The Louisiana Catholic nonprofit primed to purchase the Gulf Coast’s Singing River Health System will not be moving forward with the deal.
Singing River and Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System announced they were terminating negotiations in a press release Wednesday night. The two companies claimed it was a joint decision.
“Both parties engaged in extensive negotiations in an effort to reach an agreement, but ultimately, consensus could not be achieved,” the release reads.
It’s not clear what led to the breakdown in discussions.
The announcement is the latest development in a saga that’s been surprising from start to finish.
The former Singing River CEO Tiffany Murdock announced the 700-bed health system was seeking a buyer last year, despite coming out of the pandemic in better financial shape than most Mississippi hospitals.
Singing River has clinics and medical facilities across the Coast, including hospitals in Gulfport, Ocean Springs and Pascagoula.
Nearly half of the state’s rural hospitals are at risk of closure, according to one report, due to major financial issues. Singing River, on the other hand, grew its revenue in 2021.
The system hasn’t been without challenges, though — Singing River’s Gulfport hospital had to suspend its labor and delivery services earlier this year because of staffing shortages.
The health system was seeking a buyer as a preventative measure, preparing for future challenges, according to the former CEO.
“We’re coming at it now at a place of strength,” Murdock told a community group in Hurley in August 2022. “And in five years, I can’t promise you the same thing.”
Jackson County’s Board of Supervisors chose the nonprofit as the health system’s preferred buyer in March after a “rigorous” bidding process.
The Catholic health system, based in Baton Rouge, operates St. Dominic Memorial Hospital in Jackson and nine facilities throughout Louisiana.
But for months, the sale has been quietly pending.
When Mississippi Today inquired about the sale in June, spokespeople said discussions about the sale were ongoing. However, earlier this week, when Mississippi Today reached out to a spokesperson for the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System requesting confirmation that the deal had fallen through, she did not respond.
The president and CEO of the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System, Dr. Richard Vath, says in the press release that despite their decision, the Catholic nonprofit was impressed by the Jackson County Board of Supervisors’ and Singing River’s commitment to “delivering quality healthcare” to the Coast.
“At this unprecedented time of uncertainty in healthcare, we regret that both parties could not reach consensus,” he said. “We wish the very best for Jackson County and SRHS in the future.”
It appears the health system will move forward with its search for a buyer — Ken Taylor, president of the Board of Supervisors, said in the press release that the board is committed to “finding the ideal partner to fulfill [the hospital’s] long-term objectives.”
“We remain resolute in our dedication to preserving SRHS’s exceptional legacy, which spans over eight decades,” Taylor said.
Mahalia Jackson, photographed by Carl Van Vechten in 1962 Credit: Wikipedia
Mahalia Jackson, the “Queen of Gospel,” was born in New Orleans. After moving to Chicago, she became one of the first singers to move gospel music from the church to the mainstream, attracting white audiences and selling millions.
“I sing God’s music,” she explained, “because it makes me feel free. It gives me hope.”
In 1950, she became the first gospel singer to perform at Carnegie Hall, and 11 years later, she sang at the inauguration ball for President John Kennedy. She became a voice for the civil rights movement.
In 1956, she performed in Alabama during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, raising money for the movement. But when she returned to Ralph Abernathy’s home, it had been bombed. She continued to perform at events with Martin Luther King Jr., who said a voice like hers “comes not once in a century, but once in a millennium.”
In 1963, she sang at the March on Washington. When King veered from his prepared text, she urged him to, “Tell them about the dream,” a reference to a speech he had given months earlier in Detroit. His oration became known as his “I Have a Dream” speech — one of the most famous speeches in U.S. history.
The marches didn’t stop, and neither did Jackson, who saw her music as something that could help “break down some of the hate and fear that divide the white and black people in this country.” Her performance of “Take My Hand, Precious Lord” became King’s favorite. When he was assassinated in 1968, she sang the song at his funeral.
When she died four years later of heart failure, Aretha Franklin sang the song at her funeral, which more than 50,000 attended in Chicago.
In her life, Jackson became the first gospel music artist to win a Grammy Award, and after her death, she was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Welcome to The Homestretch, a daily blog featuring the most comprehensive coverage of the 2023 Mississippi governor’s race. This page, curated by the Mississippi Today politics team, will feature the biggest storylines of the 2023 governor’s race at 7 a.m. every day between now and the Nov. 7 election.
Four summers ago, Bill Waller Jr. had Tate Reeves on the ropes.
Waller, the former Mississippi Supreme Court chief justice who challenged Reeves in the 2019 GOP primary, had forced the powerful lieutenant governor into a runoff after Reeves’ allies had spent months downplaying his primary challenger.
What began as a modest campaign for Waller swiftly picked up steam. He was earning notable support from suburban Republicans. Respected GOP party leaders spoke highly of him and several even endorsed him. In the run-up to the primary, it was clear that Waller was a force for Reeves to reckon with.
The reason for that was simple: a fresh, new-to-the-modern-GOP platform. Waller ran on three major issues that year that few previous Republicans had: raising the state’s lowest-in-the-nation teacher pay, improving the state’s crumbling roads and bridges, and expanding Medicaid to save sick Mississippians and struggling hospitals. And on those three issues, Reeves got absolutely blasted.
Teachers groups torched Reeves for his years of inaction on teacher pay. Roadbuilders admonished Reeves for not committing to improving the state’s crumbling infrastructure. Hospital leaders flocked to support Waller when Reeves famously dug his heels in on his refusal to allow Medicaid expansion.
We know the rest of the story. Reeves ultimately won the runoff by about 28,000 votes. But in the process, Waller defeated Reeves in 17 counties, including Reeves’ home county Rankin (Reeves lost by 20 percentage points in his own home precinct). So many Mississippi Republicans had rebuked Reeves’ positions on those three main issues.
So Reeves, after he won the general election later in 2019, responded.
In his first four years as governor, Reeves checked off two of those three major Waller platforms — though one should deeply scrutinize whether Reeves was truly responsible for either accomplishment.
In 2022, lawmakers passed the largest teacher pay raise in state history, which Reeves gladly signed into law and is now, interestingly, taking credit for. In 2023, lawmakers appropriated a heap of funds to the Mississippi Department of Transportation, which Reeves also signed. (Plus, the state is benefitting profoundly from President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill.)
But Reeves never did get around to addressing that third successful Waller platform idea: Medicaid expansion. In fact, Reeves has quadrupled down on his resistance to it. Most people blame Reeves solely for Mississippi not joining 40 other states — including many Republican-controlled ones — in passing the reform that would provide health care to at least 200,000 poor, working people.
Today, Reeves faces the same headwinds he faced in that 2019 primary against Waller. Democratic challenger Brandon Presley has made Medicaid expansion — and Reeves’ refusal to accept it — one of two main planks of his platform.
But this year, Presley has something that Waller didn’t have four years ago: a borderline insurmountable hospital crisis that every Mississippian is deeply familiar with.
Today, almost half of Mississippi’s rural hospitals are at risk of closure, according to one report. Many financially struggling hospitals cite major losses on uncompensated care, or services provided to people without health insurance coverage — emergency rooms by law cannot turn patients away, regardless of their coverage status.
Mississippi, which is home to one of the highest percentages of uninsured residents, continues to rank as the least healthy state in the nation. We are leading the nation in so many negative health outcome rankings.
A big solution to these problems, Presley has argued, just like Waller argued in 2019, is Medicaid expansion. As the health care crisis worsens, more Republicans than ever before support Medicaid expansion. In multiple polls conducted this year, more than 50% of Republican voters said they support expansion. Even incoming Republican Speaker of the House Jason White publicly says lawmakers will consider expansion in 2024, and that his party deserves criticism for refusing to consider it.
Reeves, meanwhile, is struggling to reach 50% support in polling ahead of the Nov. 7 election, and political operatives on both sides are preparing for the first general election runoff in state history, which would occur on Nov. 28.
Waller, who publicly considered but decided against challenging Reeves again in the 2023 GOP primary, must be asking himself how differently his 2019 primary runoff would’ve gone had the hospital crisis been at the forefront like it is in 2023.
In November, Presley just might be able to answer that question for him.
1) Brandon Presley on Tuesday called for an increase in Mississippi’s $7.25-per-hour minimum wage. It’s an interesting position to take late in a campaign, and one that has earned some bipartisan support in several other states. Many people in Mississippi, home to the nation’s lowest median household income and highest poverty rate, may appreciate the proposal. But not everyone. On Wednesday, a conservative blogger panned Presley’s proposal as “a familiar Democratic tune.”
2) Tate Reeves and Brandon Presley will be at the Mississippi Economic Council’s annual Hobnob event, where business leaders from across the state will hear speeches from candidates for statewide offices. It’s one of very few times this cycle where the two candidates have been in the same room. Presley speaks at 11:25 a.m., and Reeves speaks at 11:50 a.m.
3) Reeves is expected to travel to Oxford on Thursday evening for the annual Good Ole Boys and Gals event. A Mississippi political tradition for about 30 years, this gathering at a shed in the woods allows people to eat barbecue, then grill Mississippi political candidates one-on-one. Four years ago, when Reeves was running for a first term in office, Donald Trump Jr. attended the event. Might there be another high-profile guest this year?
Less than two weeks before the Nov. 7 statewide election, top Democratic leaders are continuing to pound the drum on Mississippi’s hospital crisis and the need for state officials to expand Medicaid coverage to the working poor.
Speaking on the front steps of the state Capitol on Wednesday morning, three Democratic lawmakers sharply criticized Republican Gov. Tate Reeves for standing in the way of expansion, which experts estimate would generate billions for the state.
“He’ll tell you over and over that it’s Mississippi’s time,” House Minority Leader Robert Johnson III said. “For who, governor? Who are you talking about? You and your donors? Because I don’t think the people in my district and community will describe what they see as Mississippi momentum.”
Reeves’ campaign did not respond to a request for comment, but the governor has said in previous remarks that he remains opposed to expansion and derisively calls the proposal “welfare expansion.” The governor’s Democratic challenger Brandon Presley, meanwhile, has made health care one of the major themes of his campaign platform and has promised to expand Medicaid on “day one” that he’s sworn into office.
Almost half of Mississippi’s rural hospitals are at risk of closure, according to one report. Many financially struggling hospitals cite major losses on uncompensated care, or services provided to people without health insurance coverage — emergency rooms by law cannot turn patients away, regardless of their coverage status.
Mississippi’s hospitals lose about $600 million on uncompensated care annually. Hospital leaders say Medicaid expansion would greatly reduce the amount of uncompensated care they provide.
After brushing off questions for months about the severity of the hospital crisis, Reeves unveiled a proposal in September that’s supposed to pull in more federal dollars to increase Medicaid reimbursement to hospitals.
But Senate Minority Leader Derrick Simmons, D-Greenville, told Mississippi Today on Wednesday that Reeves’ previous effort is not sufficient in the long run, calling the effort “too little, too Tate” as a play on the governor’s first name.
“Based on my understanding of this proposal, it’s only going to be a one-time fix or not a solution to a long-term problem,” Simmons said. “And the real solution that is clear is Medicaid expansion to give hospitals the relief they need and also to help those 200,000 working Mississippians.”
For years, a cycle has repeated itself at the state Capitol: Democratic lawmakers file legislation to expand Medicaid coverage to additional Mississippians, Republican leaders kill those efforts and Democratic legislators cry foul. Across the state, voters keep reelecting the same Republicans to office who oppose Medicaid expansion.
But the trio of legislators on Wednesday said if Presley, the Democrat challenging Reeves, defeats the incumbent and flips the Governor’s Mansion, then some of the GOP holdouts might come around to the idea of expansion.
Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, believes the coordinated message around expansion and the hospital crisis will be different this year and translate into actual results at the ballot box next month.
Blount used previous legislative efforts to give poor mothers additional Medicaid benefits after they give birth as an example to show how the party’s constant push for additional benefits for vulnerable Mississippians can lead to actual results.
Both chambers of the Legislature earlier this year overwhelmingly passed a proposal to extend postpartum Medicaid benefits for new mothers for up to a year after giving birth. Reeves finally signed the legislation into law after long-refusing to take a stance on the policy.
“Postpartum extension for years in the Legislature was a Democratic issue and only Democrats were pushing for it,” Blount said. “This year is an election year, and this year, ordinary people … called their legislators and called their statewide officials and said you need to change your position.”
Presley and Reeves will participate in a televised debate on Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. Some voters can already cast an absentee ballot for the race, but the general election will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 7.
An event aimed at improving health care and expanding Medicaid in Mississippi is making its way to Jackson Thursday.
Together for Hope, a nonprofit working with the poorest counties in America, teamed up with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network in Alabama and Mississippi this year to host “Better Health Summits” throughout the two states — two of only 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid.
“Health is one of our priorities of hope,” said Dr. Debbie Pierce, assistant to Together for Hope’s president.
In Mississippi, the organizations have hosted summits over the past six weeks in Aberdeen, Meridian and Cleveland, targeting community leaders, health care workers, social workers and anyone interested in health care in Mississippi “and how together we can work to make a change,” Pierce said.
Medicaid expansion has emerged as one of the headline issues of this year’s upcoming gubernatorial election.
Despite the support of the majority of Mississippians, Gov. Tate Reeves has remained stalwart in his opposition to Medicaid expansion, which would bring more than $1 billion a year to the state. One report shows nearly half of rural hospitals are at risk of closure in Mississippi, one of the sickest states in the country.
Conversely, Reeves’ Democratic opponent, Brandon Presley, has vowed to change the policy on day one in office.
So far, speakers at the summits have included State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney and other notable doctors, faith leaders and advocates. Dr. Dan Jones — the former president of the American Heart Association and former chancellor of the University of Mississippi and dean and professor emeritus at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine — is scheduled to speak at tomorrow’s event at Duling Hall, along with other representatives from state medical organizations.
“Each of these speakers come with different experiences that lead them to a deep conviction that all should have access to good health care,” Pierce said. “There is compelling and data driven proof that expanding Medicaid could be one way to begin this process.”
Through panels and presentations, summit attendees will learn about and discuss the availability of community health care resources, health policy issues, the state of hospitals, navigating our current health care system and social determinants of health.
The free event will kick off at 9:30 a.m. and conclude at 2 p.m. after a call to action. Registration for the event is free.
Chunkin’ Charlie Conerly could fling it at Ole Miss and with the New York Giants.
Brett Favre famously won three NFL MVP trophies. Eli Manning was a Super Bowl MVP, twice, beating Tom Brady both times. Steve McNair was once a co-NFL MVP with Peyton Manning. Archie Manning once led the NFC in passing yardage, playing for a 7-9 team. Dak Prescott has put some of the best passing numbers in pro football often in recent years.
You probably knew all that or at least most of it. Mississippi’s professional quarterbacks have done some stuff.
But do you know what player holds the highest single season passer rating among Mississippi’s professional quarterbacks? You might be surprised.
That quarterback would be none other than Chunkin’ Charlie Conerly of Clarksdale and Ole Miss. It’s not even close. Playing for the New York Giants in 1959, Conerly had a passer rating of 135, higher than Favre in any of his MVP seasons. All the more amazing, Conerly was 38 years old when he achieved that remarkable season, averaging 9 yards per passing attempt and 15 yards per completion. For comparison, 2022 MVP Patrick Mahomes averaged 8.1 yards per attempt and 12 yards per completion. It goes without saying how much more wide open and productive NFL offenses are now, compared to when Conerly played.
Rick Cleveland
Not surprisingly, Conerly was the NFL MVP in ’59, 11 years after he was pro football’s Rookie of the Year in 1948. Unbelievably, Conerly was never selected for the Pro Football Hall of Fame — a travesty, and one that should be corrected.
Conerly’s feat was just one of the surprising facts author/publisher Neil White and I uncovered while doing research for “The Mississippi Football Book.” There were lots more.
“Marchie” Scwhartz at Notre Dame.
For instance, I always thought Ole Miss’s Frank “Bruiser” Kinard was Mississippi’s first consensus All American player. Not so. Six years before the great Bruiser was an All American at Ole Miss in 1936, a young man named Marchmont “Marchie” Schwartz of Bay St. Louis and Saint Stanislaus was twice an All American playing for the legendary Knute Rockne at Notre Dame. Marchie Schwartz, a running back, helped the Fighting Irish to a 25-2-1 record over three seasons, during which the team won two national championships. In 1930, he averaged 7.5 yards per carry. He later coached at several schools, including Notre Dame and Stanford and is a deserving member of the College Football Hall of Fame.
Care to guess which Mississippi university had the highest winning percentage all-time coming into this season? Ole Miss, you say. No, Jackson State is first, having won 59.3 percent of its games. Southern Miss is second at 57.4, with Ole Miss third at 56 percent.
But that’s far from Jackson State’s greatest claim to fame. For instance, the JSU Tigers have placed four greats — Lem Barney, Walter Payton, Bob Brazile and Jackie Slater — in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. That’s as many as Ole Miss (2), Southern Miss (2) and Mississippi State (0) combined. It’s twice as many as Auburn.
Since our book came out, I’ve asked dozens of Magnolia State football fans this question: Who is the only native Mississippian to win the Heisman Trophy? Invariably, the answer has been Doc Blanchard, the Army great who played his high school ball at Saint Stanislaus. Blanchard did win the Heisman in 1945. But here’s the catch: Blanchard was a South Carolina native who was a boarding student at Saint Stanislaus. No, the first and thus far only native Mississippian to win the Heisman was – drum roll, please – Philadelphia and Neshoba County native Billy Cannon in 1959. And Cannon secured college football’s top individual honor with his 89-yard punt return against Ole Miss, spoiling an otherwise perfect Ole Miss record and keeping the Rebels from winning every version of the national championship that year.
The great Lance Alworth of Brookhaven, Arkansas and pro football fame is surely one the greatest ever from this state. He famously earned the nickname “Bambi,” but do you know where he got that nickname? Charlie Flowers, the Ole Miss great who might have won the Heisman in 1959 if not for Cannon’s punt return, and Alworth were later teammates with the San Diego Chargers. One day when they were walking off the practice field, Flowers stopped Alworth and told him: “You’re Bambi.”
“What for?” Alworth asked him.
“Because of those big brown eyes and because of the way you move,” Flowers answered. Bambi stuck.
“The Mississippi Football Book” tells the stories of the greatest players, coaches, teams and games in this state’s rich football history. Much of it I knew from 58 years of reporting and writing about Mississippi football. But some of it, quite a bit actually, I did not.
Rick Cleveland and Neil White will sign “The Mississippi Football Book” on Friday afternoon, Oct. 27, at Off Square Books in Oxford beginning at 5:30 p.m. They will be at Lemuria in Jackson on Nov. 17 at 4:30 p.m. with a program at 5 p.m.
Volleyball is on the rise in Mississippi, as witnessed by the state high school championships this past weekend. Ole Miss and State get big football victories and look for more. Both the World Series and the basketball season are upon us. And maybe, just maybe, Covid is behind us in the Cleveland family.
Welcome to The Homestretch, a daily blog featuring the most comprehensive coverage of the 2023 Mississippi governor’s race. This page, curated by the Mississippi Today politics team, will feature the biggest storylines of the 2023 governor’s race at 7 a.m. every day between now and the Nov. 7 election.
He’s been to Shuqualak, Macon, Columbus, Brookhaven, Picayune, Tchula, Yazoo City — Tate’s been everywhere, man.
Incumbent Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, not generally known as much of a retail politicker, has been burning up the campaign trail the last few weeks. He appears to have shown up anywhere there’s fried fish or a festival. It’s been hard to keep a grand opening ribbon intact with him about.
On social media on Tuesday, Reeves posted: “After 8 consecutive days traveling — to and from every region of this great state — I count waking up with my family this morning a blessing!! Looking forward to visiting with folks all over Metro Jackson today!”
So what has the incumbent governor more known for fundraising than glad-handing popping in at barbecue joints, hardware stores, the Caledonia Days Festival and the Kountry Kitchen in Columbus? It would appear he’s heeding some recent polls and reports saying his race against Democratic challenger Brandon Presley is tightening or neck-and-neck.
The Reeves campaign is kicking into high gear on the meeting and greeting, and he’s putting in an uncharacteristic amount of shoe leather as Nov. 7 nears. Other than his initial run for state treasurer in 2003, and his first run for lieutenant governor in 2011, it’s hard to remember Reeves putting in this much face time with rank-and-file voters.
This would also appear to be a response to Presley’s nonstop criss-crossing of the state for the last 10 months. Last week, Presley announced he had fulfilled a promise he made to voters in May — he’s visited all 82 counties in Mississippi. Starting way behind the curve in campaign funding for ads, retail politicking has been Presley’s focus, and he’s made listening to folks in oft-forgotten rural corners of the state a plank of his platform.
Even in the day and age of social media and multi-million dollar television ad campaigns, when push comes to shove down the homestretch, contenders for Mississippi’s top office are still getting out and kissing hands and shaking babies.
1) The annual Mississippi Economic Council Hobnob is Thursday at the Mississippi Coliseum. Business leaders from across the state will hear speeches from candidates for statewide offices, including Reeves and Presley.
2) The annual Good Ole Boys and Gals gathering in Oxford will also be Thursday. A Mississippi political tradition for about 30 years, this gathering at a shed in the woods allows people to eat barbecue, then grill Mississippi political candidates one-on-one. Four years ago, when Reeves was running for a first term in office, Donald Trump Jr. attended the event. Might there be another high-profile guest this year?
3) The first — and only — Mississippi gubernatorial debate between Reeves and Presley is just one week away. Although Presley had accepted invites from five groups or news outlets to debate, Reeves agreed to only one. The “Commitment 2023: Mississippi Gubernatorial Debate” will be a partnership between WAPT-TV in the metro Jackson market and Mississippi Public Broadcasting. The hour-long debate will be broadcast live by the outlet on Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. from WAPT’s studio, and it also will be broadcast live on MPB’s radio and television stations statewide and on the MPB app.
Brandon Presley, the Democratic nominee for governor, said at a campaign event on Tuesday that he believes Mississippi’s minimum wage, currently set at the national minimum wage of $7.25, should be increased to a higher dollar figure.
“I think there’s support in the Legislature to do that,” Presley told reporters. “There’s pretty good evidence and some past actions that, I think, there could be some common sense reform to that.”
The federal minimum wage mandates that all employers have to, at least, pay employees $7.25 an hour. But states can enact their own laws requiring employers to pay workers wage higher than the federal minimum.
Mississippi is one of five states, all located in the South, that do not have a state minimum wage law on the books, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s website. The federal minimum wage prevails in states that do not have a minimum wage set in statute.
The U.S. Department of Labor also reports that 15 states have a minimum wage equal to the federal minimum wage, and 30 states, plus the District of Columbia, have a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum.
The District of Columbia, at $16.10 an hour, has the highest minimum wage in the nation.
Speaking to reporters after an event at Tougaloo College, a private historically Black university, Presley declined to name a specific amount for an increased state minimum wage, but he stressed that the current figure is too low for most Mississippians.
“We’ll work with the Legislature on that,” Presley said. “Definitely, $7.25 is not the figure.”
Communications officials with Gov. Tate Reeves’ campaign did not respond to a request for comment on Presley’s remarks.
Presley will participate in a debate against Reeves on Nov. 1, and the two candidates will compete in the general election on Nov. 7.
