OurTupelo

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

The post Senate chairman ‘extremely disappointed’ by Hyde-Smith’s effort to block judicial nomination appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Egg Hunt appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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.

Natalie Gunnells had finally secured some assistance from Mississippi’s political class for her 23-year-old son Patrick, who has severe autism.

No sooner had she started receiving relief from the state’s Medicaid agency than her local lawmaker accused her of supporting his political opponent, delivering an ominous warning.

“You’re not in line, you’re not in sync to help you and your family,” said the local senator.

Patrick is one of 2,750 Mississippians on a special Medicaid program that is supposed to provide outpatient services to people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, known as the IDD waiver. The purpose of the waiver — a roughly $125 million-a-year program funded mostly by the federal government but administered by state agencies — is to allow this vulnerable population to live in the community as opposed to an inpatient facility.

But even though he receives the waiver, Patrick has for years lacked a caregiver or specialist.

“I’m telling you this waiver is designed to fail. You don’t fail this many people year, after year, after year if it is not designed to fail,” Natalie Gunnells said at a community meeting in February.

Without the specialized behavioral therapy that he is eligible to receive, Patrick’s potential is unknown. Patrick is nonverbal and cannot perform normal tasks, like using the bathroom on his own. When he was a child, his parents fought for him to receive the special education he was entitled to at the public school. These days, Patrick rarely agrees to leave the family’s Tupelo home, and he’s almost always wearing his large black headphones due to noise sensitivity.

Yet, the Gunnells recently found out that Medicaid has been dishing out thousands for therapy they say Patrick is not receiving under what they believe is a fraud scheme. Documents suggest the alleged abuse was made possible by years of loose oversight at the Department of Mental Health. The state attorney general’s office is currently investigating, according to AG communication obtained by Mississippi Today, though no one has been charged with a crime.

READ MORE: Attorney General investigating provider fraud in Medicaid waiver

Adding insult to injury, when the federal government decided during the pandemic to temporarily allow parents to get paid to deliver care to their disabled adult children, Mississippi chose not to adopt the policy.

Natalie Gunnells and her husband Jamie Gunnells knew they’d have to involve Sen. Chad McMahan, R-Guntown, their local lawmaker, if they wanted a shot at the new benefit.

It was the same way when Patrick got on the waiver, known for its years-long waitlist, more than a decade ago.

“You have to know somebody to get off the waiting list,” said Jamie Gunnells, who owns and runs an independent pharmacy in Tupelo. “It’s pitiful.”

In roughly the last year, Mississippi Division of Medicaid Director Drew Snyder asked one of his division directors to follow up on requests from at least eight sitting lawmakers, all white Republican men, according to text messages obtained by Mississippi Today. The politicians seemed to urge the agency to remove roadblocks for specific beneficiaries who were attempting to access Medicaid.

In each case, Tracy Buchanan, Medicaid’s director of long term services and supports, responded that she was on it.

READ MORE: Texts show lawmaker influence over Mississippi’s Medicaid rolls

McMahan has become particularly known for keenly navigating government red tape to help Mississippians get the public assistance they need. “I am relentless about contacting these agencies on my own,” McMahan told Mississippi Today. “I personally call and take an interest in every one of these cases to help people.”

As part of his stated commitment to help his constituents, McMahan convened a meeting for the Gunnells with Medicaid officials in May of 2022. After it ended, the couple alleged that McMahan casually propositioned them.

“He says, ‘Well, that ought to be worth a $25,000 campaign donation, don’t you think?’” Jamie Gunnells said.

While the Gunnells, who have publicly shared support for various Mississippi politicians, had made contributions to McMahan’s past campaigns, they said they were put off by the request and have not donated to McMahan since.

McMahan adamantly denied making the ask for a campaign donation. “No, I didn’t say anything like that,” he said. “… That’s a terrible thing to say.”

In Mississippi, it’s not uncommon for the state’s Republican leaders, who otherwise revile public assistance programs, to use the system for the benefit of themselves and their political supporters — no better illustrated than within Mississippi’s still-unfolding welfare scandal. One former grant recipient and defendant in the case, Christi Webb, even accused McMahan of delivering a threat on behalf of former Gov. Phil Bryant to withhold grant funding to the nonprofit she ran, Family Resource Center of North Mississippi, because she had supported and hired the wife of a Democratic candidate for governor. McMahan denied the allegation.

McMahan had also been jockeying for funding from Mississippi Department of Human Services, which administers the federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) block grant, to go to the Autism Center of North Mississippi. For a short time years ago, Patrick received services from the autism center, and his parents praised the quality of the program.

Auditors found that the autism center improperly received a $75,000 grant from the welfare agency, as well as more than $300,000 in grants from Family Resource Center.

MDHS employees had expressed hesitation about whether anti-poverty funds could be used to support services for well-to-do families at the autism center, but after a meeting between McMahan, Bryant and the welfare director, grant money flowed to the center anyway.

At the Gunnells’ urging, the Mississippi Division of Medicaid eventually adopted the federal policy allowing parents of severely disabled adults to temporarily become paid caregivers.

Natalie Gunnells, who has a master’s degree in counseling and gave up a promising career in education to care for her son, took courses to become certified through a local personal care provider last year.

Still, Mississippi had chosen the more stringent version of the policy that said legal guardians could not participate. So Natalie Gunnells had to relinquish her guardianship of Patrick — at a price of $2,300 to her attorney — to serve as her son’s taxpayer-funded caregiver. She began receiving the $12-an-hour wage for her work in November. This temporary policy, called Appendix K, only lasts until the end of the public health emergency, currently planned for next month.

In early January, Natalie Gunnells shared what she thought was an innocuous Facebook post from Lauren Smith, a local lab tech consultant and growing social media personality. Smith promotes conservative politics through her Facebook group “P.R.I.M.E” (Patriots for Rights Integrity Morals and Ethics), often taking aim at establishment GOP leaders. She was gearing up to run against McMahan for his Senate seat.

“If you want to know what’s really going on in politics in our great State, then you need to listen to Lauren Smith!” Natalie Gunnells wrote. “Ya’ll, this girl…her passion, knowledge, expertise…JUST LISTEN!”

Then her phone rang.

On the other line, McMahan explained to the Gunnells that “someone in Washington” had alerted him to Natalie Gunnell’s Facebook post, and they weren’t happy.

“There’s some of us out here that are doing everything we can to help your family, and it’s just, it’s just a slap in our face,” McMahan said, according to a recording of the call obtained by Mississippi Today. “… I just want you to know that I may be the face of trying to help you, but there’s a lot of people behind me that’s tried to help you, and y’all are making it difficult for your own cause.”

“We’re making it difficult by liking a post?” Jamie Gunnells said.

“Yes,” McMahan said. “Yes.”

“I don’t understand that,” Jamie said.

“Well, I guess you’ll just have to trust me. I don’t know the pharmaceutical industry, but I know politics. And I guess you’ll just have to trust me,” the lawmaker said, according to the recording.

To the Gunnells, McMahan’s call came off as a veiled threat to withhold help to Patrick.

“That’s terrible. If that’s the impression I left, I’m really, I’m deeply sorry about that,” McMahan told Mississippi Today. “I thought they would deceive my sincerity about how hard I had worked on their behalf, and they know I did.”

But on the call, McMahan also accused his opponent of wanting to end Medicaid — the program that provides not only Patrick’s waiver, but his health insurance. “She (Smith) is against every type of program,” McMahan told the Gunnells. “She would take literally the bread out of your family’s mouth to end any type of government assistance, and you’re supporting her.”

After the interaction, Natalie Gunnells said she felt that the solution they had reached with Medicaid was in jeopardy. She deleted her Facebook post.

“Senator McMahan was referring to a quid pro quo: he was helping us and if we wanted to continue to rely on him and everyone he stated behind him helping, we better not promote Lauren Smith at all,” Natalie Gunnells wrote to Mississippi Today.

McMahan explained his response to the situation, telling Mississippi Today, “It’s a normal reaction when you help somebody and then they’re out there supporting other individuals that are completely opposed to their own need.”

“It is human nature. I mean, come on,” he told Mississippi Today. “You give somebody just hours and hours of help in trying to help their family, and then they’re out there supporting individuals, not just my opponent, but other individuals in general that are against any type of Medicaid enhancements. And it’s just odd.”

The Gunnells are ardent conservatives, backing far-right candidates such as Sen. Chris McDaniel, a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor and tea party populist who’s tried to fracture Mississippi’s establishment GOP since at least his U.S. Senate race in 2014. These candidates are particularly hostile to taxpayer spending on government assistance programs.

But the Gunnells said they don’t believe Smith or any other public servant would genuinely want to eliminate Medicaid.

“I can’t imagine a politician saying that today,” Jamie Gunnells said. “Yeah, they and I would love to see more people working and supporting themselves, but we’re the poorest state in the union, we’re going to have people on Medicaid. And that’s just the fact.”

Smith told Mississippi Today that McMahan, who also filed an unsuccessful residency challenge against Smith, is desperate to hold onto his senate seat, “and he’ll say whatever it takes to do that, no matter if it’s true or a lie.”

“Do I think it (Medicaid) needs reforming? Absolutely. Do I think it is a very, very broken system? Absolutely. And it does need a lot of work. But to do away with it? No, absolutely not,” Smith said. “It’s there for a reason, and that’s to take care of the ones who truly need it.”

Smith also said she is against the extension of postpartum Medicaid coverage from 60 days to one year, which Gov. Tate Reeves recently signed into law. 

“Why is that a Mississippi taxpayer’s problem to have to pay for that?” Smith said. “… Whenever I had my son, I had to go back to work.”

At least 40% of private sector jobs in Mississippi do not come with employer-sponsored health benefits, according to Kaiser Family Foundation.

Regardless of the state’s philosophy around Medicaid, its administration of the IDD waiver has been a disaster, according to several parents who spoke at a public hearing in February. This is largely because of a shortage of quality direct care workers and shoddy oversight.

Medicaid is responsible for submitting a renewal application to the federal government every five years to keep the waiver in operation. It held a hearing to gather feedback from clients in February and sent the new waiver application at the end of March.

The purpose of the waiver is to allow people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live in the community, as opposed to an inpatient facility. This follows the 1999 U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Olmstead v.s L.C., which gives Americans with disabilities the right to live in the “least restrictive setting” possible for their condition and requires the government to provide the necessary supports.

While there are about 2,750 people on the waiver at any given time, there are almost the same number of people on the waiting list who qualify but do not get the benefit. The state estimates there are a total of between 52,000 to 53,000 Mississippians with intellectual or developmental disabilities.

“People are being institutionalized, I firmly believe, because they can’t get on the waiver,” said Polly Tribble, director of Disability Rights Mississippi.

Around 700 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities live in the state’s six regional facilities. This is down from roughly 1,300 residents in 2012. The IDD waiver has grown in that time from about 1,800 to more than 2,700.

Tribble’s largest concern within the waiver is how few people it serves. She told the story of a mother who had to put her daughter in an institution because she couldn’t afford to give up her job to stay home.

“She was separated from her daughter for years until we found out about it and got her some help,” Tribble said. “There’s stories like that all across the state. We don’t know what the potential is and you’re talking about somebody’s quality of life. And possibly somebody’s life.”

But the waiver doesn’t necessarily ensure a person will receive the services they need.

“If you think this is going to be a golden ticket, it’s not,” Natalie Gunnells said.

Every morning, the Gunnells trade off who is responsible for getting Patrick up, bathing him, getting him dressed, and feeding him breakfast. After that, Natalie Gunnells is almost always at home tending to Patrick, helping him go to the bathroom and bringing him meals. 

The highlight of Patrick’s day is when his 16-year-old brother Stephen gets back from school. The rest of their four siblings, ages 21 to 27, no longer live at home. 

In addition to a primary diagnosis of autism, Patrick also has a genetic disorder called Cri-du-chat. But while his capabilities are limited, Patrick is smart; he can read books on at least a 9th grade level and communicate through a speech-generating device.

Patrick qualifies for 180 hours per month of in-home respite care, which is designed to relieve a primary caregiver of their otherwise round-the-clock work. For six of the last seven years, his mom said Patrick has been without a respite caregiver. 

Not every person on the IDD waiver may need in-home respite, though all would qualify for it. Out of the 2,747 people on the waiver in fiscal year 2022, less than 20%, or 534, received respite care, according to documents from Medicaid. Just 32%, 873, received a similar service called home and community supports.

Patrick can’t participate in community-based services in centers, often referred to as day hab, because DMH doesn’t fund the one-on-one support he would need to acclimate in that environment.

Patrick also qualifies for 30 hours of behavioral therapy each month. Natalie Gunnells said that a local behavior support consultant, Vargas Clark from Mississippi Behavioral Services, did come to the Gunnells’ home to work with Patrick here and there in 2018, only for around 30 minutes a session. But they say Clark hasn’t had much of a presence in their lives since, and while a different therapist from the Behavioral Services came sporadically in 2021, the Gunnells haven’t seen anyone from the organization in over a year. 

According to Medicaid’s billing department, the IDD waiver costs about $125 million annually, with the agency reimbursing about $45,000 worth of services on average for each person on the waiver – though clients like Patrick aren’t receiving nearly that amount.

Some parents who spoke to Mississippi Today are skeptical, considering the worker shortage, that such a large amount of care or therapy is actually being delivered under the waiver.

“They’re receiving funding, but the services are not being delivered as they are designed to be,” Deb Giles, a parent of a son with Down syndrome, said at a recent hearing.

If Natalie Gunnells were paid to provide Patrick’s full allotment of in-home care, it would cost roughly $25,000 each year. To compare, the cost of placing Patrick in one of DMH’s regional centers would be anywhere from $90,000 to $170,000 a year depending on the level of care he qualified for.

The waiver is funded by Medicaid but the administration and oversight, which primarily consists of support coordinators employed by the regional IDD centers, is operated by the Mississippi Department of Mental Health. DMH told Mississippi Today that like private direct care providers, the agency has similarly struggled to hire and retain enough support coordinators.

The support coordinators work with the IDD waiver clients and their parents or guardians to develop what’s called a Plan of Services and Supports. The plan, the state’s primary source of information about how a patient is faring, is a crude worksheet with blank spaces for the support coordinator to fill out. Some of the headers include, “Things People Need to Know to Support Patrick and Keep Patrick Safe,”  “Patrick’s Strengths,” “Patrick’s Dreams,” “Things to Figure Out,” “Good Day,” and “Bad Day.”

At least in Patrick’s case, the plan operates as more of a wishlist than a realistic picture of his participation in the program. In some cases, it seems to the Gunnells that DMH is simply checking boxes, even if that means jotting down inaccuracies. The Gunnells’ support coordinator, Clay Ketchings at North Mississippi Regional Center, repeatedly writes in the plan that Patrick likes to go on car rides, despite the fact that currently, his parents say Patrick is almost entirely homebound.

Ideally, the Gunnells would find a consistent direct care worker and use the behavior support consultant to train the worker on how to best socialize and respond to Patrick’s specific needs. Patrick’s waiver plan explains that he is stubborn to following directions, sometimes falling on the ground and refusing to move. The Gunnells wonder what Patrick would be capable of if he had access to an autism specialist, especially considering the promising progress he made during the short stint he received services from the autism center under Dr. Sheila Williamson, who’s no longer there.

“She would have probably already had him potty trained,” Natalie Gunnells said. “… So we don’t ever really know what his potential is.”

In Mississippi, there are almost two direct care worker job openings for every person working as a direct care worker, according to national policy institute PHI, which ranks Mississippi second to last for its direct care workforce.

Betty Pinion, director of the IDD program for the Department of Mental Health, acknowledged the care shortage in an interview with Mississippi Today. But she also said that in some cases, individuals on the waiver are not receiving the services included in their plan not because the services aren’t available, but because the family refuses to work with the available providers. Some of these agencies are paying direct care workers as low as $8-an-hour.

“There are some (clients) that doesn’t seem to be satisfied with any person that we send,” Pinion said.

Since the Gunnells haven’t found a direct care worker to train, they haven’t been receiving the behavioral support either. 

They and many other parents have raised the issue of lack of services to their support coordinator, who is tasked with addressing any client concerns, but they say it doesn’t yield any results. Mississippi Today observed one family’s Plan of Services and Supports meeting in March. The parents repeatedly complained that they could not find an agency with available workers; the support coordinator explained that she didn’t have any control over the workforce.

In an interview with Mississippi Today, officials from the Department of Mental Health said it is not tracking how many people on the waiver are receiving each service versus the number of people eligible for each service.

This could show the number of people missing out on the benefits to which they’re entitled.

It also does not compile the total number of hours per service people on the waiver are eligible to receive or the total number of hours of services delivered, which might even better quantify the care shortage. Mississippi Today requested this data from the department, but since it is not already compiled in a report, it is not a public record, and the department said the report would require too many hours for the agency to conduct.

“To compile the requested information, each individual’s file (more than 2,700) would have to be reviewed to determine the eligible number of hours and then compiled into a consolidated report,” the agency said in response to the request. “… DMH is considering ways this data can be collected in the future.”

Medicaid declined to answer Mississippi Today’s questions about the waiver and its renewal, but an attorney with the agency Cody Smith told Natalie Gunnells in an email that the agency shared her concerns about the care shortage. He said that Medicaid is working with DMH to “lower barriers on workers entering the industry” and that it has commissioned a workforce study. Medicaid spokesperson Matt Westerfield said the agency is proposing an average reimbursement rate increase of 18%, which affects the hourly wage of the care workers.

Medicaid is currently submitting its paperwork to the federal government to renew the IDD waiver, a process that happens once every five years. Both Medicaid and DMH hosted a public hearing in February to accept suggestions from the public about what changes to make in its renewal.

After Mississippi Today’s inquiry to Medicaid about the IDD waiver, Snyder texted his deputy administrator for policy Wil Ervin, who recently left the agency, asking him to watch a recording of the public hearing to see if there was anything they needed to “watch out for.” 

“We are likely going to have an issue from the hearing,” Ervin responded the next day.

Medicaid spokesperson Matt Westerfield said in an email that Ervin was referring to complaints, such as from Natalie Gunnells, about the policy that legal guardians cannot be paid caregivers under the waiver. Westerfield said last month that the agency was still considering whether to revise this policy in its permanent plan.

But when it came time to submit the waiver application at the end of March, Medicaid moved to include an even more restrictive version of the policy. It added the caveat that people could not be paid to care for their relatives if the service they are providing is “a function that a relative or housemate was providing for the participant without payment prior to waiver enrollment,” which seems to apply to Natalie Gunnells and most parents in her position.

After all her efforts, Natalie Gunnells will likely be back at square one when the public health emergency ends.

In early January of 2022, frustrated by the absence of services for her son, Natalie Gunnells began requesting what are called “utilization reports” from the Department of Mental Health.

The reports contain which services, and the number of hours, that providers are billing to Medicaid under the waiver. The support coordinators are supposed to review the documents with the parent or guardian every month to ensure the client is receiving the services that Medicaid is paying for, but in Natalie Gunnells’s case, she said this hadn’t happened for three years.

“They were so negligent that any agency billing Medicaid that wanted to commit fraud could without detection,” Natalie Gunnells wrote in her own timeline of the alleged fraud.

Once she got the documents, she said she realized that for at least two years, Mississippi Behavioral Services, owned by Vargas Clark in Southaven, had been charging Medicaid for services she says Patrick wasn’t receiving. In some months when Patrick may have received an hour of support, billing records show the company charged for the full 30 hours. Natalie Gunnells estimates Medicaid reimbursed Mississippi Behavioral Services for at least $42,000 for services not rendered.

Clark, who has not been charged with a crime, told Mississippi Today Monday that he was unaware of an investigation into his company. After agreeing to examine his records in order to discuss the alleged billing discrepancies, he did not return several follow up calls or texts.

Natalie Gunnells reported her findings to Medicaid’s fraud division, but she said they never responded. She then took the information to the Attorney General’s Office, which launched an investigation, in September. The Gunnells submitted an affidavit in October. The AG did not respond to several requests for comment for this story. DMH confirmed that it conducted its own internal investigation and referred the matter to Medicaid. DMH Director Wendy Bailey also said the agency recently provided more training to support coordinators to ensure they’re following procedures.

Providers are supposed to submit quarterly review reports describing the patient’s progress, but the Gunnells’ support coordinator hadn’t been collecting them from Mississippi Behavioral Services. 

Eventually, Natalie Gunnells got the records from the investigator. According to a review by Mississippi Today, many of the reports are identical from quarter to quarter, seemingly copy-pasted with only the date at the top changing. The investigator also shared invoices and billing records from Medicaid, some of which include signatures for Natalie Gunnells that she said aren’t hers and indistinguishable scribbles for the others.

The reviews include charts, lines zigzagging across the page, that pretend to reflect the frequency of Patrick’s “target behaviors,” such as noncompliance and physical aggression. As far as Natalie Gunnells is concerned, the data is made up.

“Patrick has shown a positive response to behavior treatment,” one report says, referencing a three-month period in which the Gunnells say no therapist ever came to see Patrick.

The post ‘You’re not in line’: Family battles politics, indifference, and suspected fraud in federal health care program appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Wading through the complexities of Medicaid eligibility in order to secure health insurance for yourself or your family member in Mississippi can be a nightmare. It might even feel impossible.

But if you happen to go to church with a state legislator, you may be in luck.

“Please have someone check on the Medicaid app on (patient),” Rep. Jody Steverson, R-Ripley, wrote to Mississippi Division of Medicaid Director Drew Snyder last summer. “(Patient) has cerebral palsy and I attend church with his grandparents.”

Snyder forwarded the message to Tracy Buchanan, Medicaid’s director of long term services and supports. “Will do,” she responded.

In roughly the last year, Snyder asked Buchanan to follow up on requests from at least eight lawmakers, all white Republican men, according to text messages obtained by Mississippi Today.*

“Being a lawmaker, you can go to the head of the department and start there,” said Rep. Price Wallace, R-Mendenhall, who called and texted Snyder about a Medicaid application in January. “When you can call the top brass and let them know, then the problem seems to get worked out a lot quicker than starting at the bottom and trying to go up the ladder.”

In the texts, the politicians ask for special attention, sometimes explaining the heartbreaking circumstances and the roadblocks that specific beneficiaries faced in attempting to access Medicaid – the public health insurance program reserved for the poorest and most medically fragile citizens.

READ MORE: ‘You’re not in line’: Family battles politics, indifference, and suspected fraud in federal health care program

Medicaid is one of the largest arms of the nation’s social safety net, a maze of taxpayer-funded assistance that ideally exists to level the playing field for needy Americans, if not just simply help them survive.

Mississippi lawmakers – as well as Gov. Tate Reeves, who reappointed Snyder from the previous Gov. Phil Bryant administration – have resisted expanding Medicaid to cover the poor and uninsured. They’ve opted instead for punitive policies that target beneficiaries for suspected fraud, such as the HOPE Act, which they refused to repeal even after recent pleas from the Reeves-appointed welfare director.

Yet they can tap into the programs for those they personally deem worthy.

“Thank you for again helping me,” House Appropriations Chairman Rep. John Read, R-Gautier, texted Snyder in early 2022. “The family at this time can not express how great they feel.”

Looking at it one way, the requests demonstrate the lawmaker’s accessibility, their resourcefulness, tangible constituent representation.

But the texts also reflect the potential influence lawmakers have over the agency, not just in relation to its state budget, but in determining who successfully ends up on the Medicaid rolls in the poorest state in the nation.

“Legislators often reach out to the Division with questions or concerns raised by their constituents, and we take those questions and concerns seriously,” Medicaid said in a written response to Mississippi Today. “However, we strongly disagree with your assertion that these communications demonstrate a pattern of legislative influence on who gets served and how quickly.”

While some of Snyder’s inquiries to Buchanan over the last year came from other connected people, the majority originated from lawmakers. Snyder, who came to Medicaid after working as a deputy chief of staff and policy advisor in Bryant’s office, has an incentive to make lawmakers happy, since they determine his state budget.

“I think it does help, you know, when a lawmaker makes the phone call. It puts a little bit hotter fire under their bottom,” Wallace said. “… When I talked back with Drew, he was like, ‘Yeah, we got everything handled.’ So it was taken care of.”

“That’s what we’re here for,” Wallace said. “In all honesty, that’s why I ran for this job, to help my constituents. That’s where I get the most satisfaction of being a representative for the state of Mississippi District 77 is when one of my constituents calls me with a problem and I’m able to help them resolve that problem.”

Mississippi Today recently published a story about the struggles that a couple in north Mississippi have had navigating a special Medicaid program, called the Medicaid IDD waiver, for their 23-year-old son, who has severe autism.

The couple, Natalie and Jamie Gunnells, sought help from their local lawmaker Sen. Chad McMahan, R-Guntown, which they had supported in his past campaigns. McMahan set up a meeting for the Gunnells with officials from Medicaid, which eventually acquiesced, adopting a temporary policy that allowed Natalie Gunnells to get paid for care for her son.

“I know how to work the system for the people I represent,” McMahan told Mississippi Today. “… I have figured out a way to be very successful in helping my constituents get the medical services or the disability services their family needs. And I’m not gonna reveal how I’ve learned it. I’ve learned the system.”

When McMahan found out the Gunnells had expressed support for his upcoming political opponent, a conservative opposed to Medicaid enhancements, the senator called them out, saying it was a “slap in the face” considering all the hours he spent lobbying on their behalf.

Asked if he thinks about helping people access public assistance as a way to secure votes, McMahan said, “That never crosses my mind. There’s never a wrong time to do the right thing.”

(Medicaid later chose not to permanently adopt the policy).

Rep. John Hines, D-Greenville, said when he’s reached out to Medicaid about concerns, current agency leadership has always been responsive to him, explaining why one of his constituents may or may not be eligible for the assistance. They say they want to help, Hines said, but that they have to stay within strict eligibility guidelines.

To Hines, this scenario illuminates a larger point: There wouldn’t be such a need for lawmaker intervention on specific beneficiary cases if those lawmakers put in place equitable policies for all.

“I think the issue in the whole Medicaid system is the fact that we did not expand,” Hines said. “And a lot of these conversations, a lot of these situations that are happening here in this state, if we would just expand it, we would not be having. There wouldn’t even be a need for you to do the story that you’re doing.”

Hines continued: “The government’s inability to want to expand Medicaid forces representatives and directors of agencies to have to make uncomfortable decisions and conversations around the safety and the health of constituents, which would automatically be eligible for Medicaid if we would expand it, and they wouldn’t have to be making all these special phone calls.”

Below are the texts between Snyder and Buchanan referencing lawmaker interactions with Steverson, Read, Wallace, Rep. Tracy Arnold, R-Boonville, Rep. Rob Roberson, R-Starkville, Rep. Joey Hood, R-Ackerman, Rep. Bubba Carpenter, R-Burnsville, Rep. Sam Creekmore, R-New Albany, and former House Ways and Means Chair Jeff Smith, R-Columbus. Most of them either declined to comment or did not return texts or calls to Mississippi Today.

*The text messages referenced in this story were sent between Snyder and Buchanan from Dec. 1, 2021, to February 16, 2023. They do not reflect the entirety of communication between state lawmakers and Snyder, just the correspondence he forwarded to Buchanan that was then shared with Mississippi Today to fulfill its records request. 

The post Texts: Lawmakers maneuver Mississippi’s Medicaid rolls appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Mississippi Attorney General’s Office is investigating whether a behavioral therapist provider bilked Medicaid under a special program for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. 

Natalie Gunnells, the mother of a 23-year-old Medicaid recipient named Patrick, first noticed a billing discrepancy in early 2022 after requesting to see records from the Mississippi Department of Mental Health.

The Department of Mental Health administers the program, called the Medicaid IDD waiver, but the Mississippi Division of Medicaid pays for it. 

Under the waiver, Patrick is eligible to receive over 200 hours of services each month, but in the last several years, he’s received just a handful of hours, if not zero.

READ MORE: ‘You’re not in line’: Family battles politics, indifference, and suspected fraud in federal health care program

That hasn’t stopped Mississippi Behavioral Services, a clinic in Southaven owned by Vargas Clark, from billing Medicaid for thousands of dollars worth of therapy for Patrick, records obtained by Mississippi Today show. 

Clark, who has not been charged with a crime, said he was unaware of the investigation and did not return several follow up calls and texts from Mississippi Today. Gunnells estimates Medicaid reimbursed the company for $42,000 worth of services that her son didn’t receive from 2020 to 2022. She says disregard at the mental health and Medicaid agencies allowed this to continue unnoticed. 

“We provide services as written for the service authorization,” Clark said. “Now there may be individuals that are authorized for, let’s say, 30 hours. We may be providing 10. But we only bill services for services that are actually rendered.”

Mississippi spends about $125 million annually on the waiver program, an average reimbursement of about $45,000 worth of services for each person. 

Several parents who spoke to Mississippi Today and voiced their concerns at a recent public hearing want to know where all that money is going. It’s hard for them to believe that much care is being delivered, considering the worker shortage that has left them without any help for their adult children. 

And they’re worried that a lack of oversight in the program could mean taxpayer dollars are flying out the door of Medicaid while some of the state’s most vulnerable residents go without services. 

“There’s no telling how much fraud is occurring,” Gunnells said.

One of those parents is Deb Giles, who has been unable to find a specialist to provide the speech therapy her son is qualified to receive. But at the hearing in February, Giles focused her concerns on the accountability within the program.

“My recommendation for the Department of Mental Health is to provide the recipients with reports on audits of the providers and to provide more audits,” Giles said. “I’ve run into roadblocks, and not enough information as to how these providers are being audited. Some are not providing the services that they’re being paid for, or reimbursed for, and I would like to see more information for Mississippi on how these providers are being audited. And also I’d like to be able to assess the audits, to read throughout the state of Mississippi what the providers are providing for the recipients.”

Giles told Mississippi Today she wasn’t alleging a specific instance of fraud, but that the waiver program doesn’t collect enough information from providers to ensure they’re performing all the functions they’re supposed to. 

The Department of Mental Health’s primary role in the IDD waiver is to provide clients with support coordinators from the agency’s regional IDD centers. The support coordinator’s job is to consult with the parent or guardian of an individual on the waiver to ensure they are receiving the services outlined in the support plan they create together. For years, Gunnells said her support coordinator did not review service reports with her. Several call logs Mississippi Today reviewed confirmed that this wasn’t happening.

“It seems every standard put in place to ensure appropriate care for P (Patrick) was totally ignored from the Support Coordinator to all his superiors charged with ensuring the documents such as Quarterly Reports, Behavior Support Plan and required IDD service notes were submitted on time and accurate,” Gunnells wrote in a timeline of the alleged fraud.  “They were so negligent that any agency billing Medicaid, that wanted to commit fraud, could without detection.”

Department of Mental Health Director Wendy Bailey said the agency conducted its own internal investigation into the matter and referred it to Medicaid. She said DMH is providing additional training to support coordinators and looking at ways to improve its site visit process at the regional centers. The central office reviews a sample of support coordination records monthly.

The state Medicaid agency is in the process of renewing its application to the federal government for the waiver.

“While we don’t have evidence to believe this type of provider fraud is widespread, we still have to be open to new ways of preventing fraud and be aggressive in rooting it out,” Medicaid spokesperson Matt Westerfield said in a statement to Mississippi Today. “This year, the Division plans to implement an electronic system for the ID/DD waiver that documents the time certain ID/DD services begin and end.”

The Medicaid statement also encouraged anybody who suspects Medicaid fraud to notify the agency here.

The Attorney General’s Office, which began its investigation more than six months ago, did not respond to several requests for comment for this story.

The post Attorney General investigating provider fraud in Medicaid waiver appeared first on Mississippi Today.