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A Gulfport dentist continues to serve on the state dental watchdog board, despite making thousands in unauthorized campaign contributions from a Mississippi Dental Association bank account, including $5,400 to Gov. Tate Reeves, and despite covering up $29,225 stolen from that account, some of which went to casinos.

Jeff Zimmerman continues to decide the fates of dentists accused of improper or illegal conduct, despite the pleas of the association and the board for Reeves to remove Zimmerman from the Mississippi State Board of Dental Examiners.

“Had the MDA chosen to file charges against Dr. Zimmerman and if he were found guilty, it would be a felony conviction that could lead to a fine and imprisonment,” the association’s investigative report says. “The fact that no charges were filed in lieu of return of the stolen funds does not eliminate the fact that Dr. Zimmerman admits to misappropriating $5,900 of the MDA’s money that had been entrusted to him in his position as Treasurer without proper authority.”

Under state law, only Reeves has the power to remove a board member “on proof of inefficiency, incompetency, immorality, unprofessional conduct, or continued absence from the state, for failure to perform duties, or for other sufficient cause,” according to the law.

Asked about Reeves’ lack of action, Press Secretary Shelby Wilcher said the governor didn’t receive formal notification of the board’s order in the case until April 5.

“The Governor is continuing to evaluate the Consent Order in the light of his statutory duties pursuant to Mississippi Code Section 73-9-9,” she said in an email. “The Governor holds each and every one of his appointees to the highest ethical and moral standards.”

Zimmerman did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment about his continuing service on the board in light of that order.

The Mississippi Dental Association has long been active in political circles. Over the past quarter century, the association has contributed more than $1 million in donations through its Political Action Committee, nearly two thirds of it to Republican candidates, including at least $21,000 to Reeves, according to followthemoney.org.

Three months after becoming treasurer for the association’s District 5 in July 2019, Zimmerman obtained an unauthorized debit card for the District 5 bank account, according to the investigative report obtained by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, which is part of Mississippi Today. Over the next four months, that card was used to make more than 150 unauthorized purchases, totaling $29,225.

Records show many purchases at Walmart, payments to the Island View Casino in Gulfport and repeated $500 cash withdrawals from an ATM.

On Nov. 7, 2019, Zimmerman made an unauthorized political contribution of $500 to Michael Watson, a candidate for secretary of state, from the District 5 checking account, according to the report.

Watson did not respond to a request for comment.

On April 23, 2021, Zimmerman used association funds to make an unauthorized political contribution of $400 to Reeves’ campaign. Three months later, Reeves appointed him to the watchdog board.

Wilcher cited the association’s overwhelming support for Zimmerman for the board’s District 5 position — 21 votes compared to three votes for his next closest competitor.

“Because Dr. Zimmerman received the overwhelming majority of the votes cast, effective July 1, 2021, the Governor appointed Dr. Zimmerman to the Board to represent Dental District 5,” she said.

A month later, Zimmerman used association funds to make an unauthorized political contribution of $5,000 to Reeves’ campaign.

District 5 President Patton Webb Jr. learned of the $5,000 check when the Reeves campaign thanked the association for the contribution. He contacted Zimmerman and asked him to get the check back, according to the report.

Wilcher said the Reeves’ campaign returned the $5,000 contribution on that same day. She said the campaign hasn’t received a request to return the $400 contribution.

The report says Webb also asked Zimmerman to provide bank statements for the past three years. When Zimmerman finally shared those statements a month later, Webb discovered other unauthorized purchases and political contributions.

Confronted by District 5 officials, Zimmerman blamed an employee for the $29,225 in illicit purchases, saying an employee stole the card from his desk, according to the report. He said he fired the employee and arranged repayments for restitution.

Although he discovered those unauthorized purchases in January 2020, he didn’t replace those funds until after District 5 leaders asked for bank statements in October 2021, according to the report.

“He further stated that he did not report the theft to Dr. Webb or anyone else in District V,” the report says. “It was recommended that Dr. Zimmerman step down as MDA District V Secretary/Treasurer, which he did.”

Past board member Frank Conaway of Bay St. Louis said he viewed all of the District 5 bank records, which suggested “some money had been moved around that did not seem appropriate. It was closer to $40,000.”

As for the campaign contributions, District 5 members never voted to approve them, he said. “In the history of the 5^th District, we have never done donations that way. It was Dr. Zimmerman acting alone when he did that.”

He said he wrote a letter on behalf of District 5 members that “we had lost confidence” in Zimmerman representing them, but the letter was never mailed under advice from legal counsel.

When questioned, Zimmerman admitted that he had held the reimbursement of these stolen funds in his own bank account until Webb discovered the theft, according to the report. 

Asked how the association felt about Zimmerman continuing to serve on the state dental watchdog board, President Rebecca Courtney said by email that the association isn’t affiliated with the board or involved in any board decisions.

Asked if the association would support a change in state law that would allow the state board to remove board members who have violated ADA ethics and the Professional Code of Conduct, she replied, “We would always support positivity to strengthen the Board of Dental Examiners and ensure they are following proper ethical conduct.”

In February 2022, Webb filed a complaint with the watchdog board regarding Zimmerman’s actions. The board investigated and determined that he and the fired employee had “failed to fully cooperate” with the investigation by “withholding information,” according to the report.

The board concluded Zimmerman had violated both state dental ethics and the American Dental Association’s Principles of Ethics and Code of Professional Conduct, according to the consent order signed by both the board and Zimmerman.

In that order, he admitted that more than $29,000 had been removed from the District 5 bank account for illicit purchases and $5,900 had been removed for unauthorized campaign contributions.

He repaid the money taken for the purchases. He agreed to pay a $2,000 fine and finish a 90-day ethics program. 

On March 31, the board voted unanimously to censure Zimmerman, who can no longer serve as an officer or on a committee, but he can continue to vote on whether to revoke a dentist’s license.

The board’s executive director, Denny Hydrick, said Wednesday that neither he nor the board had any comment beyond the consent order.

On Jan. 13, District 5 officials voted to expel Zimmerman for his actions and recommended his removal from the watchdog board. 

“Board Members must be beyond reproach and should be held to a higher standard of behavior than the rank & file dentist in Mississippi,” the report concluded. “They investigate complaints against dentists, hygienists, and radiology permit holders made by the Public and other Agencies. They then sit in judgment of these license holdings in hearings that can take someone’s license to practice their profession and their ability to make a living in the profession that they worked and trained for. Board Members must be above the law. Dr. Zimmerman has proven that he has violated the trust given his position.”

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The 1890 Constitution strikes again. The story behind the cartoon here.

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The University of Mississippi Medical Center has let go nearly all of the instructors at its Oxford-based accelerated bachelors of science in nursing program, prompting outcry from current and former students who worry this will hurt their chances of passing the national nursing exam. 

The move, announced last week, came in the middle of the program’s one-year cycle. Students received an email on May 1 that described the decision as “difficult” a few hours after five of the program’s seven faculty members were informed that UMMC would not renew their contracts this summer. 

“Please understand these personnel changes are not punitive, rather this restructuring is based on programmatic and student needs,” wrote Julie Sanford, the dean of UMMC’s School of Nursing, and Leigh Holley, an assistant dean who was one of just two instructors to not be let go. Neither administrator responded to Mississippi Today’s requests for comment. 

Days later, students received even more personnel news: Sanford, who UMMC named dean in 2019, would be leaving for a new position at the University of Alabama’s nursing school. 

One of the five faculty members, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear that UMMC would revoke their remaining month-and-a-half of pay, said she was devastated by the decision and caught completely off guard. She said the only reason they were given is that “it was a business decision.” 

“I just want you to know that I have committed my life and career to this institution and to this program and to these students,” the faculty member told Mississippi Today. “I feel completely betrayed, especially when you look up the mission … of the School of Nursing. … They are not living their values and their mission and our whole faculty team did.” 

Even though the instructors’ contracts aren’t up until June 30, the faculty member said that Sanford, Holley and a representative from UMMC’s Human Resources made faculty members turn in their badges and computers. Someone from UMMC was folding moving boxes during the meeting.

“This is why it’s so, so confusing,” she said. “You give us no reason, and you told the students it’s not punitive, but they treated us like criminals.” 

A spokesperson said UMMC had “no comment” on the decision. Holley, who joined the program last fall, wrote in the email that she would continue teaching courses, along with instructors from the program in Jackson who will drive up. It is unclear if this arrangement will continue for future cohorts or if instructors will be permanently replaced. 

“We’re very fearful for the success of our students, which is our number one concern, really,” the faculty member said. “We have a nursing shortage. We’re living in a state of desperation for nurses.” 

The Oxford program, started in 2014, is one of several undergraduate nursing programs offered by UMMC and primarily caters to recent graduates who did not major in nursing. It is intensive and rigorous, packing an entire bachelors degree into just three semesters. 

More than 60 students a year have graduated from the Oxford program in recent years, with many filling positions at Mississippi hospitals amid the state’s pervasive nursing shortage. According to recent data from the Mississippi Hospital Association, registered nurse vacancies and turnover rates have soared in the last year to the highest numbers in at least a decade.

One of the current students is Ashley Ledbetter, a 38-year-old former teacher who is using the program to change careers. As one of the older students in the program, she said the instructors made her feel comfortable and taught her how to navigate the at-times traumatizing profession, such as the first time she saw a patient die during clinicals. 

The irony, Ledbetter noted, is that her cohort is about to enter the third and final leg on May 30, the most crucial stretch. She’s worried it will be harder to prepare for the exam with all-new instructors.

“I feel that, really, if you were focusing on student needs, you wouldn’t have taken away one of the most fundamental parts of this program before the program is over,” Ledbetter said. “Our faculty got fired in the middle of the program and that, to me, is very insane.” 

On May 1, shortly before Holley and Sanford sent the email, Ledbetter said she was asked to attend a virtual meeting with other student leaders.

During the meeting, which lasted roughly 20 minutes, Ledbetter said students were told the decision was due to the program’s falling pass rates on the National Council Licensure Examination, or NCLEX. 

But Holley and Sanford did not say if the pass rates were threatening the program’s accreditation or were simply lower than UMMC wanted, Ledbetter said. The most recent nursing report from the Institutions of Higher Learning shows that UMMC’s undergraduate NCLEX pass rate fell from 100% to 95.9% during a three-year period ending in 2021, but the report includes all of UMMC’s undergraduate baccalaureate nursing programs.

“We kept being told they couldn’t give us any more information because of HR policy,” Ledbetter said. “It was very vague.” 

UMMC’s bachelors of science in nursing programs, including the Oxford program, were reaccredited last year. 

The faculty member said that Sanford and other UMMC administrators had previously singled out the Oxford program for its low NCLEX pass rate despite pass rates falling across the country during the pandemic. 

“We’ve definitely felt under scrutiny for the past couple years, and we have been told outright, ‘if you don’t bring up your pass rates, we could end this program,’” she said. “We have bent over backwards for students and changed things, but we were just never really given a chance to watch how what we changed played out.” 

A few hours after Holley and Sanford’s first email, Holley sent a follow up, acknowledging students’ reactions to the abrupt announcement. The cohort’s GroupMe blew up with texts; the instructors whose contracts were not renewed were receiving dozens of supportive messages on Facebook. 

“Hi all, I know this news is unexpected, unsettling, even saddening and prompts many questions,” Holley wrote. 

One of the instructors who was let go, Neeli Kirkendall, had been honored for her teaching. In 2016, she won the DAISY award for nursing faculty. One student who nominated Kirkendall for the award described her as “the ideal example of the perfect nurse.” 

Kirkendall did not respond to a request for comment by press time. 

Alison Doyle, who graduated from the program in 2020, said she thought the lower NCLEX passing rate was likely due to the pandemic even as she felt the quality of the instruction actually improved after her classes were moved online. She was able to record and rewatch lectures rather than scramble to take notes in real time. 

Doyle described the bonds that students had formed with the five instructors who were let go. 

“I saw these women for 12 months more than I saw anyone else in my life when I was in nursing school,” she said. 

University of Mississippi had been investing in the program in recent years, converting a former hospital in Oxford into instructional space in 2019, according to a UMMC newsletter. 

Other state universities are replicating the program. In January, the University of Southern Mississippi launched the first class of a similar program at its satellite campus on the coast. 

The post ‘They treated us like criminals’: UMMC lets go of most instructors for Oxford nursing program appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The three Jackson women serving as plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the controversial House Bill 1020 testified Wednesday the law would impact their right to elect judges from their community like other residents of the state are able to do. 

“It adds insult to injury,” said plaintiff Ann Saunders about the establishment of a Capitol Complex Improvement District court within Jackson. 

“It’s usurping the right that the great state of Mississippi has written into its constitution that I have,” she said. “For some reason my city, my county is being singled out for something other than legitimate access to the court and a legitimate reflection of the court that represents our vote.” 

Saunders testified with plaintiffs Dorothy Triplett and Sabreen Sharrief before Hinds Chancery Judge Dewayne Thomas, who ordered a temporary restraining order last week. 

The goal of the Wednesday hearing was to hear from the plaintiffs and for the attorneys to make their case about the constitutionality of HB 1020. 

Residents and Democratic lawmakers have spoken out against HB 1020, including concerns that it would empower white state officials to appoint judges instead of having them elected by citizens of the majority-Black city and create a separate police force within Jackson. 

Jackson lawmakers say they were not consulted in the crafting of the legislation. 

Thomas is expected to rule by the end of the week whether to approve a preliminary injunction to stop the bill from being implemented. That decision could lead to either of the sides asking for the Mississippi Supreme Court to hear the lawsuit in an appeal. 

MacArthur Justice Center Director Cliff Johnson, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, said the ultimate goal is a permanent injunction that would prevent the appointment of temporary judges and the creation of a Capitol Complex Improvement District court. 

Gov. Tate Reeves signed HB 1020 into law April 21, and within days it faced two lawsuits – one by the NAACP in federal court and the other in state court. Both lawsuits argue HB 1020 is unconstitutional. 

The plaintiffs are represented by the ACLU of Mississippi, the Mississippi Center for Justice, the MacArthur Justice Center and the Legal Defense and Educational Fund. 

“We begin where we end with the constitution,” Johnson told the judge about the state constitution requirement that all circuit court judges be elected. “The Legislature went too far and it missed the mark.”

Rex Shannon, an attorney from the attorney general’s office, said the state is against an injunction and that HB 1020 doesn’t violate the state constitution because the Legislature can create inferior courts and because the constitution allows temporary judges to be appointed.  

The state has also asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed, arguing that it doesn’t have proper jurisdiction with the chancery court, it doesn’t show violation of the constitution and it doesn’t show that the plaintiffs have suffered or will suffer harm that is different from harm experienced by the general public. 

Johnson said there is a notion by the state that Jackson is troubled and that justifies state intervention in the local criminal justice system and the deprivation of the rights of Hinds County residents. 

Shannon said HB 1020 is the Legislature’s way to address crime in Jackson. 

The defendants in the state lawsuit are Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Michael Randolph, who would be tasked with appointing four temporary judges to the Capitol Complex Improvement District Court; Hinds County Circuit Clerk Zack Wallace; and Greg Snowden, director of the state’s Administrative Office of Courts. 

On Wednesday, Judge Thomas approved a motion by the plaintiffs to add additional defendants: Gov. Reeves, Attorney General Lynn Fitch and the State of Mississippi. 

Randolph has asked to be dismissed as a defendant on the grounds of judicial immunity and to maintain conduct that prohibits him from making public comments on pending matters, said attorney Mark Nelson. 

Wallace also asked to be dismissed as a defendant because he has no role in the lawsuit and would distribute cases based on Supreme Court orders, said attorney Attorney Pieter Teeuwissen. 

Johnson said the plaintiffs sued defendants who would be responsible for implementing the law, such as the clerk who would assign cases, the Administrative Office of Courts who would provide staffing and set pay and the chief justice for appointing judges. 

Thomas is expected to rule this week whether to keep Randolph and Wallace as defendants and whether the attorney general’s office can dismiss the lawsuit. 

“Thank you for your patience, and I will try to do my best,” Thomas said at the end of the Wednesday hearing. 

The post Hinds judge mulls putting hold on law creating separate court district in Jackson appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The wave of presidential turnover at Mississippi’s institutions of higher learning has come to Rust College. 

The state’s oldest historically Black college in Holly Springs announced in a press release Wednesday that Ivy Taylor, who was appointed in June 2020, has left. Though Taylor gave an interview to a local paper last week announcing she was leaving, it’s unclear if she stepped down or was fired; the press release does not say. Her last day was May 6.  

In Taylor’s place, the private college’s board of trustees named Robert Dixon, the interim vice president for academic affairs, as interim president. He is a physicist who has worked at six historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the last five decades in various administrative roles. 

“I am proud to lend my talents and expertise to such a historic and prestigious institution such as Rust College,” he said in the release. “I look forward to following in the traditions of past exceptional leaders who have served this institution during its 157 years.” 

It’s unclear if, or when, the college’s board will undertake a search for a new permanent president. 

The announcement makes Taylor the latest president of a Mississippi college or university to leave under mysterious circumstances. The trend began last summer when the governing board for the state’s eight public universities suddenly announced it had let go William LaForge, who had served as the president of Delta State University in Cleveland for nine years. 

Rodney Bennett, the former president of University of Southern Mississippi, stepped down soon after. Then earlier this year, the Institutions for Higher Learning Board of Trustees placed Thomas Hudson at Jackson State University on administrative leave, then let him go. 

More recently, the board announced that Felecia Nave was no longer Alcorn State University’s president days after she interviewed for the chancellor position at Louisiana State University in Shreveport.

The IHL board has refrained from providing the community with more information about the “personnel issues.” In Nave’s case, the board even refused to answer questions from Mississippi Today about if the change was a resignation or firing. In general, the only additional details about the board’s decision have come from the presidents themselves.

Other universities that haven’t seen presidential turnover have faced discontent from students, faculty and alumni. At the end of last year, a change.org petition circulated at Mississippi Valley State University calling on the IHL board to fire Jerryl Briggs, the president, due to enrollment decline, issues with financial aid and “lack of leadership.” Then Briggs’ supporters created a counter-petition. 

At Tougaloo College, alumni have also created a change.org petition asking the board and Carmen Walters, the president, to acknowledge the enrollment declines and low morale on campus. The petition claims that Tougaloo’s leadership has withheld critical information such as budgets and grant funding. 

The Rust College board hired Taylor, the college’s first female president, after an eight-month search and reportedly interviewing more than 70 candidates. A former mayor of Holly Springs said the board focused on finding a president who would prioritize technological investments that could improve the infrastructure and education at Rust College, which was founded in 1866. 

The hope was that through modernization, Taylor could bring more students to Rust College — or at least, stave off a sharp enrollment decline during the pandemic. 

“Dr. Taylor brings energy, intelligence, and competence as well as experience in listening to diverse views and building coalitions,” said the board chair, David Swinton, said in a press release at the time.

When Taylor arrived on campus, she was met with controversy around some of the on-campus housing conditions. In at least one dorm, the college was reportedly bunking four students to a room, the Tri-State Defender reported. 

In an interview last week, with the local paper in Marshall County, Taylor touched on the enrollment decline and said it was a trend that began before her term. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, Rust College’s enrollment since 2016 has plummeted by more than half to just 462 students in 2021. 

“Enrollment had been declining at Rust College for several years when I arrived and the pandemic exacerbated the scenario,” Taylor said. 

Taylor also said she experienced high turnover in leadership turning her time at Rust College, which she attributed to the small, rural nature of Holly Springs, the state of public education in the area, and “the overall ‘Great Resignation’ trend occurring in other sectors.” 

She ended the interview saying that she does not yet have plans for a new job and is using the time off to rest. 

Editor’s note: Ivy Taylor is a member of Mississippi Today’s board of directors.

The post In the latest college president turnover, Rust College’s Ivy Taylor is out appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Mississippi Attorney General’s Office has filed its appeal in a lawsuit about public money being allocated to private schools, echoing their arguments from earlier in the process. 

The Legislature gave $10 million to a grant program for private schools at the end of the 2022 legislative session, a move that frustrated some advocates and legislators. The funding comes from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which gave the Mississippi Legislature $1.8 billion to spend on pandemic response, government services, and infrastructure improvements to water, sewer, and broadband. 

The Mississippi chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Democracy Forward, and the Mississippi Center for Justice brought a lawsuit challenging this allocation on behalf of Parents for Public Schools, a Jackson-based national nonprofit.

The decision, which a Hinds County judge handed down in October 2022, found that the allocation violated section 208 of the Mississippi Constitution, which prohibits giving any public funds to private schools. With this decision, the state was barred from distributing the money. Legislators re-allocated the $10 million in the 2023 legislative session in case the appeal prevails. 

Section 208 reads in its entirety: 

“No religious or other sect or sects shall ever control any part of the school or other educational funds of this state; nor shall any funds be appropriated toward the support of any sectarian school, or to any school that at the time of receiving such appropriation is not conducted as a free school.” 

The attorney general’s office raised one new point in its appeal, saying Section 208 only applies to state educational funds. As this money came from federal COVID relief, it is not subject to these restrictions. 

Will Bardwell, an attorney with Democracy Forward, disputed this point, saying that the money’s origin is not relevant. 

“This is money that went into the state treasury and was doled out by state officials under rules promulgated by the state Legislature,” he said. “Of course it’s state money.”

The appeal’s other main points are similar to previous filings, arguing that Parents for Public Schools does not have a legal standing to challenge the constitutionality of this allocation and its members are not negatively impacted.

The decision from Hinds County Chancery Court Judge Crystal Wise Martin referenced the competition between private and public schools, and its subsequent negative impact on public school enrollment and funding, when granting a permanent injunction in the case. 

The attorney general’s office disputed this line of thinking but said that even if this situation were to occur, it would be public schools or their students who would experience a negative side effect of private schools receiving this money, not the members of Parents for Public Schools who are predominately parents and teachers. 

Bardwell called the notion that parents don’t have a legal interest in their children’s constitutional rights “pretty silly.” 

Attorneys for the state also reiterated the argument that because the Legislature appropriated the money to the Department of Finance and Administration to run a grant program for private schools, instead of directly to those private schools, these laws did not violate the state constitution. 

The judge’s decision rebuked this idea, saying the state cannot avoid compliance with the constitution by delegating appropriating power to an executive agency. 

Bardwell echoed this sentiment when discussing the new filing. 

“The constitution says what it says, it is unambiguous,” he said. “It forbids sending any funds, at all, to private schools. You can’t get around that by money laundering.”

Joann Mickens, the executive director of Parents for Public Schools, said legislators and taxpayers know that the purpose of public funds is to support public goods and services. 

“In this case, Parents for Public Schools is standing up for almost half a million Mississippi children, their families, their communities, and the greater good,” Mickens said in a statement. “In doing so, we stand up for a stronger, better Mississippi and against perpetuating inequity.”    

Bardwell said their filings are due in early June and he expects the Mississippi Supreme Court will want to hold oral arguments in late summer or fall. 

The post AG’s office files appeal in public funds to private schools lawsuit appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today reporter Anna Wolfe won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting for her remarkable investigation “The Backchannel,” which uncovered the depth of the sprawling $77 million welfare scandal, the largest embezzlement of federal funds in the state’s history. Anna joins Mississippi Today editor-in-chief Adam Ganucheau to discuss the win, her career, and how she sees her role in Mississippi.

The post Podcast: Anna Wolfe discusses Pulitzer Prize win appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Southern Miss currently holds the nation’s longest winning streak at 10 games and has moved into position to possibly host an NCAA Regional. Scott Berry’s USM program has been a model of consistency since he took over for the legendary Corky Palmer.

Stream all episodes here.

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On the heels of several major hospitals departing the Mississippi Hospital Association, the organization’s leader is baffled.

The hospitals’ move comes shortly after the association’s political action committee made a $250,000 contribution to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Brandon Presley, an outspoken proponent of Medicaid expansion.

The state’s largest public hospital system, the University of Mississippi Medical Center, announced in a letter on April 28 that it was leaving the MHA. Days later, three more hospitals — Singing River on the coast, Gulfport’s Memorial Hospital and George County Regional in Lucedale — followed suit. 

Forrest General Hospital in Hattiesburg on Monday became the most recent hospital to leave the organization, as first reported by Magnolia Tribune. 

The PAC made the donation – the largest it has ever made – in late April, MHA Executive Director Tim Moore said. 

Forrest General’s termination letter said the departure was fueled by “recent events,” while the other four hospitals cited concerns with MHA leadership. 

Moore said donating to Presley’s campaign was recommended by the MHA’s board of governors, who are administrators of member hospitals elected by MHA members.

“We all have had these discussions for a number of years now that we support candidates that support hospitals, and here is a candidate that is coming very strongly forward with a complete health care agenda,” Moore said. “It was certainly not just … it was not my decision.”

Presley, a Democrat, is running against incumbent Republican Gov. Tate Reeves in the 2023 statewide elections. While Reeves has been an active opponent of Medicaid expansion, Presley has vowed to expand Medicaid if he’s elected governor. 

Moore, who’s led the MHA for nearly 10 years, suspects the donation was a catalyst. The hospitals’ departures have left him in disbelief, he said. 

“There’s nothing else that has changed. Nothing,” he said in an interview with Mississippi Today last week. “Our strategy has not changed.”

Mississippi hospitals as a whole are struggling amid the pandemic, when labor and operating costs skyrocketed. The struggle is most apparent in the state’s rural hospitals — about a third are at risk of closure. 

Experts say Medicaid expansion would bring in millions to Mississippi and insure an additional 200,000 to 300,000 Mississippians. State leaders such as Gov. Tate Reeves, the incumbent candidate, have remained opposed to the policy change, though most Mississippians and lawmakers support it. 

“How can anybody blame the hospital association for committing upfront to somebody that has committed to helping hospitals and patients across the state? How can you condemn that?” Moore said. “I can’t figure it out.”

Multiple requests for comment to George County Regional Hospital went unanswered. Spokespeople for UMMC, Singing River, Forrest and Memorial said that hospital administration had no further comment on their decisions to leave the MHA. 

A connection to Reeves is clear for at least one hospital. 

Memorial’s CEO Kent Nicaud has consistently been one of Reeves’ top donors, leading to an appointment to the state gaming commission earlier this year. Reeves also appointed Nicaud’s wife, Jenny, as an administrative law judge for the Mississippi Workers Compensation Commission in 2021. 

While expansion isn’t a silver bullet, experts agree that it would go a long way to increasing the financial viability of Mississippi’s struggling hospitals. Moore previously said that the state’s hospitals run up about $600 million annually in uncompensated care costs. 

Moore said that it’s difficult to imagine any hospital CEO in Mississippi as an opponent of Medicaid expansion because of the vast financial benefits.

“It is a good policy, a fair one,” Moore said. “It’s good for the state of Mississippi. It’s good for the patients. It’s good for the providers. It’s an economic stimulus. It just goes on and on. And there’s just no logical reason not to be trying to move forward.

“While I’m sitting in this seat, I’m nonpartisan. I’m looking for folks that will support our hospitals and providers to take care of patients.”

Michael Beyer, Presley’s communications director, said Presley was proud to have earned the support of the MHA and if elected, would work to “end Tate Reeves’ hospital crisis.”

“Tate Reeves needs to answer why there is always enough taxpayer money for pet projects for his celebrity friends and personal trainer but never enough to solve his hospital crisis, which has left many rural hospitals across the state scrambling to keep their lights on and 220,000 working Mississippians without healthcare,” Beyer said in a statement.

Shelby Wilcher, Reeves’ press secretary, said the Governor’s office “does not have any comment on MHA’s internal affairs.” 

The MHA, a member of the American Hospital Association, represents the interests of Mississippi’s hospitals and advocates for health care policy change, including Medicaid expansion. They also offer services to member hospitals, like a health information exchange program and educational courses. According to its website, the MHA comprises over 100 hospitals, health care systems and other providers, as well as over 50,000 employees.

While the PAC operates as a separate organization from the MHA, it answers to the same board. And Moore serves on the board, as well as director of both organizations.

Moore said during the nearly 100 years that the MHA has represented the state’s hospitals, hospitals have rotated in and out of the organization, but those departures have not been publicized. 

“Hopefully at some point we can reconcile whatever differences these are with members that have become dissatisfied or whatever has been the confusion, because I will say I’ve been extremely disappointed as to how these were handled,” Moore said. 

Whether or not hospitals are members of the MHA, they reap the benefits of the changes the organization advocates for, he said, but it’s harder to convince state lawmakers to make policy changes when the hospitals are fractured.

“In a state like Mississippi, with small geography and a relatively small population … if you break them up into segments, you have a much more difficult job in trying to unify the industry and come in one voice,” he said. “If you implement another association … they tend to undermine each other.”

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