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In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-at-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with Natalie Perkins in Rolling Fork, Mississippi. Natalie is the editor of The Deer Creek Pilot and is the assistant director of the Sharkey County Emergency Management Agency. For two weeks, she has been working nearly 24 hours a day on Rolling Fork’s recovery from a monster EF-4 tornado that destroyed 85% of the town and killed 13 residents. Natalie talks about where the recovery stands and tells her own personal stories about the storm.

If you’d like to support The Deer Creek Pilot, you can contribute here.

The post Mississippi Stories: Natalie Perkins appeared first on Mississippi Today.

APRIL 9, 1939

On a blustery Easter Sunday, opera superstar Marian Anderson (“the 20^th century’s Beyoncé”) stepped on a stage constructed at the Lincoln Memorial and sang for the biggest crowd she had ever faced — more than 75,000 people. She had already sung at Carnegie Hall, but the Daughters of the American Revolution turned her away from a 1939 performance in Constitution Hall. This angered First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who resigned and asked Anderson to sing in front of the Lincoln Memorial. 

At the free, open-air concert, the talented contralto began to sing, “America,” accompanied only by a piano. She changed the lyric from “I” to “we,” signaling her attempt to unify Americans. After singing an aria, she finished with three spirituals, including “My Soul Is Anchored in the Lord.” 

NBC Blue carried the broadcast, which was heard by millions. Her performance cemented her status as an international star. The Chicago Defender wrote at the time that “intolerance received one of the heaviest blows of the ages” when Anderson performed, saying the crowd “all seemed to mingle with one common interest — the determination to welcome the greatest singer of this generation and to show that tolerance lives.” 

After this, the DAR reversed its position and invited her to perform many more times. Her rise was all the more amazing, given the impoverishment she grew up in after her father died when she was young. She began singing as a child at the Union Baptist Church and was so talented they nicknamed her “The Baby Contralto.” The Philadelphia Music Academy denied her entry because of her color. 

In 1925, she beat 300 competitors and sang in New York with the Philharmonic Orchestra accompanying her. When she performed three years later at Carnegie Hall, a New York Times critic gushed: “A true mezzo-soprano, she encompassed both ranges with full power, expressive feeling, dynamic contrast and utmost delicacy.” 

During World War II and the Korean War, she entertained troops in hospitals and bases. Throughout her career, she continued to break down barriers. She became the first Black American invited to perform at the White House and sang at the inaugurations of Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. She also became the first Black American to sing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. A year later, her autobiography, “My Lord, What a Morning”, became a bestseller. 

Anderson became a goodwill ambassador for the State Department, giving concerts around the world. Until her death in 1993, awards continued to pour in — the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal, the Kennedy Center Honors and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

The post On this day in 1939 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Conservative state Sen. Chris McDaniel of Ellisville and those who support abortion rights are two winners from Senate Accountability, Efficiency, Transparency Chair John Polk’s decision to kill legislation reviving the state’s ballot initiative process.

The initiative proposal died late in the 2023 legislative session when Polk refused to call it up for consideration before the full Senate on a key deadline day. The initiative would allow citizens to bypass the Legislature and place issues on the ballot for voters to decide.

McDaniel, who is challenging Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann in this year’s Republican primary, can hammer the incumbent for letting the initiative restoration legislation perish. Whether the death of the initiatives will be a pivotal issue in the GOP primary for the underdog McDaniel is debatable, but it at least creates an opening. And Hosemann, who is still the odds-on favorite to win re-election, can at least argue that during the final days of the session he made one last effort to revive legislation restoring the initiative. That effort, of course, was unsuccessful as House Speaker Philip Gunn refused Hosemann’s overtures to revive the process late in the session.

Polk, a Hattiesburg Republican, stressed it was his decision to allow the proposal to die. He said Hosemann supported it. But as presiding officer of the Senate, Hosemann could have assigned a committee chair other than Polk to handle the legislation. Hosemann should not be surprised by the outcome. After all, last year Polk took unusual parliamentary measures to kill the initiative, yet Hosemann sent the measure to his committee again this year, ultimately giving a senator who opposes the initiative the power over whether the process is revived.

After the Supreme Court ruled the state’s initiative process unconstitutional in May 2021 based on a technicality, both Hosemann and Gunn vowed to fix the problems cited by the Supreme Court and restore the process. Gunn even advocated at the time for the governor to call a special session to revive the initiative immediately.

“We 100% believe in the right of the people to use the initiative and referendum process to express their views on public policy,” Gunn said in May 2021. “If the legislature does not act on an issue that the people of Mississippi want, then the people need a mechanism to change the law. I support the governor calling us into a special session to protect this important right of the people.”

Yet the action of Gunn, like that of Hosemann, put the prospects of reviving the initiative in jeopardy. Gunn and his leadership team incorporated in their initiative proposal a ban on using the process to change laws that place a strict ban on abortion.

Gunn, who is retiring at the end of the year, tried to use the legislation restoring the initiative process to further one of his most ardent legislative goals — to ensure most abortions will be banned in Mississippi.

In truth, many who would otherwise support restoring the initiative process are probably at least secretly happy with Polk’s action. The initiative restoration legislation as fashioned by Gunn and his leadership team created a conundrum for many Democrats or people supporting abortion rights.

Remember, if the Legislature had passed legislation reviving the initiative, it still would have had to be approved by voters in November.

The reason for the political conundrum is that people who support abortion rights could have been conflicted on whether to vote to revive the initiative process or to vote against it because of the abortion provision.

Before casting that vote, though, people would have needed to understand that if the initiative restoration proposal was rejected by voters in November, lawmakers would have argued that the people had spoken and did not want to reinstate the process.

It is safe to assume that in their heart of hearts, many legislators are not enamored with a process that allows voters to bypass them and place issues on the ballot. They would be looking for ways to prevent that from happening.

In other words, if the initiative had reached the ballot this November and had been rejected, it is likely that voters would not for a long time have had another opportunity to restore the process.

So some Mississippians would have had to decide whether to vote for an initiative that could be used to address issues such as expanding Medicaid but not abortion, or just vote against the whole thing.

But now, thanks to Polk’s action, there can be an effort in 2024 with Gunn no longer serving in the Legislature to pass a clean ballot initiative process.

The question might be whether the presiding officers of the Senate and the House, whomever they might be, will be willing to ensure that happens.

The post The winners of the ballot initiative demise? Chris McDaniel and abortion rights supporters appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Y’all remember the old 1970s Three Dog Night hit, “Out in the Country”? No?

Find it and give it a listen.

The song is a whimsical homage to needing space when life starts closing in. Sometimes you just need to get away. Take the road less traveled. All roads lead to somewhere. That kind of thing.

And the place to do that is The Lodge in Moselle, a get-away with safari-like tents and cottages equipped with all the comforts of home.

With theme music firmly in your head, pack a few essentials, get in your vehicle and, if leaving the Jackson metro area, hit U.S. 49 South. Keep going until you get to Collins and hook a left on Mississippi 588.

Keep going.

Enjoy the pastoral beauty of the boonies. Moo at cows and grin at your own silliness. Breathe.

Mississippi 588 becomes Moselle-Seminary Road, which becomes Mississippi 11 South. You’ll take a few more rights and a handful of lefts on a two-lane blacktop, but keep going. Trust your GPS. You lose cellphone service, but so what, that’s kind of the point.

That last turn really does put you on S w P A Road in Moselle.

You have arrived.

There’s a cute little signpost welcoming you to The Lodge at Sweetwater Studios.

Owner and operator Airon Whitt will motor out on her golf cart to greet you. It’s quite possible her two dogs Diego and Dora will greet you, too. They’re good ambassadors for where you’ll be kicking back. Both were strays and decided to stay. Don’t be surprised if the same ideas whisper to you.

Once you’ve stretched your legs and loosen up from the drive, have a listen.

Do you hear it?

That’s right. No traffic. No cellphones or televisions.

Take a deep, deep breath. Soak in the peacefulness of rustic overload — birds chirping, tree leaves rustling from a soft breeze wafting through the surrounding woods of the 26-acre property.

You’ll notice Airon waiting patiently while you soak it all in, smiling at you and the “knowing” you’ve just acquired.

“My parents are artists who traveled, honed their crafts and helped out in the communities where we lived when I was a kid. I can remember us staying in these huge tents that I thought were so cool. I told myself, I’ll have tents just like that one day. That’s the beauty of the internet. I found the exact same tents and here they are,” Whitt said, as she tidied up the sleeping area in one of the tents.

“I worked in the tourism and travel industry, in hotels and restaurants for over 15 years. I learned so much, and I discovered just how much I loved it,” Whitt said, as she vented the huge 31-foot, domed yoga tent. “That planted a few seeds, you know. I knew I wanted to live my dream of owning my own get-a-way space, hotel, something like that someday.”

“I had one of the best jobs ever… spending summers traveling the world with teenagers to places like Panama, Guatemala, Thailand, Ghana, Cambodia and Morocco. Then COVID hit. I found myself wondering just what I was going to do. It forced me to move back here. But out of that nightmare, my dream took shape. The Lodge at Sweetwater Studios was born,” Whitt said with admiration.

Yes, for the glammer-camper in you, there are private bathrooms, hot water, rainfall showers and heated blankets. Other amenities include bathrobes, beds with memory foam mattresses, heat, air conditioning, coffee makers and wine glasses. Contemplate life out on the deck and enjoy the firepit, sunrises or sunsets, your choice.

There’s a 3-acre lake and pedal boats. Work out your kinks in the 31-foot yoga tent. An art studio is available for instructor workshops. Birdwatch while hiking the nature trails in the surrounding woods.

Whitt’s father built a 5,250-foot croquet lawn, as well as a greenhouse filled with tropical plants, many grown from Airon’s unique finds from the places she visited. There’s also an 8-foot deep pool, a spa and sauna.

Whitt invites one and all to come as a group or come alone to take a load off. Relax, meditate, explore… oh, and play croquet.

The post Photo essay: The Lodge at Stillwater Studios appeared first on Mississippi Today.

APRIL 8, 1974

Despite death threats, Hank Aaron shattered Babe Ruth’s home run record while playing for the Atlanta Braves. 

He battled racism from the day he began playing baseball. “We had breakfast while we were waiting for the rain to stop, and I can still envision sitting with the (team) in a restaurant behind Griffith Stadium and hearing them break all the plates in the kitchen after we finished eating,” he recalled. “What a horrible sound. Even as a kid, the irony of it hit me: here we were in the capital in the land of freedom and equality, and they had to destroy the plates that had touched the forks that had been in the mouths of black men. If dogs had eaten off those plates, they’d have washed them.” 

In the South, Jim Crow laws forced him to stay and eat in different places than the team. His brother, Herbert Jr., encouraged him to not give up. The former Negro Leaguer played in a record 24 All-Star Games and was MVP in 1957.  As he neared Babe Ruth’s record of 714 home runs, he received nearly 1 million pieces of mail, many of them death threats and hate mail. When he hit his record 715th run in Atlanta, he received a standing ovation. 

Baseball announcer Vin Scully declared, “What a marvelous moment for baseball; what a marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia; what a marvelous moment for the country and the world. A black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol. And it is a great moment for all of us, and particularly for Henry Aaron … And for the first time in a long time, that poker face in Aaron shows the tremendous strain and relief of what it must have been like to live with for the past several months.” 

Aaron finished his career with a record 755 career home runs, and the Atlanta Braves’ Turner Field now has a statue that immortalizes his record-breaking home run.

The post On this day in 1974 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A spokesperson for U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, said is he “extremely disappointed” with Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith’s effort to block the nomination of Scott Colom of Columbus as a federal judge for the Northern District of Mississippi.

The question is whether that disappointment could result in Durbin ignoring Hyde-Smith’s objections and taking up the nomination of Colom, a state district attorney for an area of northeast Mississippi.

“Chair Durbin has continually reminded his colleagues that it is imperative they engage with the White House in good faith to advance district court nominees — just as he did when former President Trump was in the White House,” said Emily Hampsten, a spokesperson for Durbin, who also is the majority whip. “He is extremely disappointed in Sen. Hyde-Smith’s lack of communication and ultimate obstruction of a highly qualified nominee. In the coming days, he’ll be assessing and will respond more fully.”

Hyde-Smith threw a wrench in the Senate confirmation of President Joe Biden’s nomination of Colom when she refused to return the so-called “blue slip.” Under unwritten Senate rules, refusal of either home state senator to return a blue slip signaling approval of a presidential appointee has at times blocked nominees to the federal bench.

While Hyde-Smith refused to return the blue slip of Colom, Mississippi’s senior U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker did, signaling his approval.

For most of the 20th century, the refusal to return the blue slip has not been an absolute in blocking nominations. Various groups and politicians, including U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson of the 2nd District of Mississippi, have urged Durbin to forgo the unwritten rule that refusal by a home state senator to return the blue slip blocks the nomination.

READ MORE: Democrats: Ignore ‘blue slip’ custom to get federal vacancies filled in Republican states like Mississippi

While Durbin has not said exactly how he will approach the Colom nomination, a spokesperson for the Senate Judiciary Committee noted that Democrats returned 130 blue slips during the tenure of Republican President Donald Trump. And Durbin himself returned eight blue slips during Trump’s presidency.

The Colom instance illustrates how partisan and polarizing the federal judicial appointment process — and congressional governing at large — has become. Hyde-Smith, a staunch conservative Republican, invoked several hot-button political issues in her statement about the Democratic district attorney’s record of service in Mississippi.

“I visited with the district attorney recently, and I recognize that he is smart and well liked in his district,” Hyde-Smith said in a statement Tuesday. “However, there are a number of concerns I have regarding his record. As someone with a strong interest in protecting the rights of girls and women, I am concerned about Scott Colom’s opposition to legislation to protect female athletes.”

Hyde-Smith seems to be referring to a letter Colom signed condemning the criminalization of gender-affirming care, rejecting the prosecution of the families of transgender individuals seeking treatment to help them transition. He and dozens of other prosecuting attorneys made the statement in the aftermath of an onslaught of legislation across the country attempting to block trans youth from receiving the care.

While the letter did condemn anti-trans legislation generally, the prosecutors’ statement did not discuss “legislation to protect female athletes,” which refers to attempts to prohibit trans women from competing in women’s sports. There is no public record of Colom taking a stance on trans women competing in women’s sports.

In her statement about refusing to support Colom’s nomination, Hyde-Smith also said: “The significant support his campaign received from George Soros also weighs heavily against his nomination in my view. I simply cannot support his nomination to serve on the federal bench in Mississippi for a lifetime.”

Soros, a New York billionaire who has advocated for various criminal justice reforms and for other progressive and governmental transparency causes, did provide funds in support of the Colom campaign through a political action committee in 2015 when he was first elected district attorney. But Colom did not receive support from Soros in 2019 when he ran for reelection.

Soros has become a pariah among national Republicans. Hyde-Smith’s statement about Colom came on the same day Trump appeared in New York state court on a 34-count indictment for falsifying business records in a scheme during his 2016 presidential campaign to conceal that he’d had an affair with an adult film star.

Following the charges, Trump and many of his supporters attributed the probe to Soros, who supported the Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg leading the case.

Colom, when reached by Mississippi Today, declined to comment on Hyde-Smith’s refusal to support his nomination. Federal judges receive a lifetime appointment. Colom was nominated by Biden to replace Mike Mills, who is stepping down from full-time service on the judiciary.

Despite Hyde-Smith’s partisan objections to Colom’s appointment, Colom had received endorsement letters and support from numerous Mississippians who had worked with him in his role as chief prosecutor of the 16th Circuit Court District.

The mother and the sister of James “Fluffy” White, a Clay County man who was murdered in 2015, submitted a letter to the Judicial Committee praising Colom for his successful prosecution of the man accused of murdering their loved one.

“Prior to trial, Mr. Colom’s staff regularly communicated with us and kept us informed about the legal process and what to expect. We also personally observed Mr. Colom prosecute Roderick Johnson, the person arrested for shooting and killing Fluffy, and his knowledge of the law and legal procedure were impressive during the trial as was his passion for justice for Fluffy. As a result of his and his team’s hard work, Mr. Johnson was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.

“Based on our observations and experience with Mr. Colom, we have no doubt he would be a well-informed, ethical, fair and independent judge,” the women wrote.

Rhea Ann Pace detailed how Colom successfully prosecuted the man who murdered her daughter and shot her 4-year-old grandson multiple times.

“After the trial, Scott created a college savings plan for my grandson…and for the last four years he has been putting money in that plan so that when he graduates high school he can go to college,” she wrote to the Judiciary Committee. “To me this goes well beyond the scope of a district attorney. This makes him a man who truly cares about the people in his district.”

READ MORE: Biden’s pick for US Attorney, in charge of welfare probe, gets approval from Mississippi senators

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APRIL 7, 1915

Billie Holiday was born in Baltimore and went on to become one of the greatest jazz singers of all time. One critic concluded that her unique voice “changed the art of American pop vocals forever.” 

Born Eleanora Fagan, she endured a horrific childhood. At age 9, she was sent to a Catholic reform school. Just months after being returned to her mother, a neighbor tried to rape Eleanora. She fought back, and he was arrested. She remained in protective custody and was released at age 12.

She ran errands in a brothel and earned what money she could scrubbing marble steps of neighborhood homes. During this time, she first heard Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong, whose recording of “West End Blues” exposed her to scat-singing. She joined her mother in Harlem and began singing in nightclubs there. By 1931, she was noticed by the likes of Benny Goodman. She made her recording debut with him two years later when she was 18. 

Producer John Hammond credited her with changing his musical direction, because she was “an improvising jazz genius.” She became the first Black female singer to work with a white orchestra, and on their tours through the South, some members of the audience heckled her or hurled racial epithets. She eventually left, but continued to rise in the jazz world as other singers began to imitate her style. 

Her recording of “Strange Fruit” drew both controversy and popularity. In 1946, she starred opposite Louis Armstrong and Woody Herman in the movie, New Orleans, but racism and McCarthyism interfered, and much of what she did in the film was cut out. 

By now, her heroin addiction had begun to interfere with her work. A year later, she was arrested for possession of narcotics. The district attorney asked for her to receive drug treatment. Instead, the judge sent her to a prison camp in West Virginia. Released for good behavior, she returned to play to a sold-out crowd at Carnegie Hall. 

In the years that followed, drug use, alcoholism and abusive relationships continued to take their toll. She died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1959, and The New York Times published only a short obituary on her with no byline. 

Diana Ross portrayed her in the 1972 film, “Lady Sings the Blues, introducing her talents to a new generation. Ross won a Golden Globe for that portrayal and received an Oscar nomination. Andra Day portrayed her in the film, “United States Vs. Billie Holiday.” Day won a Golden Globe for Best Actress and received an Academy Award nomination. 

Before her death at age 44, Holiday shared advice on singing with Frank Sinatra. “It is Billie Holiday,” he later said, “who was, and still remains, the greatest single musical influence on me.” 

She has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Baltimore built a statue to honor her.

The post On this day in 1915 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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CLEVELAND – Delta State University students, faculty and alumni welcomed their new president, Daniel Ennis, on Thursday with a procession of plastic-wrapped gift baskets, a notebook signed by faculty members, local pottery and a golden key to the city, an honor that the mayor noted had been bestowed just twice before to B.B. King and John Lennon’s half sister. 

“I’m overwhelmed,” Ennis said when he took the podium at E.R. Jobe Hall. 

In return, Ennis, who was named Delta State’s ninth president last month, tried to show his gratitude to the community and his future bosses, the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees, with an at-times quippy speech focused on the university’s history. 

“Why all this history from a man who can make no claim to live any of it,” he said. “I am keenly aware that your eyes are upon me. I feel the gaze of those multitude past and present who have studied at, worked for, and cared about Delta State since its founding.” 

Ennis read stanzas from a poem about the university written by William Zeigel, the college’s first academic dean; acknowledged a 1969 sit-in by Black students that pushed the university to teach Black history; and told the story of the hardworking, retired bookstore manager. 

“This is not the occasion to describe the things I have been hired to do,” he said, adding that, “at a later time, after consultation with so very many stakeholders, I will tackle what is to be done and explain how we will do it. But today, I feel the need to rise to this historic occasion, I want to say something that is worthy of all of your attention.” 

A daunting task awaits Ennis when he assumes the ninth presidency of Delta State on July 1. He will be expected to fix the yearslong downturn in enrollment at the regional college in the Mississippi Delta – a problem his predecessor, William LaForge, was let go for not being able to solve. In the last eight years, enrollment has plummeted at Delta State faster than at any other public university in Mississippi. Headcount has dropped 29% percent since 2014, with just 2,556 students enrolled this school year. 

Backstage after his introduction, Ennis told reporters that improving enrollment is “job one.” It was a “big part” of his interview with trustees, but Ennis wasn’t able to talk details yet, saying he needed to speak more with university officials. 

Trustees “haven’t given me specific benchmarks,” he said. “But there is no problem at Delta State that can’t be solved by enrollment improvement. Everything we want to do here, whether it’s hire faculty, buy new equipment – all the things we want to do at the institution depends upon enrollment being healthy.” 

One idea Ennis did share is that he hopes to use the university’s upcoming 100th anniversary as a fundraising opportunity. 

“Institutions that are keen to market themselves, differentiate themselves in the world of higher education and are aggressive in their recruitment will be fine,” he said. “Delta State has so much to offer, there’s no reason there should be an enrollment crisis.” 

IHL officials have cited Ennis’s track record of increasing enrollment at Coastal Carolina University, where he is currently the provost and executive vice president, a position he worked up to after starting there as an assistant professor of English in 1999. He was a first-generation college student. 

In a speech introducing Ennis, Teresa Hubbard, an IHL trustee and Delta State alumnus who oversaw the presidential search, thanked E.E. Butch Caston, the current interim president, for his “legacy of service and dedication” to the university.

“We expect to see you on campus still,” she said, prompting chuckles from the audience.  

She touched on Ennis’s credentials, including his doctorate from Auburn University (“we’re going to forgive him for that,” she joked) and status as a Fulbright specialist. She noted that Ennis was a first-generation college student and read a line from Ennis’s application.

“I am seeking the presidency of an institution that embodies the values that have actuated my career,” she read. “Making higher education available, affordable and achievable for my fellow citizens is my highest calling. I can picture myself at Delta State University, a tough and nimble university that punches above its weight and has a remarkable history. I can learn from you, advocate for you and would give my all to our shared mission.” 

Ennis was among 59 applicants for the job and one of just two finalists, according to an IHL spokesperson. Ennis said he applied for the position after seeing the job posting on the website for Academic Search, the headhunting firm that IHL hired to assist in the search. He’ll be making $320,000, an increase on Caston’s salary.

“It hadn’t occurred to me until recently that I should be a president,” Ennis said. 

A tenured English professor, Ennis said that one topic that did not come up in his interviews with IHL was tenure, the job protections that are a hallmark of higher education in the U.S.. In 2011, Ennis penned an op-ed in the Chronicle of Higher Education about the decline in tenure and tenure-track positions, arguing that “tenure’s fate has already been determined. It will be killed not by irresponsible academics or the barbs of the commentariat, but instead by the tightening grip of the American economy.” 

Now that he is in a position to grant or deny tenure to faculty at Delta State, Ennis said that he will continue to defend the institution, which he noted is often “misunderstood.” 

The post New Delta State president says improving enrollment is ‘job one’ appeared first on Mississippi Today.

State money and a large line of credit has bought one of Mississippi’s most at-risk hospitals a little more time.

Until recently, Greenwood Leflore Hospital was at risk of closing within six months, according to interim CEO Gary Marchand. However, after a change in Mississippi Hospital Access Program (MHAP) payments and the passage of a statewide hospital grant program, the hospital is receiving millions in extra funds and millions in credit from its owners, allowing it to maintain operations into 2024.

In an email to staff on April 5, Marchand said that Greenwood Leflore has received $2,098,518 in MHAP payments and $722,713 in Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) payments this month. Additionally, the hospital is getting a little under $1 million from the state hospital grant program. 

Hospital owners have also agreed to support the hospital with $10 million in credit, which will allow it to operate for the rest of the year. 

MHAP payments recoup the difference in reimbursements from insurers, while DSH payments recoup the money hospitals lose serving patients who cannot afford to pay for the care they receive. Legislators passed the grant program in late March, which doles out more than $104 million in total to be spread out among Mississippi’s struggling hospitals.

It’s an unexpected change of fortune for a hospital that seemed close to closing its doors for good in just a few months. 

During the pandemic, the hospital drained its cash reserves and lost much of its staff. In the past several years, Greenwood Leflore has shuttered several departments — including neurosurgery, urology and, most recently, labor and delivery — in an effort to cut costs to stay open.

Though about a third of Mississippi’s rural hospitals are at risk of closure, Greenwood Leflore’s situation seemed one of the most dire in the state, especially after the University of Mississippi Medical Center in November inexplicably backed out of talks to lease the hospital and save it from demise. 

“Our focus on short-term viability is bearing fruit,” Marchand said in a statement to Mississippi Today. “With changes in Medicaid supplemental payments, legislated emergency relief payments, and a tax-supported line of credit, Greenwood Leflore Hospital is now assured of serving our area residents into calendar year 2024. This will allow the hospital the necessary time to pursue a Critical Access Hospital designation with the Medicare program.”

Marchand’s long-term goal is getting Greenwood Leflore designated as a critical access hospital, which is reimbursed by Medicare at a rate of 101%, theoretically allowing a 1% profit. The designation can bring in more money, but to qualify, hospitals have to give up almost all of their beds and must be located 35 miles from the nearest hospital. Marchand is hoping from a waiver — South Sunflower County Hospital in Indianola is 28 miles away. 

The post Delta hospital, once projected to close within 6 months, will stay open until next year appeared first on Mississippi Today.