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The post Marshall Ramsey: Tidal Wave appeared first on Mississippi Today.

As the state’s health care crisis persists, four more Mississippi hospitals have applied to become rural emergency hospitals, a federal designation meant to increase their financial viability.

The “rural emergency hospital” designation – a move State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney likened to a hospital closure – was rolled out at the beginning of this year. To qualify, hospitals have to end inpatient services and transfer emergency room patients to larger hospitals within 24 hours. In exchange, they get monthly stipends from the federal government and higher insurance reimbursement rates. 

If approved, the hospitals – Quitman Community Hospital in Marks, Panola Medical Center in Batesville, Jefferson County Hospital in Fayette and Magee General Hospital – would be some of the first rural emergency hospitals in the country.  Just a handful have been approved so far, including Alliance Healthcare System in Holly Springs, according to a database last updated on Aug. 15.

For rural hospitals with an already-small daily census, it can be a lifeline — instead of losing money on what few patients they have, the adjusted reimbursements help them break even or even profit.

However, for the communities with only one hospital, it means the end of inpatient health care and a hospital with little more than an emergency room.

In an interview with Mississippi Today in February, Edney said converting to a rural emergency hospital was basically a closure.

“It’s mainly critical access hospitals that are shifting, and when that happens, you’ve lost the hospital,” he said. “It’s a critical access hospital without the hospital.”

Critical access hospitals — another designation designed to improve hospital finances — are reimbursed by Medicare at a 101% rate, theoretically allowing a 1% profit. However, they must have 25 or fewer inpatient beds, be located 35 miles from another hospital, operate emergency services and transfer or discharge their patients within 96 hours. 

In Mississippi, where nearly a half of rural hospitals are at risk of closure, others think the conversion is worth keeping the hospital functionally open.

Quentin Whitwell, an attorney from Oxford, is one of those. He was behind the effort in Holly Springs as co-owner of the hospital, as well as in Georgia where two of the country’s first rural emergency hospitals were approved. He’s also spearheading the change at three of the four hospitals that have applied in recent weeks: Quitman Community Hospital, Panola Medical Center and Jefferson County Hospital.

Whitwell co-owns the Quitman and Panola hospitals and is working as a consultant for Jefferson County Hospital, he said.

The fourth hospital pursuing the designation is Magee General Hospital, led by CEO Gregg Gibbes. 

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency primarily responsible for approving these conversions along with the state Health Department, would not comment on pending applications. 

While some see the new designation as a last resort for struggling hospitals at the brink of closure, Whitwell views it as a way to streamline services and create a financially successful hospital that serves the specific needs of the community. 

“It’s a game changer for a lot of hospitals,” he said. “What we’re trying to do is create a model that makes these hospitals vibrant again.”

Gibbes stressed that hospital leadership at Magee are pursuing the designation as an option – a decision has not yet been made. 

“The plan is to exhaust all efforts to make sure that the organization and ultimately health care is delivered in Magee and the surrounding areas,” he said. “Applying for the rural emergency hospital status is so that we can have an option, should we get approved.”

The hospital, which was in bankruptcy when Gibbes took over in 2019, survived the pandemic — but just barely, with the help of COVID-19 relief funds. He said the hospital is essentially breaking even, and hospital leadership wants to make sure, now that those one-time funds that kept them afloat have dried up, that the hospital remains viable for years to come. 

The hospital, licensed for 44 beds, has an average daily census of 13 people, Gibbes said. He said that’s why it makes sense to explore the rural emergency hospital designation. 

“This is just under consideration,” he said. 

Whitwell, who acknowledged he’s become somewhat of the “REH guy” across the country — he recently spoke at a CMS event about the benefits of the designation — is exploring turning more of his hospitals into rural emergency hospitals for a different reason. 

“I believe in this model, and I want to help, but I also think that a lot of people are going to miss the mark on it,” he said. “And I want to be the guy that CMS holds up … and says, ‘This is how you do it.’”

In Panola, for example, the hospital is losing money on its psychiatric unit, and he sees the new designation as a way to focus its resources on what the hospital already does well: outpatient services. 

“I believe that Panola is going to be probably the most robust REH in the country,” he said. “But we’re definitely losing money right now in psychiatric inpatient services.”

Panola Medical Center, aside from a long-term care facility, is the only hospital in Batesville, a town in north Mississippi with a population of around 7,000, according to the most recent census data. 

Over the years, the hospital has shut down different portions of its psych unit – the geriatric psych section is the only part left. If they qualify as an REH, those remaining beds will have to be closed. But hospital leaders stressed that’s a last resort and would only be considered when their application is finalized. 

In recent months, St. Dominic closed its behavioral health services unit, which provides inpatient mental health and geriatric psychiatric treatment and was one of the only single point-of-entry hospitals for Hinds Behavioral Health Services for people with mental health issues in the metro area. The following weeks saw consistently full beds at Jackson-area psychiatric units.

While Whitwell recognizes closing those beds will be a loss to the community, he said that it might be the only way to turn the hospital’s finances around.

In the meantime, he’s been pitching legislators on changing certificate of need laws to create a hospital within a hospital in order to keep those beds open. 

The Quitman hospital got its letter of approval from CMS on Aug. 31. Once the state Health Department finalizes paperwork on its end, Whitwell said the hospital will begin operating as an REH, retroactively effective Aug. 1. 

Aside from a 5-year period in which it was closed, Quitman Community Hospital has been a critical access hospital since January 2004, Whitwell said.

He said Jefferson County Hospital leadership anticipates final approval in the near future and expects to receive its first federal check by October at the latest.

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One incumbent state House member was defeated in Tuesday’s party primary election and another, veteran Rep. Nick Bain of Corinth, appears dangerously close to losing.

Runoff elections were held Tuesday for various county posts throughout the state, including for six state House seats. Runoff elections were required in contests where no candidate garnered a majority vote in the Aug. 8 first primary.

RESULTS: Mississippi primary runoff election 2023

In House District 2, which encompasses much of Alcorn County in northeast Mississippi, Bain, who served the past four legislative sessions as Judiciary B chair, was trailing Brad Mattox 2,351 votes to 2,329 votes.

The only votes left to be counted are mail-in ballots and votes cast by people who voted without a government-issued photo identification. Mail-in ballots must be postmarked by election day, but can be delivered via mail up to five days after the election. And people who voted without an ID have five days to return to the clerk’s office with an ID and have their vote counted.

“I do not intend to concede, and we will have a team of lawyers looking at the process next week,” Bain told Mississippi Today.

The constitution gives state House members the ultimate authority to decide who to seat in the chamber. The loser of the election could file an election challenge with the House that would be decided during the upcoming 2024 session.

Also on Tuesday, first-term incumbent Dale Goodin, R-Richton, lost his runoff to Elliott Burch 3,167 votes to 1,047.

Burch will face Democrat Matthew Daves in the November general election in House District 105 located in southeast Mississippi.

In Jackson District 66 in a Democratic runoff, Fabian Nelson defeated Roshunda Harris-Allen 1,296 votes to 582 in incomplete returns.

Annise Parker, chief executive officer of the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, said Nelson will be the first openly LGBTQ+ member elected to the Mississippi Legislature. Nelson will not face a challenge in the November general election.

“Representation matters – especially in Mississippi, which is one of the last two states to achieve the milestone of electing an out LGBTQ+ lawmakers,” Parker said. “Voters in Mississippi should be proud of the history they’ve made, but also proud to know they’ll be well represented by Fabian. Fabian’s victory is a testament to his dedication to his community and the thoughtful diligent work he put into winning this campaign.”

There were two other party runoff primaries in races centered in Jackson.

In a Democratic runoff in District 72, Justis Gibbs, the son of the former incumbent in the district Debra Gibbs, defeated Rukia Lumumba, the sister of Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba. Gibbs won the contest 1,558 votes to 982 in incomplete returns.

And in the Democratic runoff in Jackson House District 69, Tamarra Butler-Washington defeated Patty Patterson by 909 votes to 524 votes.

On the Gulf Coast in District 115, Republican Zachary Grady defeated Felix Gines 718 votes to 445 votes in incomplete returns.

The only House winner from Tuesday who will face opposition in November is Burch in District 105.

READ MORE: Six House runoff elections slated for Tuesday, including for two incumbents

The post One House incumbent loses in Tuesday runoffs, another still trails appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Tag appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Biden administration has picked the first 10 high-priced prescription drugs subject to federal price negotiations, taking a swipe at the powerful pharmaceutical industry. It marks a major turning point in a long-fought battle to control ever-rising drug prices for seniors and, eventually, other Americans.

Under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, Congress gave the federal government the power to negotiate prices for certain high-cost drugs under Medicare. The list of drugs selected by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will grow over time.

The first eligible drugs treat diabetes, blood clots, blood cancers, arthritis, and heart disease — and accounted for about $50 billion in spending from June 2022 to May 2023.

The United States is clearly an outlier on drug costs, with drugmakers charging Americans many times more than residents of other countries “simply because they could,” Biden said Tuesday at the White House. “I think it’s outrageous. That’s why these negotiations matter.”

He added, “We’re going to keep standing up to Big Pharma and we’re not going to back down.”

Democratic lawmakers cheered the announcement, and the pharmaceutical industry, which has filed a raft of lawsuits against the law, condemned it.

The companies have until Oct. 2 to present data on their drugs to CMS, which will make initial price offers in February, setting off negotiations set to end next August. The prices would go into effect in January 2026.

Here are five things to know about the impact:

1. How important is this step?

Medicare has long been in control of the prices for its services, setting physician payments and hospital payments for about 65 million Medicare beneficiaries. But it was previously prohibited from involvement in pricing prescription drugs, which it started covering in 2006.

Until now the drug industry has successfully fought off price negotiations with Washington, although in most of the rest of the world governments set prices for medicines. While the first 10 drugs selected for negotiations are used by a minority of patients — 9 million — CMS plans by 2029 to have negotiated prices for 50 drugs on the market.

“There’s a symbolic impact, but also Medicare spent $50 billion on these 10 drugs in a 12-month period. That’s a lot of money,” said Juliette Cubanski, deputy director of KFF’s analysis of Medicare policy.

The long-term consequences of the new policy are unknown, said Alice Chen, vice dean for research at University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy. The drug industry says the negotiations are essentially price controls that will stifle drug development, but the Congressional Budget Office estimated only a few drugs would not be developed each year as a result of the policy.

Biden administration officials say reining in drug prices is key to slowing the skyrocketing costs of U.S. health care.

2. How will the negotiations affect Medicare patients?

In some cases, patients may save a lot of money, but the main thrust of Medicare price negotiation policy is to provide savings to the Medicare program — and taxpayers — by lowering its overall costs.

The drugs selected by CMS range from specialized, hyper-expensive drugs like the cancer pill Imbruvica (used by about 26,000 patients in 2021 at an annual price of $121,000 per patient) to extremely common medications such as Eliquis (a blood thinner for which Medicare paid about $4,000 each for 3.1 million patients).

While the negotiations could help patients whose Medicare drug plans require them to make large copayments for drugs, the relief for patients will come from another segment of the Inflation Reduction Act that caps drug spending by Medicare recipients at $2,000 per year starting in 2025.

3. What do the Medicare price negotiations mean for those not on Medicare?

One theory is that reducing the prices drug companies can charge in Medicare will lead them to increase prices for the privately insured.

But that would be true only if companies aren’t already pricing their drugs as high as the private market will bear, said Tricia Neuman, executive director of KFF’s program on Medicare policy.

Another theory is that Medicare price negotiations will equip private health plans to drive a harder bargain. David Mitchell, president of the advocacy group Patients for Affordable Drugs, predicted that disclosure of negotiated Medicare prices “will embolden and arm private sector negotiators to seek that lower price for those they cover.”

Stacie B. Dusetzina, a professor of health policy at Vanderbilt University, said the effect on pricing outside Medicare isn’t clear.

“I’d hedge my bet that it doesn’t change,” she said.

Nonetheless, Dusetzina described one way it could: Because the government will be selecting drugs for Medicare negotiations based partly on the listed gross prices for the drugs — distinct from the net cost after rebates are taken into account — the process could give drug companies an incentive to lower the list prices and narrow the gap between gross and net. That could benefit people outside Medicare whose out-of-pocket payments are pegged to the list prices, she said.

4. What are drug companies doing to stop this?

Even though negotiated prices won’t take effect until 2026, drug companies haven’t wasted time turning to the courts to try to stop the new program in its tracks.

At least six drug companies have filed lawsuits to halt the Medicare drug negotiation program, as have the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, known as PhRMA.

The lawsuits include a variety of legal arguments. Merck & Co., Johnson & Johnson, and Bristol Myers Squibb are among the companies arguing their First Amendment rights are being violated because the program would force them to make statements on negotiated prices they believe are untrue. Lawsuits also say the program unconstitutionally coerces drugmakers into selling their products at inadequate prices.

“It is akin to the Government taking your car on terms that you would never voluntarily accept and threatening to also take your house if you do not ‘agree’ that the taking was ‘fair,’” Janssen, part of Johnson & Johnson, wrote in its lawsuit.

Nicholas Bagley, a law professor at the University of Michigan, predicted the lawsuits would fail because Medicare is a voluntary program for drug companies, and those wishing to participate must abide by its rules.

5. What if a drug suddenly gets cheaper by 2026?

In theory, it could happen. Under guidelines CMS issued this year, the agency will cancel or adjourn negotiations on any drug on its list if a cheaper copycat version enters the market and finds substantial buyers.

According to company statements this year, two biosimilar versions of Stelara, a Johnson & Johnson drug on the list, are prepared to launch in early 2025. If they succeed, it would presumably scotch CMS’ plan to demand a lower price for Stelara.

Other drugs on the list have managed to maintain exclusive rights for decades. For example, Enbrel, which the FDA first approved in 1998 and cost Medicare $1.5 billion in 2021, will not face competition until 2029 at the earliest.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

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Rankin County residents could face a huge tax bill for current and future litigation involving the Rankin County “Goon Squad,” which tortured two handcuffed Black men and shot one of them, legal experts say.

Rankin officials should prepare for a flood of litigation that could cost taxpayers “many, many millions of dollars,” said Ron Silver of Portland, Oregon, who conducted the first nationwide training for federal prosecutors on how to try excessive force cases after the successful prosecution of the Los Angeles police officers who beat Rodney King in 1991.

In his 33 years of investigating police brutality and handling civil rights litigation, he said he has “never seen something this sadistic and corrupt” as the Jan. 24 attack that the self-proclaimed “Goon Squad” of five Rankin County deputies and a Richland police officer carried out during a warrantless forced entry, torturing and sexually abusing suspects, using “clean” thrown down weapons, planting evidence, beating suspects to coerce confessions, stealing property, conspiring to create cover stories and obstructing justice.

“This case involved race-based, vigilante terror justice,” Silver said. “I can’t tell you how many law enforcement officers are going to read this and be sick to their stomach.”

His personal feelings, he said, are “these dirty officers should stay locked up until hell freezes over.”

A $400 million lawsuit has already been filed by the two Black men who were terrorized, Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker. The six former law enforcement officers, who have already pleaded guilty to state and federal charges, face sentencing in October, and the FBI investigation is continuing.

Silver said the potential for vast monetary damages against Rankin County is enormous. “There are unquestionably going to be other victims found,” he said. “They will all have strong civil rights cases against the officers and the county.”

Should the investigation discover evidence that knowledge of the Goon Squad went past the lieutenant and chief investigator, who have both pleaded guilty to charges, “the financial risk to Rankin County increases exponentially in my judgment,” he said. “Rankin County needs to be prepared for a huge financial toll from what it tolerated by its officers.”

From 1982 to 1991, Silver worked for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, where there were drug-related asset forfeiture cases. “I remember us discussing amongst ourselves that there was no way for a single deputy to skim money. It would only work if the whole squad was dirty,” he said. “Much to our shock it turned out the whole squad was dirty.”

As a result, many convictions were overturned, many more cases were dismissed, and deputies went to prison, he said. The same thing could happen in Rankin County, he said.

In the end, the toll could cause taxpayers to pay higher taxes and might even cause the county to go bankrupt, he said. That’s what happened in 1983 in South Tucson, Arizona, after a settlement in a police shooting case cost $4.5 million.

After police in Minneapolis killed George Floyd in 2020, taxpayers had to pay for a $27 million settlement with his family, pushing the city to the brink financially.

U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., and U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., have pushed for a bill that would create a database of misconduct judgments and settlements involving law enforcement. The Legal Defense Fund’s Thurgood Marshall Institute currently maintains a database of such judgments and settlements.

Longtime civil rights lawyer Rob McDuff of Jackson said Mississippi law regarding county liability “is complicated, but generally speaking, a county is liable for its unconstitutional customs and policies but not the unconstitutional actions of its officers on a single occasion. 

“However, if those officers keep doing it again and again under the nose of the sheriff, as it seems happened here, the practice becomes a custom and an unwritten policy and the county has to pay. Given the extreme injuries and the wrongful deaths that occurred at the hands of the self-proclaimed ‘Goon Squad’ of Rankin County, I anticipate the county will have to pay many millions of dollars before it’s all over.”

In a statement, the Rankin County Board of Supervisors called the actions of these former deputies “criminal and must be punished.”

The supervisors said such criminal behavior “will not be condoned or tolerated in this community. Sheriff Bailey, his staff, and the dozens of other Rankin County deputies who faithfully and professionally serve this community run an effective, law-abiding operation that respects the right of all citizens to be free from the disturbing and criminal actions of these former deputies. We are confident that our criminal justice system is dealing appropriately with this situation and that these individuals will be punished accordingly for their actions.”

Asked about the possible financial cost to Rankin County, David Slay, attorney for the Rankin County Board of Supervisors, said the board had no other comments beyond its statement.

David Fathi, director of the ACLU National Prison Project, said he has never seen anything like the admissions these deputies made in federal court. “If you’d told me this was Mississippi in 1965,” he said, “I’d still find it hard to believe.”

Jerry Mitchell runs the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting at Mississippi Today. 

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Dependent on her satellite service for an internet connection at her home in rural Sharon in Madison County, Nunn experienced slow internet and static calls to customers, resulting in repeated questions and statements.

After being given two weeks without pay by her employer to look for another internet service, Nunn had no luck. She was let go. 

Nunn went eight months without a job and almost had her car repossessed over something she said she “had no absolute control over.”

“It was the most horrific day of my life to lose a good job,” Nunn told Mississippi Today, “not because I did anything wrong – or wasn’t completing my tasks – but because of the internet.” 

Two years ago, the Madison County Board of Supervisors approved funding for over 370 miles of high speed internet to cover more than 4,000 homes in the rural northeast areas of Madison County in District 5 – carried out in collaboration with Comcast.

These areas include Camden, Sharon, Pine Grove and some parts of Canton. 

As of Aug. 17,  zero areas have been covered within this newly estimated $17 million project, said District 5 Supervisor Paul Griffin, president of the Madison County Board of Supervisors. 

The original $22 million cost was lowered a month ago after Comcast conducted a walkthrough of where fiber would be installed. 

Federal officials have been pouring billions of dollars into the expansion of high-speed internet in Mississippi, yet the tedious process of selecting providers and distributing funds has resulted in a slow rollout. 

After receiving no actions and few answers from county officials, residents in the rural northeast portions of Madison County are left wondering when broadband will come to their area.

Griffin said “red tape” – actions the government requires to perform services – have delayed the project’s progress.

“It is not Madison County. It’s been the federal government getting the money down to the local government,” Griffin told Mississippi Today. “The district is waiting on the funds that have gone through the government down to the state, to move from the state down to internet providers.”

Madison County, which received over $20 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds, set aside $10 million for the project but now is contributing half of that. The county applied for a Capital Project Fund aid match through the Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi office. 

If the county receives the grant, Comcast will also contribute funds up to $7 million to cover the remaining balance, the Board of Supervisors said. 

With only partial funds in hand, the project remains at a standstill. 

And of the areas unserved, at least half are in the rural northern areas that Griffin said are to be prioritized.

As this delay continues, many of Madison County’s schoolchildren and adults, particularly in the least wealthy parts of the county, can’t access high-speed internet. Griffin’s advice is to just keep holding on.

“There was no future to get the internet at all until two years ago when federal funding started coming down,” Griffin told Mississippi Today. “We’ve held on that long. Hopefully we can hold on for another year.”

In Sharon, nearly all –  over 94% – of locations are considered unserved and underserved, according to data collected in 2022. 

When it was announced broadband high-speed internet was coming to Nunn’s area, she said she believed the community was progressing and the Board of Supervisors cared about its citizens. But with the prolonged wait, the mother of three says it’s becoming difficult to raise her family in the area she loves and grew up in.

“This is my livelihood. This is how I provide for my family,” Nunn said. “The world is technology now. You need the internet to basically do anything.” 

In rural areas like Nunn’s without cable, fiber, or DSL internet access, the commonly served satellite internet providers are Viasat and HughesNet. Satellite internet is the only thing she’s able to get, but these services are not recommended for those who work from home and need high-speed connection. 

The 24-year-old said she has satellite internet service with Viasat, but the 100 GB plan package she needs runs $275.45 per month, which is higher than the average cost of satellite service ($100). Nunn said the 100 GB wouldn’t even last her two days before it’s used up and begins to run slow. 

“This is becoming too much. People in the Canton area mention to me that I can get Xfinity Internet that’s priced at $10 or $13 per month because I have low income and children,” Nunn continued. “I go to check. But the providers, of course, say that they don’t operate in my area.”

Sally Doty, director of the Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi office, said her office is working to develop a new map to be released within the next month or two that will provide an accurate representation of broadband availability across the state. 

This map will be funded by the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program through Doty’s office out of the $1.2 billion Mississippi will receive to serve approximately 300,000 unserved and 200,000 underserved locations across the state.  

Doty said this new map will help the office accurately determine where funding should be allocated and what areas still need to be addressed. It will also help residents determine what services are available to them.

“We are really kind of turning to a new way of keeping up with who has what service in some areas,” Doty continued. “As we do with all of the grants from our office and any grant that we give out, we are going to know the exact location and the addresses where (the awardee) is going to provide service.”

The broadband deployment program will begin its application process after money from the Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund has been dispersed.

A few hours before the application for those funds closed Aug. 17, there were 103 applications and over 100 applications in progress. Of the $356.4 million that providers are asking from Doty’s office, only $162 million will be dispersed.

As more funding is distributed, Doty said the number of unserved and underserved residents will continue to shift.

“We have 268,000 unserved, but I’m not quite sure how many we will serve with this (coronavirus fund) … We hope about 35,000 or more. Then, we’re down to 233,000 unserved, so that gives us more for the underserved,” Doty told Mississippi Today. “It’s a moving target all the time.”

Johnson has two children, ages 15 and 16, who are required to do virtual learning and submit assignments online. But with no access to high-speed internet at home, the children have missed deadlines to turn homework in by 11:59 p.m.

Johnson said she had to call the school several times to explain their situation and plead for understanding to be granted to her children. 

She said she hoped to never experience hurdles like this again and to provide her children with the same educational opportunities as the rest of the county. But because the situation has persisted for so long, she is starting to feel forgotten.

“Everything is prospering and growing around us, except for our area,” Johnson told Mississippi Today. “It makes you feel like you’re in a foreign country.”

People in the community like Johnson also see benefits of working from home, considering the lack of opening positions in the area. 

“There are no jobs in Sharon. The closest thing to me would be Canton, but with gas prices, you can’t get very far” Johnson said. “If you have to go 30 miles to at least get a minimum wage, then that’s not benefiting anyone.”

According to Census Bureau data, the average commute time to work in Sharon was 52.5 minutes compared to the state’s average commute time of 25.2 minutes. 

Johnson said she doesn’t know how people are supposed to manage with so little resources that help the community to grow economically and socially. 

“We have always got the short end of everything out here.” Johnson stated. 

In early August, the California-based organization submitted a report to Mississippi’s broadband office integrating the stories and recommendations of residents and community leaders in Utica, pushing for internet access and a visit from officials.

“How can (officials) have any sense of what kind of solutions a community wants, if they haven’t even come and told the community about what kind of solutions are possible?” Brandon Forester, the national organizer for internet rights at MediaJustice, told Mississippi Today. 

Forester works to help communities see that they can have a role, have agency and make decisions about the technology in their community. Forester said he relied on the power of storytelling to detail the barriers and solutions to broadband access as identified by the experiences of residents of Utica. 

“The report was to say these people exist. They’re 45 minutes down the road from the Capitol. These people are completely disconnected,” Forester continued. “And the state doesn’t even realize it.” 

Utica, a rural town in Hinds County of around 600 residents, found itself grappling with similar problems as those in rural Sharon: lack of internet access and high internet rates. 

Forester said some residents reported not receiving the service they paid for and others required different levels of service needs. Forester said ultimately, a common theme was that the internet was too expensive. 

“Part of that is because companies essentially are monopolies. AT&T and HughesNet are not competing for the same customers, so providers are able to put whatever pricing they want on these folks,” Forester said, referring to studies conducted by the Los Angeles Times and The Markup.

In rural communities, assistance can be slow due to multiple factors, but one reason is that internet providers need incentives.

Forester said for large, publicly traded corporations, their incentives may be to maximize profits for shareholders. For Electric Co-Ops – private, nonprofit companies delivering electricity to customers –, their goal may be to connect as many people as possible.

Forester said he thinks about people’s abilities to have telehealth savings, access to education and entertainment, if only rural communities had high-speed internet. 

“(MediaJustice) is trying to help people figure out how to organize their resources because it may not be that the right internet solution for one area is the same as it is for another neighborhood,” Forester explained. “It’s not about us saying this is the best thing for someone, but it’s about a community being able to make choices regarding how technology shows up for them.”

The post Two years after funds were obligated to bring high-speed internet to more than 4,000 homes in rural northeast Madison County, zero have been served appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Cleveland boys watched their first high school football games of the season last week and head full throttle into college football this coming weekend. At first glance, Oak Grove and Picayune look like powerhouse teams, which is nothing new for either.

Stream all episodes here.

The post Podcast: Football is here! appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Police in two Pine Belt towns have found no evidence to back up a claim made Monday by Republican Gov. Tate Reeves’ campaign that members of their Democratic opponent’s campaign recently vandalized businesses.

TV station WDAM reported someone in early July sprayed the message “Tate Reeves stole our money” on the side of a business in downtown Hattiesburg, and the station tweeted on Monday that someone last weekend sprayed a similar message on a Purvis business.

Reeves’ campaign manager Elliott Husbands sent a Monday release to reporters across the state claiming that Presley “and his team are so desperate to save their failing campaign that they have no resorted to vandalizing Mississippi small businesses” with messages related to the state’s sprawling welfare scandal.

But there is no evidence that anyone connected to the Presley campaign or a Presley supporter is behind the incident.

Local law enforcement in the south Mississippi towns said they have placed no one in custody in connection to the two events, meaning there is no way the campaign can credibly accuse the Presley campaign of orchestrating the events.

Purvis Police Detective Jimmy Green told Mississippi Today that the incident there launched an ongoing investigation, and the department has not placed anyone in custody or charged anyone with a crime in connection to the incident. 

“I don’t see any kind of connection that this has anything to do with a campaign,” Green said on Tuesday.

Samantha Alexander, the chief communications officer for the city of Hattiesburg, told Mississippi Today in a statement that a police report was filed about the July spray painting incident, but “there have been no leads in the investigation.”

Communications officials from the Reeves campaign declined to comment when asked to clarify the discrepancy or offer new evidence to support their claim about the incident.

Presley told reporters at a Monday press conference that he had “no clue” what Reeves’ campaign was talking about with the accusation that someone connected to him was responsible for the graffiti. 

“I know nothing about it,” Presley said of the graffiti. “This is the first I’ve ever heard of it.”

The post Police have no evidence to back up Reeves campaign claim that ‘Presley team’ vandalized businesses appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Gov. Tate Reeves, who has continued to staunchly oppose expanding Medicaid in Mississippi, appears to have attended a meeting in May about “Medicaid policies,” according to his official calendar.

But no one with the governor’s office or the Division of Medicaid will discuss the purpose of the meeting, which Mississippi Today discovered through a records request of the governor’s calendar. 

When Mississippi Today submitted a records request for communications, notes and reports about and from the meeting, both the governor’s office and the agency claimed no such records existed.

The purpose of the meeting could be important for a number of reasons. Reeves, who is running for reelection this year, has faced criticism from his Democratic opponent Brandon Presley and health care leaders for his refusal to expand Medicaid. The move would provide both health coverage for hundreds of thousands of poor, working Mississippians and an economic boon to rural hospitals, more than half of which are at risk of closure because of financial concerns.

And in recent weeks, the state’s Medicaid division, which is statutorily overseen by the governor’s office, has been removing tens of thousands of adults and children from the Medicaid rolls.

The meeting would have come just a month after the Mississippi Division of Medicaid began its unwinding process.

It would have also been about a month after Reeves called Medicaid expansion “expanding welfare” at an event in Flowood.

The meeting, which was hosted in the Governor’s Mansion conference room at 2 p.m. on May 8, did not include a description and did not list attendees — just the title “Meet on Medicaid Policies” and the meeting’s location.

When asked if anyone from the division attended the meeting and what was discussed, a spokesperson from Medicaid only said that he “wasn’t aware” of any Division employees in attendance.

Shelby Wilcher, the governor’s spokesperson, did not respond to multiple emails. 

Reeves has consistently reiterated his opposition to expanding Medicaid to the working poor on the campaign trail. Conversely, his opponent Presley has repeatedly vowed to expand Medicaid if elected. 

Polls show that the majority of Mississippians support the policy change. A Mississippi Today survey of lawmakers during the 2023 legislative session showed that a majority either supported expansion or said they remained undecided, while just a handful said they outright opposed it. And as the health care crisis continues, health care leaders and experts, too, say that while expansion wouldn’t be a “silver bullet,” it would help staunch the financial bleed of the state’s struggling hospitals. 

Iris Stacker, the CEO of Delta Health Systems in Greenville, questioned at a July campaign event for Presley “why Tate Reeves doesn’t understand why he needs a healthy workforce.”

As unwinding continues, it’s unclear what was discussed or how the meeting might have impacted the process. 

In July, the Division announced its first disenrollments — about 29,000 people were dropped during the first wave. Another 22,000 followed in August, many of them children.

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