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GREENVILLE — Hours after yet another Mississippi hospital announced it was laying off workers this year, the leader of a hospital in the Mississippi Delta criticized Republican Gov. Tate Reeves for refusing to expand Medicaid access to the working poor. 

Iris Stacker, the CEO of Delta Health Systems in Greenville, spoke at a Tuesday campaign event for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Brandon Presley and said if the federal program covered more people, then the local economy would be more robust. 

“We don’t understand why Tate Reeves doesn’t understand why he needs a healthy workforce,” Stacker said. 

Hospitals across the state have recently slashed their staff, discontinued medical services or closed their doors permanently because of financial pressures within their organizations.

• North Mississippi Health Services in Tupelo announced Tuesday it was laying off employees, cutting their hours and reassigning them to different jobs.
• Ochsner Health, which operates several facilities in Mississippi, announced in May it was cutting hundreds of jobs.
• Memorial Hospital in Gulfport announced layoffs just days before the Oschner announcement.
• In June, St. Dominic Hospital in Jackson announced it was cutting 5.5% of its workforce and ending its behavioral health program.
• KPC Promise, a hospital in Vicksburg, closed last month. 
• And Delta Health, led by Stacker, last year closed its NICU unit, leaving the Delta region, one of the most impoverished areas in the nation, without a neonatal center.

One of the primary reasons Stacker and other hospital leaders support Medicaid expansion is their belief that it would reduce the amount of uncompensated care that medical workers provide to patients without health insurance. 

The 40 other U.S. states that have expanded Medicaid have seen a significant drop in uncompensated care costs post-expansion. Louisiana, which expanded Medicaid in 2016, saw a 55% decrease in uncompensated care costs for rural hospitals.

Last year, Delta Health spent about $26 million on uncompensated care, Stacker previously said. That amounts to about 15% of its total operating expenses. 

“We still continue to have uncompensated care every day,” Stacker told Mississippi Today on Tuesday. 

READ MORE: FAQ: What is Medicaid expansion, really?

The governor’s office and his campaign did not respond to a request for comment, but he has repeatedly objected to the program’s expansion, derisively calling it “welfare” or labeling it “Obamacare.” Instead, Reeves believes a law requiring medical facilities to seek approval from a state agency before they create a new health care center should be eliminated.

Meanwhile, Presley is strongly advocating for Medicaid expansion in his bid to unseat Reeves in November. More than a dozen health care professionals endorsed the Democratic candidate on Tuesday.

Mississippi is one of 10 states that has not passed any form of Medicaid expansion. Economic experts say the remaining states, many in the Deep South, would experience an economic boon if officials expanded the program. Studies show that Mississippi is leaving more than $1 billion in new health care related revenue on the table every year it does not expand.

Medical leaders have pleaded for state leaders to expand the program under the federal Affordable Care Act to draw down on additional funds. If the program were expanded, the federal government would likely cover 90% of the costs while the state contributed a 10% matching rate. 

Much like in 2019, Medicaid coverage and access to health care are some of the primary issues between the two leading candidates in this year’s governor’s race.

Attorney General Jim Hood embraced Medicaid expansion throughout the last statewide campaign cycle, but Reeves still captured nearly 52% of the general election vote. 

Presley, the current utility regulator from north Mississippi, is hoping the continuing spate of hospital closures will encourage more voters to be receptive to his pro-expansion message during the current election cycle. 

Dr. Brett Zepponi, a Delta Health physician, told Mississippi Today that he considers himself a fiscal conservative, but he’s currently planning to vote for Presley because he doesn’t think the Greenville hospital can last much longer without expanding Medicaid coverage. 

“For me, it doesn’t come down to a political thing,” Zepponi said. “But it’s more of a people thing. I think Republicans and Democrats both want their family to be taken care of and want their neighbors taken care of.” 

The post ‘Tate Reeves doesn’t understand’: Hospital CEO slams governor for refusing Medicaid expansion appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The March inspection of the University of Mississippi Medical Center for its burn center designation showed the health system failed to fully meet almost a third of criteria required to host the state’s next burn center, though it was recently deemed qualified to do so anyway. 

UMMC communications officials refused to answer Mississippi Today’s questions about the current status of its burn program, including its staff’s training. A Facebook post, however, shows that since the health system’s application to host a burn center was submitted and the subsequent site visit was conducted, more staff have undergone the training required to care for burn patients. 

The Mississippi Department of Health said UMMC has submitted a corrective action plan to address the shortcomings, but declined to provide it without a records request. UMMC officials refused to engage with Mississippi Today about such a plan. 

The surgeon on the team that performed UMMC’s March site visit said the results of their site visit are not uncommon.

Dr. William Hickerson, who helped establish Memphis’ Firefighters Regional Burn Center and served as the past president of the American Burn Association, said the health system has what it needs to establish a burn center.

“My impression was that they have set things up very well,” he said. “You’re not going to be able to open your doors and say, ‘Bring them (the patients) home.’ This is not the Field of Dreams … You have to have a team approach. Everything has to be in a learned environment, and you start slowly like these guys are and build up now. And I think that that is exactly what we saw and what their plans were that they showed us.”

The Institutions of Higher Learning last month approved UMMC’s request to use $4 million of its own money to create a new burn center. The hospital system will renovate the first floor of the Batson Tower into a new burn unit, with ICU beds and rooms for patients recovering from surgery.

Officials visited UMMC on March 21 to review the health system’s credentials and see if it was qualified to host the state’s next burn center. That team consisted of Hickerson, Terry Collins, a nurse who directs the trauma program for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and Teresa Windham, a trauma system nurse in the state Health Department’s Bureau of Acute Care Systems.

In May, Mississippi Today requested the results of that visit. 

Originally, a state Health Department attorney said the survey was exempt from disclosure and cited costs that totaled nearly $20,000 for communications regarding the visit.

After Mississippi Today asked the department to cite state law that exempted the survey results, however, a Health Department official attached the survey in an email thread. 

The results of the survey showed that out of 155 categories, UMMC either “partially met” or did not meet criteria in 46, or 29.6%, of the categories. 

Though UMMC was docked in the report for not having an internal burn education plan in addition to lacking certain required staff, policies and procedures, the survey results showed they excelled in team coordination, specifically between its trauma and burn surgeons. 

“This cooperative plan is one of the best these reviewers have witnessed,” the report says. 

Since the state’s only burn center housed at Merit Health Central in Jackson closed in October, both UMMC and Mississippi Baptist Medical Center have vied for the designation. Despite gaps in both its application to host a burn center and this site visit, UMMC received its approval in April from the Mississippi State Department of Health. 

“I’ve been through several hospitals and several reviews, and we don’t come in to rubber stamp anything. It’s to give an honest opinion of what we see the capabilities are, and we report the findings,” Hickerson said. “I know there’s a competition. I’m on neither side. I’m here to give you the facts of what I see.”

A director of an out-of-state burn center and officials with the American Burn Association declined to comment on how UMMC’s site survey results compare to others who have been approved to host a burn center. 

State Health Department spokesperson Liz Sharlot responded to questions about UMMC’s qualifications with an emailed statement that included information about the state’s Trauma System of Care and their goal of enabling “access in Mississippi, rather than out of state, for burn patients and their families.”

Mississippi Today found in February that UMMC had sent at least one burn pediatric patient out-of-state for treatment. 

“Keeping this goal a priority, MSDH works with entities seeking a burn center designation to ensure that safe and effective care is provided through a well defined operational plan for clinical care and service delivery,” the Health Department’s statement reads. “Such plans may include corrective actions for any deficiencies noted to allow entities to continue to build their burn care programs. This process includes a revisit or focused visit to ensure corrective actions are taken to maintain a burn center designation.”

Hickerson said that it’s common to check in with burn centers a year after their establishment to ensure they’re in full compliance, but as of his March visit, he believes the health system is capable of hosting a burn center. 

“The whole aspect is to make sure that you set something up that is going to be safe for the patients,” he said. “Yeah, they didn’t have a complete check. But they had means that they were gonna fix that.”

At the time of the survey, UMMC was still actively recruiting for staff, including nurses, pharmacists, dietitians and psychiatrists. The report also showed that the health center struggled with ongoing burn education and internal training. At the time of its application, which was submitted earlier this year, an internal burn education program was being developed.

The site survey reports that the burn center medical director, Dr. Peter Arnold, has the required criteria to lead the unit, which can be achieved two ways. The first includes being a surgeon with board certification in surgery or plastic surgery and completing a one-year fellowship in burn treatment. The second route is experience in the care of patients with acute burn injuries for two or more years during the previous five years. 

However, it’s unclear how Arnold meets those criteria  — Arnold has not completed a one-year burn fellowship and has been at UMMC for the past five years, while the state’s only burn center has been housed at Merit. 

Furthermore, the survey also says that as burn center director, Arnold did not perform some of the required job duties, including creating policies and protocols for the burn care system and cooperating with trauma care for patient treatment.

At the time of the report, Arnold was not current in Advanced Burn Life Support (ABLS), the standard training for burn patient providers. He was scheduled to undergo this training in April, but UMMC refused to answer questions about whether that training took place. 

The health system’s initial application also showed that none of its staffers were ABLS trained, though a Facebook post from May on the University of Mississippi’s Air Care page showed that 48 clinicians and communication specialists had undergone ABLS training.

Additionally, UMMC staff likely attended ABLS training at the Mississippi Trauma Symposium in May in Biloxi.

Arnold said in May at a presentation about the burn center that one of his goals moving forward was to acquire American Burn Association verification for the center. 

“We’re designing everything we’re doing to meet the goals of ABA verification,” he said. “It takes two years after you’re established before they’ll come. And so I think, you know, this is obviously a work in progress, but eyes on the prize.”

During this year’s session, the state Health Department was given $4 million by the Legislature to choose the state’s next burn center. Nothing in the law prevents the $4 million from going to more than one hospital. 

Baptist Medical Center has also submitted an application to host the state’s next burn center, which includes its burn center director’s qualifications to lead the unit, two ABLS-trained staffers and an internal burn education plan. Its site visit has been scheduled for July 18.

The post UMMC didn’t fully meet criteria for burn center, March report shows appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Incumbent Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann is crying foul over a flyer he says was disseminated by opponent Chris McDaniel’s campaign that purported to show Hosemann was endorsed by Black Lives Matter.

The move appears to be aimed at white Republican voters in the Aug. 8 GOP primary in a key battleground area: DeSoto County and the Mississippi suburbs of Memphis. Hosemann said it’s “typical of my opponent’s campaign style.” McDaniel’s previous unsuccessful statewide campaigns have been marred by his supporters’ dirty tricks — which at times required law enforcement to get involved and resulted in felony convictions and a jail sentence for one.

Black Lives Matter is a movement which launched a decade ago in response to the 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman, who fatally shot Trayvon Martin, a Black teenager. BLM activists have staged protests nationwide to advocate for defunding police and supporting Black people and communities facing police brutality and unjust interactions with the criminal justice system. The movement has drawn ire from Republicans, who frequently try to discredit BLM ideology and have referred to it as “Marxist.”

McDaniel’s campaign claims it has been trying to verify whether the BLM endorsement is real and “has intentionally not distributed claims we have not directly confirmed that could invoke undue harm to our fellow Republicans.”

But one of his regional campaign chairs posted the flyer on Facebook, as did a state senator who has served as a surrogate for McDaniel on the campaign trail. They have both since deleted their social media posts of the flyer, but it appears to have been widely distributed by McDaniel supporters.

READ MORE: Mississippi 2014 McDaniel Senate race was dubbed nastiest in country

The flyer appears to be computer printed, with a Black power fist BLM logo, and a Memphis address at the bottom for an office suite that is currently a hair salon. Mississippi Today’s calls to the salon, as well as numerous calls and messages to various Memphis BLM groups listed online, were not returned as of this article’s publishing. It does not appear any BLM-affiliated group has publicly endorsed any Mississippi candidates in 2023 elections, and efforts by McDaniel’s and Hosemann’s campaigns to prove or disprove the endorsements have so far proved fruitless.

The flyer lists 19 candidates for DeSoto and Tate counties local elections, as well as Democratic gubernatorial candidate Brandon Presley and Hosemann for lieutenant governor.

Hosemann issued a brief statement about the flyer: “This is totally false and a gutless political stunt that is typical of my opponent’s campaign style.”

McDaniel would not comment on the record about the flyer. But campaign spokeswoman Nicole Tardif issued a statement: “Our internal communications surrounding the flyer distributed in DeSoto have been limited to determining its validity. While ‘Delbert the Democrat’ has spent his career taking cheap shots to score political points wherever he sees fit, our team has intentionally not distributed claims we have not directly confirmed that could invoke undue harm to our fellow Republicans.”

But Donnie Abernathy, whom Tardif identified as a regional chair for the McDaniel campaign, posted the flyer on Facebook, as did state Sen. Kathy Chism, R-New Albany, one of McDaniel’s closest allies in the state Senate. Chism has served as a surrogate for McDaniel on the campaign trail, including at a recent event where she championed the return of Mississippi’s former state flag with the racially incendiary Confederate battle emblem in one corner.

READ MORE: Is the Confederate flag still an issue in Mississippi elections? Chris McDaniel campaign tries to revive it

Both Abernathy and Chism removed their Facebook posts of the flyer on Wednesday.

Abernathy did not return calls for comment, but in a post about taking it down noted that he received a copy of it from the McDaniel campaign.

“Because the BLM endorsement list was causing so much turmoil, I did decided (sic) to take it down until it can be verified as legit,” Abernathy wrote. “I did receive the screen shot directly from the campaign, but so many people were questioning the legitimacy of the document.”

Chism in a texted response said: “No it did not come from McDaniel Campaign. I found it online.”

Hosemann is not the only candidate angered by the flyer. Republican DeSoto sheriff’s candidate Thomas Tuggle also was listed as being endorsed. Tuggle, who is Black, is a retired Marine and former lieutenant colonel in the Mississippi Highway Patrol who said his campaign “has not and never will be associated with any group that publicly supports defunding the police.”

In a social media post about the flyer, Tuggle said: “I was recently informed of a fake document circulating implying that BLM is endorsing my candidacy. Being that the document’s address is a hair salon, I would find this laughable, but protecting the citizens of this county is no laughing matter … If you have attended our Meet and Greets, you know how fiery I am regarding anti-patriotic and anti-law enforcement groups.

“If the person behind this would spend as much time developing innovative ways to protect our citizens as they put into this amateurish document, we could possibly be a step ahead of the criminal element.”

McDaniel, a four-term state senator from Ellisville, in his unsuccessful bids for U.S. Senate has accused his Republican opponents of being too liberal, or even being Democrats in thin disguises, as he is now doing with Hosemann. He has often been at odds with the state Republican Party proper. As a senator, he has also clashed with the Senate Republican leadership including Hosemann and now-Gov. Tate Reeves, with similar claims they are too liberal.

McDaniel’s fighting with fellow Republicans and the Senate leadership over his long tenure in office has prevented his effectiveness in getting legislation passed. As opponents have noted during this election cycle, McDaniel since 2014 has authored only three bills that passed into law: one recognizing a football team, another congratulating a pageant winner and another declaring a West Nile prevention week.

Hosemann has complaints pending against McDaniel with the state attorney general’s office for what he claims are numerous, flagrant violations of state campaign finance law by McDaniel’s campaign and a now-shuttered PAC he ran. But Mississippi’s campaign finance laws are seldom enforced, and Attorney General Lynn Fitch has not indicated interest in investigating such complaints or enforcing those laws.

The post Delbert Hosemann cries foul over BLM endorsement posts, calls it ‘typical’ dirty trick by Chris McDaniel appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Attorney General Lynn Fitch wants to ensure Mississippi authorities are allowed to investigate and gather information on abortions performed out of state on Mississippi women.

Fitch, Mississippi’s first-term Republican attorney general, and 18 other state attorneys general have filed comments in opposition to a proposed change to federal regulations, known as HIPAA, that protects the privacy of people’s health care.

Under the rule change proposed by the Department of Health and Human Services, state agencies would not be able to glean information on an abortion performed in a state where abortion is legal. For instance, if a woman from Mississippi, where abortion is illegal in most instances, traveled to a state where abortions are allowed to receive the procedure, a Mississippi law enforcement agency would not be able to gather information on the procedure under the proposed rule.

Fitch and the other attorneys general, though, argue their states should be able to track that personal health care information. The comments from the attorneys general were submitted on Fitch’s letterhead to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on June 16.

The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountancy Act ensures that patient information remains private. But in the AGs’ comments in opposition to the rules change, they said there always has been an exception for law enforcement and regulatory agencies to investigate possible violations of state law or when such an investigation was to protect the public health.

“The proposed rule defies the governing statute, would unlawfully interfere with states’ authority to enforce their laws, and does not serve any legitimate need,” Fitch and the other AGs wrote. “Relying as it does on a false view of state regulation of abortion, the proposed rule is a solution in search of a problem.”

The proposed rules change comes about a year after the U.S. Supreme Court, in a Mississippi case brought by Fitch and her office, overturned the long-standing Roe v. Wade decision that guaranteed a national right to abortion. As a result of the 2022 Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, some states like Mississippi have banned abortions in most instances, while abortion remains legal in other states.

READ MORE: Mississippi Today’s full coverage of Dobbs’ effect on reproductive rights

Fitch’s office referred to her written response when asked why she opposes the rule change, since under Mississippi law a woman would not be punished for having an abortion. Mississippi law punishes health care providers for performing abortions. But Mississippi law could not punish a doctor for providing an abortion in a state where the procedure is legal.

The AGs said in their comments the issue of punishing women who receive abortions is “fearmongering” since states are not holding the women who receive abortion liable. Idaho, whose attorney general joined Fitch in opposing the proposed rules change, has passed a law that, according to reports, could criminalize a person who helps “facilitate” an abortion.

The AGs cited as an example an instance where they believed the proposed rules change would interfere with a legitimate investigation.

“Suppose that state officials had reason to believe that an abortion provider deliberately performed an abortion in violation of state law, resulting in serious injury to the woman, and that the provider then falsified medical records and referred the woman to an out-of-state provider to cover it up,” the AGs argued. “State officials would clearly have a basis to investigate that provider for a potential violation of state law.”

The attorneys general reasoned a state might need to gather information from the out of state health care provider in building its case against the doctor who performed the botched, illegal abortion.

“The proposed rule rests on the misguided assumption that it will be readily apparent or ascertainable whether particular ‘reproductive health care’ services are lawfully provided,” the AGs wrote. “But the purpose of investigation is to determine whether lawbreaking has occurred.”

READ MORE: ‘This is what happened’: Four Mississippians discuss their experiences with abortion

But the proposed rule does seem to provide exceptions to the privacy protections in unusual circumstances. It takes into account that there could be instances where out of state providers would release information to a state like Mississippi through a court order.

When the proposed rules change was announced, HHS Secretary Becerra said, “We believe that this rule will assure that doctors, other health care providers and health plans will not be disclosing individuals’ protected health information, including information related to reproductive health care under certain circumstances.”

Various groups have said that the rule could also impact issues related to gender affirming care. Many states, including Mississippi, have banned the use of gender affirming treatment for minors such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy. The rule, the attorneys general said, could impact those laws if a family from Mississippi, for instance, traveled to another state to obtain such treatment.

“The (Biden) administration may intend to use the proposed rule to obstruct state laws concerning experimental gender transition procedures for minors,” the AGs said.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, “most major medical associations” have endorsed a certain level of gender affirming treatment for minors based on the patient’s medical condition.

The post AG Lynn Fitch wants to make info on out-of-state abortions available to Mississippi authorities appeared first on Mississippi Today.

North Mississippi Health Services is laying off employees, cutting their hours and reassigning them to different jobs.

The health system announced the changes in an internal email to staff on Wednesday, sent on behalf of CEO Shane Spees. 

It is unclear how many and what kind of employees are being impacted by the layoffs and reduction in hours. Kim Marlatt, the health system’s vice president of marketing, refused to answer any questions about the decision.

“Financial losses limit the funds available to staff beds, maintain technology and grow services,” the email reads. “To fulfill our mission — our responsibility to the community to continuously improve their health — we must make our own dramatic shift at NMHS.”

The changes are part of a massive “redesign” necessitated by financial losses incurred by the pandemic and a movement in health care toward outpatient care, according to the email.

However, the same email claims that the health system has a “strong balance sheet” and has received an “A” rating for its financial management during the pandemic. 

The hospital system laid off around 100 employees, or 1.7% of its workforce, in 2013, according to a Daily Journal story.

For the next two weeks, the health system will be asking staffers to consider reassignment to different jobs, eliminating jobs and reducing hours.

“These decisions are difficult because those impacted are real people — our teammates and friends,” the email continues.

North Mississippi joins other Mississippi hospitals that have announced layoffs in recent months. 

Ochsner Health, which operates dozens of facilities in Mississippi, announced it was cutting hundreds of jobs in May. Memorial Hospital in Gulfport announced layoffs just days prior.

Other hospitals are shuttering service lines in an effort to stay open.

In June, St. Dominic Hospital in Jackson announced it was cutting 5.5% of its workforce and ending its behavioral health program.

One hospital, KPC Promise in Vicksburg, closed last month. 

A report from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform puts a third of Mississippi’s rural hospitals at risk of closure. 

The post North Mississippi health system announces layoffs appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The U.S. Department of Justice has asked to join a lawsuit challenging House Bill 1020, arguing the appointment of judges to the Hinds County Circuit Court and creation of a new separate court system in Jackson is racially discriminatory and unconstitutional. 

Those appointments, which would be made by the state’s white Supreme Court chief justice, and the Capitol Complex Improvement District court shift authority of the criminal justice system away from Hinds County voters, which violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, according to the department. 

“This thinly-veiled state takeover is intended to strip power, voice and resources away from Hinds County’s predominantly-Black electorate, singling out the majority Black Hinds County for adverse treatment imposed on no other voters in the State of Mississippi,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. 

The federal government has an “unconditional statutory right” to intervene in litigation under a federal statute, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, to intervene in cases seeking relief from alleged denial of equal protection, according to the Wednesday court motion filed by the federal government. 

Intervention in the NAACP lawsuit will allow the DOJ to bring claims against Attorney General Lynn Fitch, who is a defendant in the lawsuit, and the state of Mississippi. 

NAACP President Derrick Johnson, a Jackson resident who is a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said the DOJ’s intervention will help hold state leaders accountable for the laws they passed that undermine the vote and voices of Black Mississippians.

“When our state leaders fail those they are supposed to serve, it is only right that the federal government steps in to ensure that justice is delivered,” he said in a statement.

U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate will decide whether to allow the DOJ to intervene. 

He has temporarily blocked HB 1020 from going into effect – specifically the appointment of four judges –  until he decides whether to approve a preliminary injunction. 

The defendants have argued in court hearings and documents that the intention of HB 1020 was to address violent crime in Jackson and help a backlogged court system in Hinds County. 

In the Wednesday court filings, the DOJ specified that it will challenge parts of HB 1020 but not Senate Bill 2343. 

A challenge to that law, which expands the boundaries of the Capitol Complex Improvement District and requires state permits to hold demonstrations by governmental buildings in Jackson, was consolidated with the HB 1020 lawsuit last month. Another challenge to HB 1020 has made it to the Mississippi Supreme Court from a lawsuit that argues the law violates the state constitution by preventing Hinds County residents from electing its circuit court judges. It also says the court created by the law doesn’t meet constitutional requirements.

The post Justice Department seeks to join challenge of separate court system in Jackson appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippians will soon see a lot more of the state’s two leading candidates for governor as Democrat Brandon Presley and Republican Gov. Tate Reeves unveiled new television ads on Tuesday.

Presley began airing his first TV ad of the 2023 campaign cycle, a minute-long video detailing the struggles his family faced while growing up poor in rural Mississippi — a common message he’s pushed throughout his campaign.

“For years my mama worked at this sewing factory,” Presley said in the ad. “She grinded out each day with hands eaten up by arthritis. Those hands prayed for us nightly and loved us always. She was our rock and never let us feel as poor as we really were.” 

The ad goes on to reiterate the Democratic candidate’s support for expanding Medicaid to the working poor, reducing the sales tax on food and lowering fees for state car tags.

Given his low name ID in central and south Mississippi, television ads for Presley, who has served 15 years as north Mississippi’s utility regulator, will be crucial to his quest in trying to oust Republican Gov. Tate Reeves from office. 

Reeves on the same day released his third TV ad of the year, a 30-second clip featuring one of his daughters playing soccer and touting his support for laws that bar transgender youth from competing in sporting events.

“Now, political radicals are trying to ruin women’s sports, letting biological men get the opportunities meant for women,” Reeves said. “We have to draw the line here in Mississippi, and as your governor, you know I will.” 

Reeves, running for a second four-year term as governor, has used anti-trans rhetoric throughout his campaign and highlighted his efforts to prevent trans athletes from competing in women’s sports.

“You see in Mississippi we decided we’re going to let boys play boy’s sports, and we’re going to let girls play girl’s sports,” Reeves said earlier this month in Alcorn County. 

The first-term governor in 2021 signed legislation into law prohibiting trans athletes from playing in women’s sports. Republican Sen. Angela Hill of Picayune authored the legislation and said at the time she did not know of any specific instances of trans athletes trying out for women’s sports in Mississippi. 

The post In new TV ads, Presley promotes helping poor Mississippians while Reeves pushes trans athletes ban appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Mississippi Division of Medicaid removed 29,000 Mississippians from its rolls, marking the first wave of disenrollments as the agency reviews eligibility of its beneficiaries after the end of pandemic-era protections. 

As disenrollments continue, the leader of an organization tasked with serving as one of Medicaid’s community partners doesn’t think the agency is doing enough to get the word out about redeterminations. 

Roy Mitchell is the executive director of the Mississippi Health Advocacy Program, an organization aimed at improving health policies in Mississippi that was chosen as a community partner for Medicaid in increasing public awareness about redeterminations. 

Mitchell’s organization has received materials from Medicaid to spread the word about redetermination, but he thought there would be more coordination between the two groups.

Instead, communications with Medicaid have been sparse, he said.

“Even though we’ve enlisted in this, we get emails maybe once a month,” Mitchell said. “Right now, communications with the community and advocates should be stronger than it’s ever been. Now is not the time to go radio silent in the middle of this complex process that could have grave health and financial consequences for Mississippi families.”

Division of Medicaid spokesperson Matt Westerfield did not respond to Mississippi Today’s questions about the amount of emails, letters and other forms of outreach that have been disseminated since the inception of the agency’s “Stay Covered” campaign to bring awareness to the end of the federal COVID-19 emergency and ensuing redeterminations. He also did not answer questions about the demographic breakdown of the people who were disenrolled or how many people the Mississippi Division of Medicaid estimated would ultimately lose coverage in total.

Mississippi Today also asked Medicaid Executive Director Drew Snyder for a sit-down or phone interview with a Medicaid employee who could answer questions about the unwinding process. Snyder did not respond by the time of the story’s publication.

Mississippi is one of only three states that does not have Medicaid online accounts as of January 2023, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Medicaid is a federal-state program that provides health insurance for low-income people. State Medicaid agencies, which administer the program, were prohibited by federal law from removing people from its rolls starting March 2020 during the COVID-19 public health emergency.

Mississippi Medicaid enrollment increased by 187,894 people, or 26%, from March 2020 to June of this year, the agency said in a press release Monday.

In Mississippi, long one of the poorest states in the nation, last month was the first time in Medicaid’s history that its rolls went over 900,000. 

The agency in April began examining the records of 67,695 Mississippians whose coverage would be up for review in June. It found that 29,000, or 43%, were no longer eligible. That’s about 3% of the agency’s total June enrollment. 

Many of them could be children — kids in low-income families make up more than half of Mississippi’s overall Medicaid beneficiaries. 

About 60% of the 29,000 who were removed from Medicaid’s rolls had remained insured during the pandemic because of the extended eligibility rules, according to the agency. 

In its press release, Medicaid said if beneficiaries believe they have been disenrolled in error, they can appeal the determination. If disenrolled because beneficiaries didn’t provide information required to remain enrolled, once that information is provided, that coverage may be reinstated. 

Westerfield said people whose membership could be not automatically re-enrolled were mailed renewal forms in mid-April. They had 30 days to complete and return that paperwork — if they didn’t, they were disenrolled, and have 120 days to be reconsidered without a new application.

More than 1 million people nationwide have been removed from Medicaid so far, many for not filling out paperwork, indicating that they might still be qualified for coverage. 

Mississippi Medicaid’s “Stay Covered” campaign used outreach efforts including postcard mailing, text and email blasts and flyers to inform Mississippians about the redeterminations and the importance of updating their contact information. 

Mitchell has been monitoring the disenrollment process closely and said awareness could be aided by “genuine interaction” and collaboration between Medicaid and its community partners. 

As an increasing number of Mississippians are disenrolled, Mitchell said it will put further stress on the state’s already-strained hospital system, especially in a non-expansion state such as Mississippi. 

One report puts a third of the state’s rural hospitals at risk of closure, and Republican state leaders have long opposed expanding Medicaid to the working poor. 

“More Mississippians will join the ranks of the uninsured,” Mitchell said. “And a lot of people may not know their eligibility status until they show up to a provider, and that’s a concern.”

Redeterminations will continue for a year. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that up to 24 million people nationally could lose Medicaid coverage during the unwinding.

The post ‘Now is not the time to go radio silent’: Medicaid drops 29,000 Mississippians appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Over 100 middle and high school students visited the University of Mississippi Medical Center for a program aimed at attracting Black men to health care fields.

READ MORE: ‘This is where it starts’: UMMC summit aims to increase number of Black men in health care

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The post The Pulse: Black Men in Health Care Empowerment Summit appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippians convicted of certain felonies have few options to regain their voting rights — a standard practice in most other states — after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to take up a case attempting to end the lifetime ban on voting.

The nation’s highest court, by a 7-2 vote in late June, refused to hear a Mississippi lawsuit arguing that the state’s lifetime ban on voting for people convicted of certain felonies was unconstitutional. Racist white lawmakers in 1890 who wrote the provision into the current Mississippi Constitution said plainly that they adopted it to keep African Americans from voting.

READ MORE: Attorney General Lynn Fitch argues in federal court that Jim Crow-era voting ban should be upheld

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the Mississippi case, the state remains in the minority as one of fewer than 10 to impose a lifetime ban on voting for people convicted of felonies.

It also appears efforts to remove the ban through the courts have been exhausted. Legal advocates who have long been fighting the Jim Crow provision are now turning their focus to the only viable solution left: the legislative process.

“At a time when most states have repealed their disfranchisement laws, we need to remove from Mississippi’s Constitution this backward provision that was enacted for racist reasons,” said Vangela M. Wade, the president and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Justice, which helped craft the lawsuit that was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. “Here in the 21st Century, just and reasonable minded people must not allow this outdated relic of the 19th Century to stand or define a new Mississippi. The Legislature now has the duty to begin the repeal process.”

The most obvious way to repeal the lifetime ban is to amend the Mississippi Constitution. There is currently one way to amend the Mississippi Constitution: the Legislature, by a two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate, must pass a resolution proposing a change. Then, voters on a statewide ballot must approve that change.

Florida voters recently approved a repeal of that state’s lifetime ban on people convicted of felonies being able to vote. But in Florida, the proposal to repeal the lifetime ban was done through a voter ballot initiative instead of through the Legislature.

Mississippi, though, no longer has an initiative process, which allows voters to gather enough signatures to bypass the Legislature and place an issue directly on the ballot. Mississippi’s voter initiative was struck down by the state Supreme Court in 2021, and the Legislature, despite repeated promises from its leaders, has refused to pass a resolution to restore the process.

There is a way for disenfranchised voters to have their voting rights restored under the current Mississippi Constitution. But that process is rarely used and incredibly cumbersome. The Legislature, by a two-thirds vote, can restore voting rights. Historically, the Legislature has restored the rights one person at a time by passing individual resolutions. But there appears to be a consensus that legislators could pass one bill enacting rights for a large group of people. In the 1940s, for example, legislators passed a bill restoring voting rights for people convicted of felonies who served in World War II.

Additionally, the governor can restore voting rights. But both current Gov. Tate Reeves and his predecessor, Phil Bryant, have refused to grant any pardons.

In other states, governors have restored voting rights to large groups of people in a single order. It is not clear whether a Mississippi governor could do the same, and such a gubernatorial effort might face a court challenge.

All said, there is no indication that the current Republican leadership is interested in restoring voting rights on a large basis to people convicted of felonies. Since they took control of both chambers of the Legislature and the Governor’s Mansion in 2012, Republicans have been reluctant to restore voting rights.

Lawmakers did not restore anyone’s voting rights during the 2023 legislative session.

READ MORE: Key GOP lawmaker says ‘it’s past time’ to address Mississippi’s lifetime felony voting ban

In 2022, the Legislature did pass a bill to clarify that people who had certain primarily non-violent convictions expunged would regain the right to vote. But Reeves vetoed the bill, and legislators made no effort to override the veto.

Years ago, efforts were made to reach a compromise. Under the current legal system, people convicted of certain serious crimes, such as selling drugs or sexual assault of minors, do not lose the right to vote and can even continue to vote while incarcerated. On the other hand, people convicted of what many would consider lesser crimes, such as writing a bad check, lose their right to vote forever.

To address that disparity, some lawmakers over the years proposed banning all people from voting while they were in state custody, but allow them to vote once they finished their sentences. None of those bills, however, have been adopted.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote a blistering dissent arguing the Supreme Court should take up the case challenging the constitutionality of the Mississippi provision.

In response, Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens said he would take steps when possible to ensure people did not lose their voting rights.

“My office will seek to protect the accused’s voting rights, where possible, when making charging decisions,” Owens said in a news release. “If a person is accused of a disenfranchising crime, and a parallel charge is available that does not affect his or her voting rights, my office will proceed on the parallel charge. I challenge other district attorneys across the state to join me in taking up Justice Jackson’s charge and adopt similar policies to protect our citizens from discriminatory disenfranchisement.”

Those crimes placed in the constitution where conviction costs a person the right to vote are bribery, theft, arson, obtaining money or goods under false pretense, perjury, forgery, embezzlement, bigamy and burglary. The framers of the constitution did not include murder and rape as disenfranchising crimes, though they were added years later. More recently, the list has been expanded through opinions of the state Attorney General to include modern day crimes that matched those included in the 1890 Constitution.

The framers of the Mississippi Constitution said plainly in 1890 that they included those crimes because they believed African Americans were more likely to commit them. The framers also included other racist provisions to keep Black Mississippians from voting, such as poll taxes and so-called literacy tests.

Those provisions, unlike felony suffrage, were all struck down by the federal courts — not by state legislative action.

READ MORE: Gov. Tate Reeves vetoes bill easing Jim Crow-era voting restrictions

The post Few options remain for Mississippians convicted of certain felonies to regain voting rights appeared first on Mississippi Today.