Mississippi Today
State football championships: Three days, seven games, and so many thrills and heartaches
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HATTIESBURG — Watch seven Mississippi high school state championship games in three days and here’s what you get: a football overdose. You also get so much drama, so much of what famed TV broadcaster Jim McKay used to call “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.”
We witnessed so much of both here on three perfect days for football at The Rock at Southern Miss. We also got a reminder of why Mississippi high school football has produced so many of the greatest football players in history of the sport. We saw a lot of amazing, young talent here in nearly 21 hours of football. But what we also saw was so much passion, so much spirit and so many tears shed of both joy and despair.
Text by Rick Cleveland, photos by Keith Warren
Several of the most storied Mississippi high school programs added chapters to their stories. West Point won a 13th state championship, the most of any school in the state. Louisville lost in its bid for a 13th title, losing a state championship game for the first time after 12 previous state championship victories.
Class 7A Tupelo staked a strong claim to being the No. 1 team in the state, winning by two touchdowns over Brandon to finish the season with a perfect 15-0 record. So it was that the Golden Wave added a golden football to its trophy case.
Among the small schools, Class 2A Heidelberg won its first-ever championship, cramming in at least 2,500 fans into its cheering section. Saturday would have been a good day to be a house thief in Heidelberg. Nobody was home. Baldwyn, known far and wide as a basketball town, claimed a first-ever 1A championship in football. Class 3A Choctaw County also won its first championship since Ackerman and Weir consolidated in 2013.
In Class 5A, Grenada, coached by former Mississippi State standout Michael Fair, also won its first state championship, easily defeating previously undefeated Hattiesburg 43-14 and spoiling the night for an estimated 10,000 Hub City fans who packed the east side of stadium.
Each game had its own story, its own heroes. Those stories follow in the order they were played.
Class 3A: Choctaw County 34, Noxubee 27
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Thursday’s first game showcased two of the closest things to high school superstars you’ll see. The victorious Choctaw Chargers from Ackerman featured five-star wide receiver Caleb Cunningham, who signed with Ole Miss after earlier committing to Alabama. The Noxubee Tigers were led by strong-armed four-star quarterback Kamario Taylor, who committed early to Mississippi State, signed with the Bulldogs and could well be the future of the program.
Both are tall, streamlined athletes, who would not look out of place on an NFL sideline. Taylor stands 6-feet 4 inches tall, seems taller and flicks the ball 50 yards down the field seemingly with little effort at all. Cunningham has a Jerry Rice-like body, huge hands and sprinter’s speed.
So who do you think was the MVP of this exciting, down-to-the-last-possession championship game? Why, 5-foot-9, 170-pound junior Choctaw quarterback KJ Cork who would look eye-to-chest with Taylor if the two were face-to-face.
“I’ve always been doubted because of my height,” Cork said shortly after receiving the award for being the game’s most outstanding player. “But I don’t doubt myself and I am surrounded by a lot of guys who can make plays.”
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Cork can make plays, too – and did. He ran for 78 yards on just 12 carries and completed 17 of 25 passes for 172 yards and two touchdowns. He spread the ball around. Cunningham caught four passes for 52 yards and a touchdown, and four other receivers combined for 14 catches.
Taylor, pressured hard all night, completed 10 of 23 throws for 151 yards and touchdown, despite several drops and being harassed by relentless Choctaw pass rush.
Choctaw led 20-13 at halftime and increased that lead to 34-19 early in the fourth quarter before Noxubee’s rally fell short.
“We made some history here tonight,” Cork said. “This is the first time we’ve been to a state championship since we consolidated.”
Ackerman and Weir, two schools with rich football histories, combined in 2013. Weir, a 1A powerhouse, had won six state championships. Ackerman won two. Now, Choctaw County has won its first. There might be many more.
Class 7A: Tupelo 28, Brandon 16
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Tupelo entered the Thursday night championship game with a perfect, 14-0 record and a tried and true plan. That plan: Dance with the one that brung you. Tupelo’s “one is a stocky, square-jawed, 220-pound junior running back who wears a zero on his jersey goes by either Jaeden or J.J. Hill. By game’s end, Brandon might as well have called him Mister as in Mr. Hill.
Hill, already committed to Mississippi State, packs bruising power combined with a lightning quick burst of speed. He shredded the Bulldogs for 224 rushing yards on 34 carries. That was three more yards than Brandon’s normally high-powered offense managed against Tupelo’s sturdy defense. Hill also caught a 37-yard touchdown pass.
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Asked about Tupelo’s game plan, Golden Wave offensive coordinator Trey Ward smiled and said, “Feed Zero and throw it just enough to keep the defense honest.”
Hill scored three of Tupelo’s four touchdowns. On the other, clever Tupelo quarterback Noah Gillon, an Appalachian State signee, faked a handoff to Hill, and when the Brandon defense swarmed Hill, Gillon danced into the end zone from 15 yards out.
Despite dominating the line of scrimmage for most of the game, Tupelo led only 21-16 with about a minute to play and faced third down and two yards to go at the Brandon 32. The Golden Wave called a timeout. Asked about it in a postgame interview, Mr. Hill said, “I told them to give me the ball and I’ll end this thing.”
Why wouldn’t they? Hill barreled right up the gut for the game-clinching score. Said Tupelo coach Ty Hardin of Hill, “He’s the best I’ve ever coached, and the best I ever will coach.”
Class 1A: Baldwyn 21, Simmons 20
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Doesn’t matter if it’s the NFL or Class 1A high school ball, there’s one constant in football: Turnovers kill.
The Baldwyn Bearcats, down 12-0 at halftime and with only 12 yards of total offense, rallied to defeat previously undefeated Simmons 21-20. And, as you might have guessed, the difference was turnovers or, from Baldwyn’s perspective, take-aways.
“We came into this game plus-32 in take-aways,” Baldwyn coach Michael Gray said in a postgame interview.
“Wait, did you say plus-32?” an astounded sports writer asked.
“Yeah,” Gray said. “That’s why we’re here.”
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Let the record show Baldwyn finished a 14-1, state championship season a remarkable plus-35 in turnovers. That’s why the Bearcats are state champs. Both teams recovered two opponents’ fumbles, but Baldwyn also intercepted three passes. Baldwyn created all five of its turnovers in the second half, and that truly was the difference in the game.
Senior linebacker/tight end Aiden Stewart led the defensive charge for Baldwyn with 11 tackles, a sack, another tackle for a loss, one fumble recovery and one pass interception, which he returned 24 yards. From his tight end position, he also caught one pass for 25 yards, which was a good chunk of the Bearcats’ 125 yards of total offense. Little wonder he was chosen the game’s most outstanding player.
Gray was asked what adjustments his team made at halftime to rescue what seemed a sinking ship.
“We were just more physical,” Gray said. “I told them they had just 24 minutes left before some of them will start playing basketball and others will start working at their jobs. I told them it was up to them to determine how they would be remembered, and they came out and did what it took. I could not be more proud.”
So it is that Baldwyn, a Hill Country school widely known for its rich basketball history, adds a different shaped ball to its trophy case.
Class 5A: West Point 28, Gautier 21
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Make that 13 state championships – a baker’s dozen – for the West Point Green Wave. West Point spotted Gautier a 7-0 lead and then took control as West Point teams almost always do.
Some things do change: Long-time assistant Brett Morgan has replaced the highly successful Chris Chambless as head coach of the Green Wave. But most things about West Point football never change. The Green Wave still lines up in a power set and runs right at you. They still block and tackle with textbook precision. Thick West Point offensive linemen still have tree-trunk legs that look as if they live under a squat rack.
“The bar is set high here and we expect to win,” Morgan said. “I am just so thankful to be a part of it. Our guys work. We’ll probably take Monday off and then go back to work on Tuesday, get back in that weight room. It’s just what we do, and we believe in it.”
Senior running back Shamane Clark ran hard for 168 yards and three touchdowns on 26 carries to win Most Outstanding Player honors. But Clark would tell you – and did – that his offensive line often cleared nice paths for him.
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“He’s just a West Point football player,” Morgan said of Clark. “He’s waited his turn until his senior year behind some really good backs. I couldn’t be prouder of him. He’s the epitome of what this program is about.”
West Point’s defense, the team’s backbone, faced a huge challenge in Gautier’s shifty quarterback Trey Irving, the Class 5A Player of the Year, who ran for 89 yards and completed 16 of 20 passes for 229 yards and a touchdown.
“He’s a great player,” Morgan said of Irving. “Hats off to him. Hats off to Gautier. But hats off to our defense. They did a great job, just like they’ve done all year.”
A reporter asked Morgan: “Just how much time do your offensive linemen spend under a squat rack?”
“A lot,” he answered. “And they’re going to stay under it from now until next fall. We got tough kids who want to work. We’re tough.”
That part, too, never changes at West Point.
Class 2A: Heidelberg 38, Charleston 6
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Chase Craft, a 167-pound 10th grader is listed on the Heidelberg roster as a QB/WR/CB/ATH. If you are not into football acronyms, that means quarterback/wide receiver/cornerback/athlete. He is all that, mostly athlete. Saturday in the State 2A championship game, he played safety and returned kicks, too.
He was the game’s MVP two times over (most versatile player and most valuable player), and was voted the game’s most outstanding player. Here’s why: On a perfect-for-football, cool, blue-sky afternoon, he completed 14 of 21 passes for 257 yards and four touchdowns. He also ran 17 times for 66 yards and a touchdown. That’s 323 yards total and five touchdowns if you’re keeping score, and in football we always do.
“I play everything, any position,” Craft said afterward amid the wild celebration on the Heidelberg sideline. “I do whatever my team needs me to do.”
As Craft spoke in front of the east side of The Rock, thousands of Heidelberg fans, nearly all dressed in white, cheered.
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“Look at that,” Craft said, gazing. “We have so much support. We had to do it for these fans. This means everything to us because of them.”
The Jasper County town of Heidelberg had a population of 637 in the 2020 Census, but there were easily four or five times that many fans cheering the Oilers.
They had plenty to cheer. After Charleston led 6-0 early, the Oilers scored the game’s final 38 points, limiting Charleston to just 156 yards of total offense, only seven yards in the second half. This was the fifth championship game of the weekend and the first that was one-sided. And even this one was tied 6-6 at halftime before the Craft-led Oilers out-scored the Tigers 32-0 in the second half.
Asked what he told his players at halftime Heidelberg coach Darryl Carter said he couldn’t repeat his halftime message. “I just got on their butt real hard at halftime to be honest,” Carter said. “I told them that you don’t get to do this again, (at least) not with this group.”
It was the first state football championship in Heidelberg history. And since Craft has two years remaining, it might not be the last.
Class 4A: Poplarville 29, Louisville 28
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Fourteen-year-old ninth grader Zaiden Jernigan ran 194 yards and two touchdowns on just 14 carries – and lost. That tells you just how exciting and how well-played the 4A championship game was. By contrast, Poplarville sophomore Tylan Keys, an old man at 16, ran for 130 yards and touchdown and returned a kickoff 83 yards for a touchdown – and he won.
We’ll get to those two ridiculously talented young fellows shortly, but first the most pertinent news: This was the first time since the MHSAA when to a playoff system that Louisville has lost a championship game. The Wildcats, one of the premier high school programs, have won 12 state championships and were bidding to tie 5A champion West Point, which won its state record 13th straight championship Friday night. Poplarville had never won one before Saturday.
“Nobody else has been able to do what we did today,” an excited Keys told reporters afterward. “We worked all summer for this. It feels great. Look at us now!”
Keys missed eight entire games and much of several other games with a shoulder injury this season. Nevertheless, Poplarville brought an 11-2 record into the championship game.
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Said Poplarville coach Jay Beech: “Other guys stepped up for us when Tylan was out, but he gives us something extra, that break-away ability you saw tonight. You need to a guy like him to win a state championship.”
Keys deflected credit to his line. “With an O-line like we have, my job was easy,” he said.
And Keys said he received inspiration from an unusual source, the star running back on the other team. Jernigan sprinted 96 yards for a first quarter touchdown before Keys broke his 87-yard kickoff return a few minutes later.
“He’s something,” Keys said of Jernigan. “I fed off him the whole game. He made me run harder. I was trying to match him.”
One observation: Probably the reason Louisville, which finished 13-2, loses so rarely is because the Wildcats hate to lose so much. At game’s end when a last-ditch Louisville pass fell incomplete and the final second ticked off, Wildcats players were strewn all over the field, most sobbing, some inconsolably. There were several touching scenes with Poplarville players trying to console the Wildcats.
The guess here is that we might see these two teams – and those two running backs – play for another championship in the near future.
Class 6A: Grenada 43, Hattiesburg 14
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That Grenada knocked off previously perfect Hattiesburg in its hometown wasn’t shocking, but the final score was. Grenada, which finished 14-1, spotted the Tigers a 6-0 lead and then proceeded to dominate.
This was the Chargers’ second trip to the Pine Belt this year and there’s a story there. Way back in August, in only its second game, Grenada came down to the Hattiesburg suburb of Oak Grove. Final score: Oak Grove 38, Grenada 24.
“I thought that trip to Oak Grove made our team,” Grenada coach Michael Fair said. “We kind of did that on purpose. We knew the state championship was going to be down this way. We knew Oak Grove was going to be really good and they were. The score wasn’t what we wanted but we got better from it and we never looked back.”
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A couple weeks after Oak Grove defeated Grenada, Hattiesburg beat Oak Grove 27-21. Just goes to show, what happens in August and September doesn’t always translate to what will happen in the first week of December. Against Hattiesburg, Grenada controlled the line of scrimmage, got the game’s only turnover and clearly won the kicking game. That’s a good recipe for victory.
Grenada’s Mccaleb Taylor carried 29 times for 211 yards and four touchdowns. He ran through some big holes, but he also ran over and around many Hattiesburg defenders. He was helped immensely by offensive linemen who blocked as their head coach once did.
“I know every coach in the state who has good back thinks his is the best in the state, but I really believe Mccaleb is the best back in the state,” Fair said. “This kid sees heavy boxes every Friday night and he just makes plays. I just thought he took over tonight.”
The defeat ended a storybook season for Hattiesburg with at least 10,000 purple- and gold-clad fans jammed into the lower concourse on the east side The Rock.
“We’ve had unbelievable support this year,” Hattiesburg coach Tony Vance said. “Our fans packed it tonight; we just couldn’t uphold our end of the bargain.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
If Tate Reeves calls a tax cut special session, Senate has the option to do nothing
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An illness is spreading through the Mississippi Capitol: special session fever.
Speculation is rampant that Gov. Tate Reeves will call a special session if the Senate does not acquiesce to his and the House leadership’s wishes to eliminate the state personal income tax.
Reeves and House leaders are fond of claiming that the about 30% of general fund revenue lost by eliminating the income tax can be offset by growth in other state tax revenue.
House leaders can produce fancy charts showing that the average annual 3% growth rate in state revenue collections can more than offset the revenue lost from a phase out of the income tax.
What is lost in the fancy charts is that the historical 3% growth rate in state revenue includes growth in the personal income tax, which is the second largest source of state revenue. Any growth rate will entail much less revenue if it does not include a 3% growth in the income tax, which would be eliminated if the governor and House leaders have their way. This is important because historically speaking, as state revenue grows so does the cost of providing services, from pay to state employees, to health care costs, to transportation costs, to utility costs and so on.
This does not even include the fact that historically speaking, many state entities providing services have been underfunded by the Legislature, ranging from education to health care, to law enforcement, to transportation. Again, the list goes on and on.
And don’t forget a looming $25 billion shortfall in the state’s Public Employee Retirement System that could create chaos at some point.
But should the Senate not agree to the elimination of the income tax and Reeves calls a special session, there will be tremendous pressure on the Senate leadership, particularly Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, the chamber’s presiding officer.
Generally speaking, a special session will provide more advantages for the eliminate-the-income-tax crowd.
First off, it will be two against one. When the governor and one chamber of the Legislature are on the same page, it is often more difficult for the other chamber to prevail.
The Mississippi Constitution gives the governor sole authority to call a special session and set an agenda. But the Legislature does have discretion in how that agenda is carried out.
And the Legislature always has the option to do nothing during the special session. Simply adjourn and go home is an option.
But the state constitution also says if one chamber is in session, the other house cannot remain out of session for more than three days.
In other words, theoretically, the House and governor working together could keep the Senate in session all year.
In theory, senators could say they are not going to yield to the governor’s wishes and adjourn the special session. But if the House remained in session, the Senate would have to come back in three days. The Senate could then adjourn again, but be forced to come back if the House stubbornly remained in session.
The process could continue all year.
But in the real world, there does not appear to be a mechanism — constitutionally speaking — to force the Senate to come back. The Mississippi Constitution does say members can be “compelled” to attend a session in order to have a quorum, but many experts say that language would not be relevant to make an entire chamber return to session after members had voted to adjourn.
In the past, one chamber has failed to return to the Capitol and suffered no consequences after the other remained in session for more than three days.
As a side note, the Mississippi Constitution does give the governor the authority to end a special session should the two chambers not agree on adjournment. In the early 2000s, then-Gov. Ronnie Musgrove ended a special session when the House and Senate could not agree on a plan to redraw the state’s U.S. House districts to adhere to population shifts found by the U.S. Census.
But would Reeves want to end the special session without approval of his cherished income tax elimination plan?
Probably not.
In 2002 there famously was an 82-day special session to consider proposals to provide businesses more protection from lawsuits. No effort was made to adjourn that session. It just dragged on until the House finally agreed to a significant portion of the Senate plan to provide more lawsuit protection.
In 1969, a special session lasted most of the summer when the Legislature finally agreed to a proposal of then-Gov. John Bell Williams to opt into the federal Medicaid program.
In both those instances, those wanting something passed — Medicaid in the 1960s and lawsuit protections in the 2000s — finally prevailed.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1898
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Feb. 22, 1898
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Frazier Baker, the first Black postmaster of the small town of Lake City, South Carolina, and his baby daughter, Julia, were killed, and his wife and three other daughters were injured when a lynch mob attacked.
When President William McKinley appointed Baker the previous year, local whites began to attack Baker’s abilities. Postal inspectors determined the accusations were unfounded, but that didn’t halt those determined to destroy him.
Hundreds of whites set fire to the post office, where the Bakers lived, and reportedly fired up to 100 bullets into their home. Outraged citizens in town wrote a resolution describing the attack and 25 years of “lawlessness” and “bloody butchery” in the area.
Crusading journalist Ida B. Wells wrote the White House about the attack, noting that the family was now in the Black hospital in Charleston “and when they recover sufficiently to be discharged, they) have no dollar with which to buy food, shelter or raiment.
McKinley ordered an investigation that led to charges against 13 men, but no one was ever convicted. The family left South Carolina for Boston, and later that year, the first nationwide civil rights organization in the U.S., the National Afro-American Council, was formed.
In 2019, the Lake City post office was renamed to honor Frazier Baker.
“We, as a family, are glad that the recognition of this painful event finally happened,” his great-niece, Dr. Fostenia Baker said. “It’s long overdue.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Memorial Health System takes over Biloxi hospital, what will change?
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by Justin Glowacki with contributions from Rasheed Ambrose, Javion Henry, McKenna Klamm, Matt Martin and Aidan Tarrant
BILOXI – On Feb. 1, Memorial Health System officially took over Merit Health Biloxi, solidifying its position as the dominant healthcare provider in the region. According to Fitch Ratings, Memorial now controls more than 85% of the local health care market.
This isn’t Memorial’s first hospital acquisition. In 2019, it took over Stone County Hospital and expanded services. Memorial considers that transition a success and expects similar results in Biloxi.
However, health care experts caution that when one provider dominates a market, it can lead to higher prices and fewer options for patients.
Expanding specialty care and services
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One of the biggest benefits of the acquisition, according to Kristian Spear, the new administrator of Memorial Hospital Biloxi, will be access to Memorial’s referral network.
By joining Memorial’s network, Biloxi patients will have access to more services, over 40 specialties and over 100 clinics.
“Everything that you can get at Gulfport, you will have access to here through the referral system,” Spear said.
One of the first improvements will be the reopening of the Radiation Oncology Clinic at Cedar Lake, which previously shut down due to “availability shortages,” though hospital administration did not expand on what that entailed.
“In the next few months, the community will see a difference,” Spear said. “We’re going to bring resources here that they haven’t had.”
Beyond specialty care, Memorial is also expanding hospital services and increasing capacity. Angela Benda, director of quality and performance improvement at Memorial Hospital Biloxi, said the hospital is focused on growth.
“We’re a 153-bed hospital, and we average a census of right now about 30 to 40 a day. It’s not that much, and so, the plan is just to grow and give more services,” Benda said. “So, we’re going to expand on the fifth floor, open up more beds, more admissions, more surgeries, more provider presence, especially around the specialties like cardiology and OB-GYN and just a few others like that.”
For patient Kenneth Pritchett, a Biloxi resident for over 30 years, those changes couldn’t come soon enough.
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Pritchett, who was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, received treatment at Merit Health Biloxi. He currently sees a cardiologist in Cedar Lake, a 15-minute drive on the interstate. He says having a cardiologist in Biloxi would make a difference.
“Yes, it’d be very helpful if it was closer,” Pritchett said. “That’d be right across the track instead of going on the interstate.”
Beyond specialty services and expanded capacity, Memorial is upgrading medical equipment and renovating the hospital to improve both function and appearance. As far as a timeline for these changes, Memorial said, “We are taking time to assess the needs and will make adjustments that make sense for patient care and employee workflow as time and budget allow.”
Unanswered questions: insurance and staffing
As Memorial Health System takes over Merit Health Biloxi, two major questions remain:
- Will patients still be covered under the same insurance plans?
- Will current hospital staff keep their jobs?
Insurance Concerns
Memorial has not finalized agreements with all insurance providers and has not provided a timeline for when those agreements will be in place.
In a statement, the hospital said:
“Memorial recommends that patients contact their insurance provider to get their specific coverage questions answered. However, patients should always seek to get the care they need, and Memorial will work through the financial process with the payers and the patients afterward.”
We asked Memorial Health System how the insurance agreements were handled after it acquired Stone County Hospital. They said they had “no additional input.”
What about hospital staff?
According to Spear, Merit Health Biloxi had around 500 employees.
“A lot of the employees here have worked here for many, many years. They’re very loyal. I want to continue that, and I want them to come to me when they have any concerns, questions, and I want to work with this team together,” Spear said.
She explained that there will be a 90-day transitional period where all employees are integrated into Memorial Health System’s software.
“Employees are not going to notice much of a difference. They’re still going to come to work. They’re going to do their day-to-day job. Over the next few months, we will probably do some transitioning of their computer system. But that’s not going to be right away.”
The transition to new ownership also means Memorial will evaluate how the hospital is operated and determine if changes need to be made.
“As we get it and assess the different workflows and the different policies, there will be some changes to that over time. Just it’s going to take time to get in here and figure that out.”
During this 90-day period, Erin Rosetti, Communications Manager at Memorial Health System said, “Biloxi employees in good standing will transition to Memorial at the same pay rate and equivalent job title.”
Kent Nicaud, President and CEO of Memorial Health System, said in a statement that the hospital is committed to “supporting our staff and ensuring they are aligned with the long-term vision of our health system.”
What research says about hospital consolidations
While Memorial is promising improvements, larger trends in hospital mergers raise important questions.
Research published by the Rand Corporation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization, found that research into hospital consolidations reported increased prices anywhere from 3.9% to 65%, even among nonprofit hospitals.
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The impact on patient care is mixed. Some studies suggest merging hospitals can streamline services and improve efficiency. Others indicate mergers reduce competition, which can drive up costs without necessarily improving care.
When asked about potential changes to the cost of care, hospital leaders declined to comment until after negations with insurance companies are finalized, but did clarify Memorial’s “prices are set.”
“We have a proven record of being able to go into institutions and transform them,” said Angie Juzang, Vice President of Marketing and Community Relations at Memorial Health System.
When Memorial acquired Stone County Hospital, it expanded the emergency room to provide 24/7 emergency room coverage and renovated the interior.
When asked whether prices increased after the Stone County acquisition, Memorial responded:
“Our presence has expanded access to health care for everyone in Stone County and the surrounding communities. We are providing quality healthcare, regardless of a patient’s ability to pay.”
The response did not directly address whether prices went up — leaving the question unanswered.
The bigger picture: Hospital consolidations on the rise
According to health care consulting firm Kaufman Hall, hospital mergers and acquisitions are returning to pre-pandemic levels and are expected to increase through 2025.
Hospitals are seeking stronger financial partnerships to help expand services and remain stable in an uncertain health care market.
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Source: Kaufman Hall M&A Review
Proponents of hospital consolidations argue mergers help hospitals operate more efficiently by:
- Sharing resources.
- Reducing overhead costs.
- Negotiating better supply pricing.
However, opponents warn few competitors in a market can:
- Reduce incentives to lower prices.
- Slow wage increases for hospital staff.
- Lessen the pressure to improve services.
Leemore Dafny, PhD, a professor at Harvard and former deputy director for health care and antitrust at the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Economics, has studied hospital consolidations extensively.
In testimony before Congress, she warned: “When rivals merge, prices increase, and there’s scant evidence of improvements in the quality of care that patients receive. There is also a fair amount of evidence that quality of care decreases.”
Meanwhile, an American Hospital Association analysis found consolidations lead to a 3.3% reduction in annual operating expenses and a 3.7% reduction in revenue per patient.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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