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‘We have been struggling.’ As Mississippi’s health care crisis worsens, health department funding lags

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2 years ago

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State Health Officer Dr. Dan Edney made one big ask of lawmakers this year: $9 million to hire the nurses needed to fully staff county health departments and a program that puts nurses in the homes of low-income pregnant women with high-risk pregnancies.

As he made the request, news headlines in Mississippi and around the country reported on the state’s financially struggling hospitals, worsening maternal mortality crisis and one of the highest uninsured populations in the country as the result of state leaders’ steadfast opposition to Medicaid expansion.

Still, the answer he got was no.

That’s not a novel response from lawmakers — the agency’s budget was slashed in 2017 and is still making up for the loss. But this year, it could be especially damning as the state’s health care crisis reaches a breaking point.

As hospitals bleed out and it becomes increasingly dangerous for Black Mississippians to give birth in the state, the need for public health services offered by the Mississippi Department of Health is seeing a resurgence.

“That was my testimony at the Legislature,” said Edney, the agency’s leader. “I reminded them … we are having to do more, which is not good. It’s a sign that the needle is moving the wrong way.”

But there’s a limit to what his agency can do without adequate funding.

Daniel Edney, M.D., is the State Health Officer. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

The Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies program, a partnership between the department and the state Division of Medicaid, puts nurses in the homes of expecting mothers who are undergoing high-risk pregnancies. The program serves about 700 moms, Edney said.

He knows the number of moms involved in the program needs to grow. But to do that, he needs more nurses — an increasingly difficult resource to come by in Mississippi, where nurse vacancies and turnover rates are at their highest in a decade.

The $9 million would have paid for a total of 100 nurses, the bare minimum Edney said he needs to adequately cover the state’s public health needs.

The money needed to come from the state, Edney said, because federal funds have strict strings attached.

“One way I explained it at the Capitol was that state-funded nurses could do whatever we needed them to do,” Edney said. “I need Swiss Army knives. The feds give you the knife, and they tell you how to use it.”

But instead, as the agency’s responsibilities continue to grow, they got just enough to keep operating and cover inflationary costs for the next year — despite lawmakers starting the year with a historic $3.9 billion surplus.

Republican Rep. John Read, House Appropriations Chair and principal author of the Health Department’s appropriations bill, said the decision-making process was about prioritization.

“We had some money, but it’s like everything else: You don’t want to spend all your savings,” he said. “Everybody in this legislature wants to help everybody we can … Nobody gets 100% of what they asked for. There’s no way.”

Read maintained that the department’s staffing issue isn’t about their state appropriation — it’s about the nurse availability and desired salaries. To Read, hiring 100 nurses sounds impossible.

Still, Edney can’t hire even one of the 100 nurses without funding.

In an interview with Mississippi Today, Edney said he was grateful for the money his agency did get. He repeatedly expressed his desire to do the necessary work with what he got.

“We’ll keep trying,” Edney said. “That doesn’t mean we ignore those needs. We’ll push ahead with resources that we can find.”

The agency operates with a total budget of over half a billion dollars. The vast majority of that budget comes from federal dollars and a variety of fees generated from other agency operations. Less than 10% comes from the state.

Though the state portion is small, it is essential to the agency’s ability to fulfill its job.

It’s the mission of the state Health Department to promote and protect Mississippians’ health. That includes surveilling for diseases and sexually transmitted infections, as well as other preventative public health efforts. The agency is also responsible for overseeing water testing, inspecting restaurants and licensing and regulating health care facilities.

This year, the Legislature gave the state Health Department $48 million. Of that, about half will go to agency operations, which includes salaries for state-funded positions. The other half goes elsewhere — the state Department of Health acts as a conduit for millions that will fund programs within their agency and others.

While Edney was hoping to increase pay for his employees, he wasn’t able to secure enough funding to hand out uniform raises — just for the lowest compensated employees in the department.

The agency is experiencing a vacancy rate of over 40% across departments – meaning almost one of two jobs at the agency are not filled – according to Edney.

On paper, it looks like the agency got a huge increase in funding, up $13 million from last year. But $12 million of that money is set to go to the Victims of Crime Act program, which provides services for victims of domestic abuse, childhood violence and human trafficking. It’s a program that’s only recently been added to the state Health Department’s list of responsibilities, as well as the state’s new medical cannabis program.

The Yazoo County Health Department, located at 230 E. Broadway Street, has been renovated and re-opened in Yazoo City, Monday, June 5, 2023. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

The remaining $12 million of the state appropriation is split among systems such as trauma care, emergency medical services, AIDS-related services and drugs, stroke and heart attack care programs, domestic violence prevention, Mississippi qualified health centers, the early intervention program and Medicaid matching.

And in a last minute change toward the end of the legislative session, lawmakers also decided to task the department with choosing the state’s next burn center and awarding it $4 million. Merit Health Central in Jackson closed Mississippi’s only accredited burn center in October.

“I have to remind folks we’re happy to administer grants and direct funding from the Legislature,” Edney said. “But we had to keep our focus on what is our core appropriation. That appropriation that helps us achieve the things we have to achieve to make sure that the most vulnerable populations in the state are served to the best of our ability.”

For agency operations, the Health Department got an increase of about $720,000, which Edney said covered cost increases caused by inflation.

“So we didn’t go backwards,” Edney said.

In the newly painted lobby of Yazoo County’s renovated health department, Edney was candid about the state Health Department’s financial limitations.

“If I had the money, I would have done it yesterday,” he said of the county health department’s reopening on Monday.

It had been closed since September of last year.

“I have begged for the money to get our county health departments back open again,” Edney said. “We have been struggling.”

Within a month, David Caulfield, central regional administrator for the state Health Department, said the Yazoo clinic will be open four to five days a week, up from its temporary twice-a-week schedule, and be fully staffed.

It’s typically up to the individual counties to provide and pay for their county health department’s building, while the state pays to staff it.

“I want to personally thank the Board of Supervisors for caring about public health in Yazoo County,” Edney said. “Not every county has the same commitment to public health. They don’t look after their folks the same way you do it.

“I can’t tell you the joy in my heart to see this today because it shows me what we can do in Mississippi.”

But Yazoo County’s health department isn’t the standard — it’s an outlier.

As the state Health Department has been gutted by budget cuts over the past decade while simultaneously being tasked with more responsibilities, county health departments have suffered.

Rebecca Collins listens as David Caulfield, Central Regional Administrator for the State Department of Health, discusses the laboratory at the newly re-opened Yazoo County Health Department in Yazoo City, Monday, June 5, 2023. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

After the major budget cuts in 2017, hours were reduced at the majority of county health departments, and they became much harder to staff, Edney said. Services have been cut, too — county health departments stopped offering prenatal care in 2016.

And as hospital closures continue to loom — a report puts a third of rural hospitals at risk — it’s not apparent that the state Health Department is prepared to fill the gaps.

“We utilize all the resources we can from our federal partners to help the county health departments, but the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) does not fund public health at the county level,” Edney said. “It’s up to us to do that, and we just don’t have enough state funding to run 86 county health departments the way that we would love to run them.”

While county health departments remain a place where Mississippians can access vaccinations, STI testing, diabetes and hypertension care, tuberculosis screenings and treatment, pap smears, family planning and pregnancy testing, Edney wants to increase staffing and get health departments open longer more days a week. They’re also exploring restarting prenatal care at county health departments.

It’s not clear how he’ll pay for it, but Edney’s determined to try.

“I’m not negative, because we have to do a better job on our side of the street,” he said. “We will be doing all that we can do, so when I go back to the Legislature and continue to ask for funding our workforce needs on the county level, I can honestly say we’re doing all we can.”

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

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Mississippi Today

Mississippi River flooding Vicksburg, expected to crest on Monday

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15 hours ago

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April 25, 2025

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mississippitoday.org – @alxrzr – 2025-04-25 16:04:00

by Alex Rozier, Mississippi Today
April 25, 2025

Warren County Emergency Management Director John Elfer said Friday floodwaters from the Mississippi River, which have reached homes in and around Vicksburg, will likely persist until early May. Elfer estimated there areabout 15 to 20 roads underwater in the area.

A truck sits in high water after the owner parked, then boated to his residence on Chickasaw Road in Vicksburg as a rising Mississippi River causes backwater flooding, Friday, April 25, 2025.

“We’re about half a foot (on the river gauge) from a major flood,” he said. “But we don’t think it’s going to be like in 2011, so we can kind of manage this.”

The National Weather projects the river to crest at 49.5 feet on Monday, making it the highest peak at the Vicksburg gauge since 2020. Elfer said some residents in north Vicksburg — including at the Ford Subdivision as well as near Chickasaw Road and Hutson Street — are having to take boats to get home, adding that those who live on the unprotected side of the levee are generally prepared for flooding.

A rising Mississippi River causing backwater flooding near Chickasaw Road in Vicksburg, Friday, April 25, 2025.
Old tires aligned a backyard as a deterrent to rising water north of Vicksburg along U.S. 61, Friday, April 25, 2025.
As the Mississippi River rises, backwater flooding creeps towards a home located on Falk Steel Road in Vicksburg, Friday, April 25, 2025.

“There are a few (inundated homes), but we’ve mitigated a lot of them,” he said. “Some of the structures have been torn down or raised. There are a few people that still live on the wet side of the levee, but they kind of know what to expect. So we’re not too concerned with that.”

The river first reached flood stage in the city — 43 feet — on April 14. State officials closed Highway 465, which connects the Eagle Lake community just north of Vicksburg to Highway 61, last Friday.

Flood waters along Kings Point Road in Vicksburg, Friday, April 25, 2025.

Elfer said the areas impacted are mostly residential and he didn’t believe any businesses have been affected, emphasizing that downtown Vicksburg is still safe for visitors. He said Warren County has worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency to secure pumps and barriers.

“Everybody thus far has been very cooperative,” he said. “We continue to tell people stay out of the flood areas, don’t drive around barricades and don’t drive around road close signs. Not only is it illegal, it’s dangerous.”

NWS projects the river to stay at flood stage in Vicksburg until May 6. The river reached its record crest of 57.1 feet in 2011.

The boat launch area is closed and shored up on Levee Street in Vicksburg as the Mississippi River rises, Friday, April 25, 2025.
The boat launch area (right) is closed and under water on Levee Street in Vicksburg as the Mississippi River rises, Friday, April 25, 2025.
City of Vicksburg workers shore up the bank along Levee Street as the Mississippi River rises, Friday, April 25, 2025.
The old pedestrian bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Vicksburg, Friday, April 25, 2025.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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With domestic violence law, victims ‘will be a number with a purpose,’ mother says

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16 hours ago

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April 25, 2025

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mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-04-25 15:07:00

by Mina Corpuz, Mississippi Today
April 25, 2025

Joslin Napier. Carlos Collins. Bailey Mae Reed. 

They are among Mississippi domestic violence homicide victims whose family members carried their photos as the governor signed a bill that will establish a board to study such deaths and how to prevent them. 

Tara Gandy, who lost her daughter Napier in Waynesboro in 2022, said it’s a moment she plans to tell her 5-year-old grandson about when he is old enough. Napier’s presence, in spirit, at the bill signing can be another way for her grandson to feel proud of his mother. 

“(The board) will allow for my daughter and those who have already lost their lives to domestic violence … to no longer be just a number,” Gandy said. “They will be a number with a purpose.” 

Family members at the April 15 private bill signing included Ashla Hudson, whose son Collins, died last year in Jackson. Grandparents Mary and Charles Reed and brother Colby Kernell attended the event in honor of Bailey Mae Reed, who died in Oxford in 2023. 

Joining them were staff and board members from the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the statewide group that supports shelters and advocated for the passage of Senate Bill 2886 to form a Domestic Violence Facility Review Board. 

The law will go into effect July 1, and the coalition hopes to partner with elected officials who will make recommendations for members to serve on the board. The coalition wants to see appointees who have frontline experience with domestic violence survivors, said Luis Montgomery, public policy specialist for the coalition. 

A spokesperson from Gov. Tate Reeves’ office did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

Establishment of the board would make Mississippi the 45th state to review domestic violence fatalities. 

Montgomery has worked on passing a review board bill since December 2023. After an unsuccessful effort in 2024, the coalition worked to build support and educate people about the need for such a board. 

In the recent legislative session, there were House and Senate versions of the bill that unanimously passed their respective chambers. Authors of the bills are from both political parties. 

The review board is tasked with reviewing a variety of documents to learn about the lead up and circumstances in which people died in domestic violence-related fatalities, near fatalities and suicides – records that can include police records, court documents, medical records and more. 

From each review, trends will emerge and that information can be used for the board to make recommendations to lawmakers about how to prevent domestic violence deaths. 

“This is coming at a really great time because we can really get proactive,” Montgomery said. 

Without a board and data collection, advocates say it is difficult to know how many people have died or been injured in domestic-violence related incidents.

A Mississippi Today analysis found at least 300 people, including victims, abusers and collateral victims, died from domestic violence between 2020 and 2024. That analysis came from reviewing local news stories, the Gun Violence Archive, the National Gun Violence Memorial, law enforcement reports and court documents. 

Some recent cases the board could review are the deaths of Collins, Napier and Reed. 

In court records, prosecutors wrote that Napier, 24, faced increased violence after ending a relationship with Chance Fabian Jones. She took action, including purchasing a firearm and filing for a protective order against Jones.

Jones’s trial is set for May 12 in Wayne County. His indictment for capital murder came on the first anniversary of her death, according to court records. 

Collins, 25, worked as a nurse and was from Yazoo City. His ex-boyfriend Marcus Johnson has been indicted for capital murder and shooting into Collins’ apartment. Family members say Collins had filed several restraining orders against Johnson. 

Johnson was denied bond and remains in jail. His trial is scheduled for July 28 in Hinds County.  

He was a Jackson police officer for eight months in 2013. Johnson was separated from the department pending disciplinary action leading up to immediate termination, but he resigned before he was fired, Jackson police confirmed to local media. 

Reed, 21, was born and raised in Michigan and moved to Water Valley to live with her grandparents and help care for her cousin, according to her obituary. 

Kylan Jacques Phillips was charged with first degree murder for beating Reed, according to court records. In February, the court ordered him to undergo a mental evaluation to determine if he is competent to stand trial, according to court documents. 

At the bill signing, Gandy said it was bittersweet and an honor to meet the families of other domestic violence homicide victims.

“We were there knowing we are not alone, we can travel this road together and hopefully find ways to prevent and bring more awareness about domestic violence,” she said.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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Court to rule on DeSoto County Senate districts with special elections looming

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16 hours ago

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April 25, 2025

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mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-04-25 15:06:00

by Taylor Vance, Mississippi Today
April 25, 2025

A federal three-judge panel will rule in coming days on how political power in northwest Mississippi will be allocated in the state Senate and whether any incumbents in the DeSoto County area might have to campaign against each other in November special elections.  

The panel, comprised of all George W. Bush-appointed judges, ordered state officials last week to, again, craft a new Senate map for the area in the suburbs of Memphis. The panel has held that none of the state’s prior maps gave Black voters a realistic chance to elect candidates of their choice. 

The latest map proposed by the all-Republican State Board of Election Commissioners tweaked only four Senate districts in northwest Mississippi and does not pit any incumbent senators against each other. 

The state’s proposal would keep the Senate districts currently held by Sen. Michael McLendon, a Republican from Hernando and Sen. Kevin Blackwell, a Republican from Southaven, in majority-white districts. 

But it makes Sen. David Parker’s district a slightly majority-Black district. Parker, a white Republican from Olive Branch, would run in a district with a 50.1% black voting-age population, according to court documents. 

The proposal also maintains the district held by Sen. Reginald Jackson, a Democrat from Marks, as a majority-Black district, although it reduces the Black voting age population from 61% to 53%.  

Gov. Tate Reeves, Secretary of State Michael Watson, and Attorney General Lynn Fitch comprise the State Board of Election Commissioners. Reeves and Watson voted to approve the plan. But Watson, according to meeting documents, expressed a wish that the state had more time to consider different proposals. 

Fitch did not attend the meeting, but Deputy Attorney General Whitney Lipscomb attended in her place. Lipscomb voted against the map, although it is unclear why. Fitch’s office declined to comment on why she voted against the map because it involves pending litigation. 

The reason for redrawing the districts is that the state chapter of the NAACP and Black voters in the state sued Mississippi officials for drawing legislative districts in a way that dilutes Black voting power. 

The plaintiffs, represented by the ACLU, are likely to object to the state’s newest proposal, and they have until April 29 to file an objection with the court

The plaintiffs have put forward two alternative proposals for the area in the event the judges rule against the state’s plans. 

The first option would place McLendon and Blackwell in the same district, and the other would place McLendon and Jackson in the same district. 

It is unclear when the panel of judges will issue a ruling on the state’s plan, but they will not issue a ruling until the plaintiffs file their remaining court documents next week. 

While the November election is roughly six months away, changing legislative districts across counties and precincts is technical work, and local election officials need time to prepare for the races. 

The judges have not yet ruled on the full elections calendar, but U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Leslie Southwick said at a hearing earlier this month that the panel was committed have the elections in November. 

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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