margin with a vast majority of White’s Republican caucus voting for the legislation.
The proposal later died during the final days of the 2024 session when the House and Senate could not reach consensus on what would have been a landmark measure.
But both White and Hosemann have said they expect Medicaid expansion again will be on the table in the 2025 legislative session.
Late in the 2024 session White was asked why he was a supporter of Medicaid expansion.
White smiled and shrugged before saying “I don’t know, Maybe I see it differently. Maybe it is because my wife is in the health care industry. She is a nurse practitioner. She sees patients in Holmes and Carroll counties where there is a lot to be desired. They do a great job, but it is tough. So you see that.”
White went on to say he has seen the negative impact of possible hospital closures in some of the communities in his district.
In addition, he said he is a small town lawyer who has served in various capacities, such as youth court judge.
“You get a great cross section of Mississippi in those environments,” he said.
“I would like to tell you it is because I am brave, but it comes more from voters and constituents saying it is time to do this,” White continued.
While most of the recent Republican leaders hail from the more affluent suburbs of the metro Jackson area, White is from rural Holmes County, one of the poorest areas of the country on the edge of the Mississippi Delta. District 48 that he represents is a large rural area of central Mississippi.
READ MORE: Speaker White eyes major cuts to Mississippi grocery, income taxes for 2025 session
Make no mistake about it – White is conservative, Republican, and proud of it.
The House under White’s leadership passed legislation touted by Republicans to restrict trans people from using the bathroom of the sex they identify with on college and high school campuses and to prevent citizens from gathering signatures to place on the ballot proposals to ease Mississippi’s near total abortion ban.
He said he supports school vouchers, which are the holy grail to many Republicans. But he adds the Republican-dominated House as a whole is not as supportive of sending public funds to private schools as he is.
White points out he got almost 80% of the vote in the 2023 party primary election.
But White also could be described as a bridge between the so-called rural white Democrats who controlled the Mississippi House for decades and the modern-day Republicans who currently have more than a two-thirds majority in the House.
There are some similarities between the Republicans and those rural white Democrats. Many of the Mississippi Democrats who controlled the House before Republicans wrestled control away were social conservatives – opposed to abortion rights and in favor of gun rights. But through decades, those rural white Democrats expanded the state’s role in health care by growing the state’s original Medicaid program because they saw the money the federal government was willing to offer to the state for a more robust Medicaid program as good for Mississippi and its people.
In 2011, rural white Democrats were making a last stand to maintain control of the House. The 2011 election is the only election in the state’s history where it was uncertain which party would end up controlling the Mississippi House.
White ran for election that year as one of those rural white Democrats.
Republicans won a narrow majority in 2011 – taking over the House for the first time since the 1800s. White also won and before his first year in the House was completed, he switched to the Republican majority.
But some of the principals of those conservative rural Democrats might remain in his political DNA.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Late and missed Medicaid rides triple the contractual limit in July
Six percent of rides provided by the company that coordinates Medicaid recipients’ transportation to medical appointments – or three times the allowable limit – were late or missed in July.
The company’s first report to the Division of Medicaid since assuming the contract for transportation services indicated that five percent of scheduled rides were late, and one percent was missed, said Medicaid spokesperson Matt Westerfield.
The company’s contract states that no more than two percent of scheduled rides should be late or missed each day.
For-profit, Denver-based Modivcare is working to lower the percentage of rides that are late or missed, said company spokesperson Melody Lai in an email.
“We utilize data and close partnerships with healthcare facilities, transportation providers, and members across the state to continuously improve service,” she said.
Modivcare, which began its three-year, $96.5 million contract with the state on June 8 of this year, scheduled over 52,000 trips with beneficiaries in July.
About 3,000 of the rides were late or missed.
Nearly 40,000 rides were completed after cancellations made by both Medicaid recipients and drivers in July. Thirty-seven trips took 45 minutes longer than average.
Modivcare’s contract mandates it submit monthly reports detailing late or missed trips, along with other information.
Despite filing a public records request, Mississippi Today did not obtain a copy of the company’s first monthly report. The Division of Medicaid indicated that the reports could contain proprietary, third-party trade secrets and that Modivcare had the right to obtain a protective order prohibiting the release of the records.
State Medicaid programs are required to provide rides to doctor appointments to health plan recipients. States can manage the benefit directly, provide the service through Medicaid managed care contracts or contract with a third-party broker, like Mississippi.
Modivcare subcontracts with local transportation companies to provide rides to beneficiaries. Late or missed trips are considered the fault of the transportation companies that provide rides to beneficiaries, Westerfield said.
Mississippi Today last month reported that a woman who uses a wheelchair missed four doctors appointments after Modivcare assumed responsibility for the service in June. She said drivers refused to give her a ride on two occasions because they did not feel comfortable securing her mobility device. On another occasion, Modivcare told her there were no available drivers with the capacity to transport a wheelchair. Another time, the driver did not show up to the location she indicated.
Modivcare’s contract with the Division of Medicaid requires that each wheelchair vehicle have a wheelchair securement device that meets American with Disabilities Act guidelines.
People with disabilities are some of the most frequent users of the service.
Modivcare has been penalized for a high volume of late or missed rides in other states.
The New Jersey Department of Human Services fined Modivcare $1.7 million between 2017 and 2022 for failing to meet its contractual obligations, including missing scheduled pickups, reported the Bergen Record. The New Jersey Legislature considered a bill in 2023 to establish performance and reporting standards for Medicaid transportation services, but the legislation died in committee.
This month, The Maine Monitor wrote that patients have reported missing appointments and being refused rides by the company, which provides transportation services to 16 counties in Maine.
In Georgia, Modivcare and Southeasttrans, another non-emergency medical transportation company, were fined over $1 million from 2018 to 2020 for picking up patients late, KFF reported.
Modivcare was the lowest bidder during the contract selection process in Mississippi. The agency chose it over Medical Transportation Management, Inc., the previous contractor, and Verida, Inc.
Westerfield said that when the number of late or missed trips exceeds the two percent threshold, the division works with the company to correct the issue. If the issue persists, the company will receive official warning letters and the division could choose to seek damages.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1968
Sept. 17, 1968
Diahann Carroll starred in the title role in “Julia” — the first Black actress to star in a non-stereotypical role in her own television series.
She grew up loving singing, dancing and performing in the theater, and she began modeling for Ebony magazine at 15. Three years later, she appeared on the TV show, “Chance of a Lifetime,” taking home the top prize for her performance of the song, “Why Was I Born?” That same year, she acted in the film, “Carmen Jones”, and appeared in the Broadway musical “House of Flowers”.
In her TV show “Julia”, her performance garnered an Emmy nomination for her, and she won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Series. Mattel even created a Barbie in her image.
After “Julia” ended, she returned to Broadway and Hollywood, earning an Academy Award nomination for her performance in the 1974 film “Claudine”. She went on to portray Dominique Deveraux in the primetime soap opera “Dynasty”. In 1996, she became the first African American to play the role of Norma Desmond in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, “Sunset Boulevard”.
Carroll devoted much of her time to the Celebrity Action Council, which works with women in rehabilitation from problems with drugs, alcohol or prostitution. Eight years before she died in 2019, she was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Favre loses another round in lawsuit agaisnt ex-talk show host
Former “Undisputed” host Shannon Sharpe remains undefeated in his defense of critical remarks toward fellow NFL Hall of Famer Brett Favre.
On Monday, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a request by Favre to resurrect a defamation lawsuit against Sharpe, who said on his Sept. 14, 2023, show that the former Southern Miss and Green Bay Packers quarterback stole funds from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families government program meant for those living in poverty.
Favre hasn’t been charged in the scandal in which six people have been convicted of state and federal charges involving $77 million in federal TANF funds.
In 2022, the state Department of Human Services sued Favre and many others to try and recoup the $77 million that was illegally diverted between 2016 and 2019. A year earlier, the department had sought to recover $1.1 million in TANF funds that Favre received for speeches he never delivered. (The speaking fees had come through the nonprofit Mississippi Community Education Center.)
After a Sept. 13, 2022, article appeared in Mississippi Today, Sharpe said on the Fox Sports show, “Skip and Shannon: Undisputed,” that “Bretty Favre is taking money from the underserved” and that he “stole money from people that really needed that money.”
Favre sent Sharpe a letter, demanding a retraction and asking him to stop making any “further defamatory falsehoods against Favre.”
Sharpe refused, and Favre sued for defamation, saying that Sharpe had falsely accused him of serious crimes and hurt his reputation. Sharpe responded that his remarks are “a classic example of the king of rhetorical hyperbole and loose, figurative language” protected by the First Amendment.
A federal judge ruled in Sharpe’s favor, and so did the 5th Circuit. “Nothing in life or our law guarantees a person immunity from occasional sharp criticism,” 5th Circuit District Judge Leslie H. Southwick wrote.
Favre has paid back the $1.1 million, but State Auditor Shad White said in February that Favre still owed more than $700,000 in interest.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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