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Republican lawmakers want to create a separate, unelected judicial district in Jackson to clear Hinds County’s case backlog and address crime in Jackson, but the state’s overwhelmed and understaffed Crime Lab may make that impossible. 

During more than four hours of debate on House Bill 1020, several Jackson lawmakers said the court has a backlog because of the Mississippi Forensics Laboratory, which is where local police departments, sheriffs and other law enforcement send evidence to be analyzed and used in trials. 

“We can get two new judges appointed by the Supreme Court, but you know what? They’re going to have the same problem getting stuff from the Crime Lab,” said Rep. Earle Banks, D-Jackson.

Banks said judges across the state — not just in Hinds County — have problems receiving evidence from the Crime Lab in a timely manner.

The bill, which has attracted broad national scrutiny to the state, would create a Capitol Complex Improvement District courts system with two appointed judges as well as appointed prosecutors, public defenders and a clerk. The officials who would make the appointments – the Supreme Court Chief Justice and the state attorney general – are white, while a majority of Jackson and Hinds residents are Black.

READ MORE: ‘Only in Mississippi’: White representatives vote to create white-appointed court system for Blackest city in America

The lack of manpower and resources at the state Crime Lab has a direct effect on the judges’ ability to move cases forward, a Hinds County judge told Mississippi Today this week. Often there is a delay, the judge said, because an autopsy hasn’t been completed or ballistics or lab results are pending or a lab expert isn’t available to testify.

During a Jan. 11 Senate Appropriations Committee meeting, Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell acknowledged the state’s forensic backlog has reached a critical level and is growing as staff leave.

With him were two state Crime Lab technicians who said they were quitting due to low pay. The entry salary for a scientist at the lab is $33,600 and requires a bachelor’s degree, which is a lower salary than other government agencies and the private sector offer. Additionally, raises for more senior staff were not enough, the former employees said.

The Crime Lab, which also handles autopsies through the state medical examiner’s office, also has a backlog, but that has been greatly reduced since 2020 due to hiring and contracting work supported by federal relief funds, Tindell said during the meeting. He said the goal is to have the autopsy backlog eliminated by the end of 2023.

As of Wednesday, the Crime Lab has 60 employees to process evidence, a DPS spokesperson said. Staffing has remained around that number for the past two years.

The Crime Lab received nearly 25,000 requests from state, local and federal agencies in 2017, according to the most recent publicly available report from DPS. There were about 60 scientists who received about 3,000 subpoenas for court testimony across Mississippi, according to the report.

All forensic scientists can be called to trial, and drug and firearms analysts are called in more often than the DNA analysts, the DPS spokesperson said.

Last year, the Legislature approved federal relief funds for Chief Justice Michael Randolph to appoint four special judges to the Hinds court system.

During debate about HB 1020, lawmakers also asked if increasing the number of elected judges in Hinds County could help work through the case backlog. As caseloads have increased over the years, lawmakers said four circuit court judges is not enough.

“I’ve heard about the (court) backlog and the problem, but not heard one single word (of) ‘Let’s increase the number of judges in Jackson, Mississippi. Let’s increase the amount of resources to operate,’” said Rep. Edward Blackmon Jr., D-Canton, during debate.

Bill author Rep. Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, said the Legislature can look at potentially adding more elected judges during judicial redistricting. During judicial redistricting in 2015, judges were not added for Hinds County.

Jackson lawmakers said nobody asked them about the bill or what the city and county’s needs are for its criminal justice system, which they say could include more funding for the Jackson Police Department, support for Hinds County prosecutors and additional elected judges.

Rep. Zakiya Summers, D-Jackson, asked Lamar why the $1.6 million funding for the bill could not have been used to give resources to the city to address public safety concerns or to help the Hinds County court system reduce its case backlog.

“Lady, this is the bill that is before the body,” he replied.

House Bill 1020 was referred to the Senate’s Judiciary A Committee, which has a Feb. 28 deadline to be passed before it can be considered by the full Senate.

READ MORE: Hinds County forces unite against bill to create unelected judicial district, expanded police force

The post Would a separate Jackson court end case backlog? Unlikely with state’s critically understaffed Crime Lab. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

FEBRUARY 23, 1929

Baseball catcher Elston Howard was born in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1955, he became the first Black player to sign with the New York Yankees, signing a $70,000 contract — the highest paid baseball player at the time. By 1959, the Yankees were often playing Howard at first base so that he could remain in the lineup. 

Despite lacking a regular position, he was selected to the All-Star team in 1957, the first of nine consecutive years through 1965 in which he made the squad. In 1963, he became the American League’s Most Valuable Player, the first Black player to do so, after setting a record in putouts and total chances in a season. He is credited with inventing the doughnut for batting practice, which makes the bat feel heavier so that it will feel lighter when swinging at the plate. 

He won four World Series as a player and two more as a coach for the Yankees, becoming the first Black coach in the American League. After coaching, he became an administrative assistant with the Yankees and died in 1980. “The Yankees’ organization lost more class on the weekend,” New York Times columnist Red Smith wrote, “than George Steinbrenner could buy in 10 years.” The Yankees wore a black armband in memory of him in the 1981 season. Three years later, the Yankees returned his number, 32, and dedicated a plaque that honored him as “a man of great gentleness and dignity” — “one of the truly great Yankees.”

The post On this day in 1929 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to name Mississippi Baptist Medical Center as the home of the state’s next burn center.

The move came less than a week after the House Appropriations Committee approved awarding the University of Mississippi Medical Center, which has publicly announced it is establishing a burn center, $4 million for the same purpose.

Rep. Karl Oliver, R-Winona, vice chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, presented a strike-all amendment to the UMMC bill on the House floor. The amendment names Baptist Medical Center as the state’s burn center and awards federal COVID-19 funds “not otherwise appropriated” to the Mississippi Department of Health, which would flow through to Baptist.

Oliver said the funds would go to the Health Department to ensure they go only towards costs specifically associated with the burn center.

Several lawmakers were confused about UMMC’s current status with burn care, asking whether UMMC has “closed its burn center.” Mississippi Today previously reported that while UMMC officials publicly said they were treating pediatric burns, an internal email from a member of the newly established Burn Committee revealed otherwise.

“They (UMMC) don’t have a burn center. They’ve been treating burn patients,” said Oliver. “We’ve been sending severe burn patients out of state.”

Rep. Bob Evans, D-Monticello, asked about the time frame for the establishment of the center.

Oliver said he did not know, but assumed Baptist would want “to move forward with it as quickly as they can.”

Rep. Zakiya Summers, D-Jackson, said she was confused about the sudden change in plans and felt like she still had unanswered questions.

“I was a little concerned that the chairman didn’t have the information about how much it was going to cost because I imagine it’s probably going to be three, maybe four times, what UMMC is asking for,” said Summers. “My last concern is knowing that Baptist is a private hospital, how does that affect a patient’s access to care should they need to go to a burn center?”

A fellow Democrat had a different view, however.

Rep. John Hines, D-Greenville, asked about Dr. Derek Culnan, the former medical director at the now-closed Merit Health Central burn center who is currently treating burn patients at Baptist.

Hines told Mississippi Today his mother worked at the former Greenville burn center for 20 years. That center closed in 2005, at which time UMMC’s leadership was not interested in operating a burn center without continuous state funding.

Hines, who voted for the bill naming Baptist as the state’s burn center, said he was also involved with the establishment of the JMS Burn and Reconstruction Center in Jackson.

Merit Health Central, citing the pandemic and recruitment challenges, announced it would be closing that center last year, leaving a void in burn care.

“I just thought he (Culnan) was best qualified and is already doing the work,” Hines said of his vote for the new version of the bill. ” … But when you got a person that’s doing what’s best for the people, let them continue to do what’s best.”

Any hospital operating a burn center must get designation from the state Health Department to receive additional state funding.

UMMC has submitted its application for such designation. Heath Department spokesperson Liz Sharlot said the application is under review.

As of Tuesday, Baptist had not submitted its application, according to the hospital’s spokesperson.

Officials with Baptist and UMMC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday afternoon.

The bill now goes to the Senate where it will likely be assigned to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The post House reverses course, names Baptist as state’s burn center appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today’s Editor-in-Chief Adam Ganucheau answered your questions on Reddit about the legislative session, the welfare scandal and more.

Read his answers below and catch up on our legislative coverage by reading The Legislative Guide.

Q: Hey Adam, what is the argument for not expanding Medicaid?

A: A very good question, particularly as the state’s hospital crisis rages on and hundreds of thousands of poor, working Mississippians cannot afford health care.

The main argument from the handful of Republican leaders who have rejected Medicaid expansion is that we can’t afford it. This argument is getting tougher to justify as more and more studies show that it would effectively pay for itself in the form of new jobs and capital created. Plus, there are extra, post-COVID incentives from the federal government for the 11 holdout states to expand.

My colleague Geoff Pender has a great article that runs through all the main arguments for not expanding Medicaid we’ve heard over the years.

Q: In your mind, do Mississippi politicians feel they are immune to media scrutiny? What can be done to get the public more interested in what their politicians are doing?

A: As journalists, we can only report the truth of what our elected officials do and say and how they serve the public. I do think there are times that media coverage gets a ton of pickup, both across the state and nationally. Too often, as we all know, nothing changes in Mississippi until there’s a big, bright national spotlight on us. I hate that has to be the case, but it’s been that way for many decades.

I can promise you the politicians feel the weight of that national scrutiny. Rep. Trey Lamar knows a lot about that right now after he proposed HB 1020, dubbed “the Jackson takeover bill,” that has been written about nationally the past couple weeks. He has millions of people around the nation calling him a racist, and it’s evident from his Twitter page that he is hearing and seeing that. Whether or not it changes his thinking or perspective, more to your point, is less certain.

I don’t know, exactly, how to get the public more interested in what the politicians are doing. I do know that we at Mississippi Today will keep being as blunt and truthful about what we see as we can. I also think so many elected officials in Mississippi rarely hear directly from constituents about anything, really. It would seem to me that could change some behavior, but it’s hard to say.

For a more local example of how the media coverage doesn’t sway their behavior:

Read my column from Monday about a tactic House Republicans were ramping up to stifle debate with Democratic colleagues.

Then read our story from Tuesday about House Republicans not only doing what I’d just written but taking it an extreme step further (and peep the incredible photo).

Q: What is the potential for discovery in Brett Favre’s lawsuit against Shad White and NFL media personalities to do damage to Phil Bryant and others trying very hard to ignore it all?

A: Honestly no idea. Many people a whole lot smarter than me believe that Favre’s defamation suit against Shad White will never reach the discovery phase, but who knows. We do know that Favre has been methodically ramping up the narrative that “Phil Bryant is guilty, not me,” to paraphrase. I’d say in any case that is open and even tangentially related to the welfare scandal, more could potentially come out on Bryant and others who have been scrutinized either in the courts or the public sphere. But it’s hard to say what Favre’s thinking is on this defamation stuff. No matter what: Anything related to the defamation suit “re-ups” attention on Bryant and others in the scandal. Just look for Bryant’s name in any of the hundreds of national stories from the past couple weeks about Favre’s suit. It’s everywhere.

Some recent Favre finger-pointing, written by my colleague Anna Wolfe.

Q: When can we expect the politicians involved in the TANF scandal to be held accountable?

A: I don’t know that anyone can safely say that any additional indictments will be handed down. I can pretty safely say that anything new that comes down will have to come from the feds, not the state. As far as we know, the only state investigation happening is related to the DHS civil suit attempting to recoup much of the known misspent money. Nothing criminal there.

As for what’s happening on the federal side, we have been told by several people (and reported as much) that a federal investigation continues. A huge story that I don’t think has gotten nearly enough traction is that Biden nominated a U.S. attorney for the southern district of Mississippi who is perhaps the single best qualified person to run a political corruption investigation like this. Todd Gee, a Mississippi native, did exactly that for the U.S. Department of Justice for several years! But Biden’s nominations for Mississippi have stalled because of this controversial process in the U.S. Senate called the “blue slip process.” So basically because of Washington politics, this super qualified U.S. attorney can’t yet lead the investigation of the welfare scandal. That should be maddening, I believe, to every U.S. taxpayer whose money was literally stolen in this scandal.

All this is to say: I don’t know when politicians involved in the TANF scandal will be held accountable. It’s possible the answer is “never.”

9/2/22: Biden appoints Todd Gee to lead welfare investigation

1/20/23: Attorneys drop hints that feds are eyeing former Gov. Phil Bryant in welfare investigation

1/11/23: Biden’s appointments stall in Mississippi

2/1/23: Democrats urge Biden to ignore ‘blue slip’ custom to get federal vacancies filled in Republican states like Mississippi

Q: I want to know what specifically we as voters can do to restore our balloting rights. This issue trumps them all because without it we are serfs

A: Restoring the ballot initiative is something we at Mississippi Today have been keeping an incredibly close eye on this session. Y’all know this, but the quick background: A ballot initiative process allows voters to collect signatures and place issues on a statewide ballot, effectively circumventing lawmakers. It’s an extremely democratic power that voters in most states have at their disposal in case they think elected officials aren’t serving their interests.

When the Mississippi Supreme Court struck down our ballot initiative process in a May 2021 ruling, we became the first state to have that done in that matter — and became one of several with no ballot initiative process at all. Legislative leaders, including House Speaker Philip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, quickly said they would work to reinstate some version of a ballot initiative. But last year, their first session with the chance to, they didn’t.

Right now, there is just one bill alive in the 2023 legislative session that would reinstate the ballot initiative, but it is extremelyyyy different than our old process. As written, this bill would make it so much harder to actually get something on the ballot, PLUS it would allow lawmakers to have the final say on whether or not to adopt the will of the voters. As my colleague Bobby Harrison wrote, the bill would “take voters out of voter initiative process.”

It seems the Senate leadership — Sen. John Polk and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann — are the ones pushing for this controversial version of the ballot initiative. I know a lot of folks are contacting them about this issue. But it’s in the House’s hands for now, and the House leadership clearly wants to improve the Senate version. The two main folks in the House dealing with this bill will be Rep. Fred Shanks and Speaker of the House Philip Gunn.

Some further reading from Bobby Harrison: Senate Bill takes voters out of initiative proposal and Senators keep watered-down ballot initiative bill alive, vow to improve it

Q: Hey, Adam. Why did a certain attorney in Jim Hood’s office sign off on the Brett Favre deal?

A: I’m proud of how transparent we’ve been about this from the beginning. Linking my editor’s note below, but since it came up here, I’ll say a little more. A political operative who constantly trashes my colleagues and other journalists in the state — a guy who is closely tied to several Republican officials and staffers who have been implicated in the welfare scandal — dragged my mother into the narrative without bothering to try to report the full context of what really happened.

To quote from my editor’s note: “That political actors are willing to leverage the bureaucratic role my own mother played in state government to try to discredit Mississippi Today’s reporting is notable. But it should not distract readers from the real story: Powerful Mississippians appear to have used the state government system to steer millions away from our neediest residents into their own pockets and the pockets of their wealthy friends. We will follow and report the story wherever it leads us, just as we always have.”

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The post Reddit AMA recap: 2023 Legislative session with Adam Ganucheau appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Two measures aimed at helping rape survivors get justice have unanimously passed the state House and are before the Senate, where they were killed without a vote last year.

But Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who oversees the Senate, on Wednesday voiced support for the measures, which could help their chances greatly.

“The lieutenant governor supports the bills and is encouraging the chairmen to bring them out of committee,” said spokeswoman Leah Rupp Smith.

House Bill 485, authored by Rep. Angela Cockerham, I-Magnolia, would standardize the handling, timely testing and tracking of sexual assault evidence or “rape kits” in Mississippi. Unlike 36 other states, Mississippi has no statewide rules and advocates say there is a large — albeit unknown due to lack of tracking — backlog of unprocessed rape kits. It would also give survivors the right to know the status of their kits.

House Bill 995, authored by Rep. Dana McLean, R-Columbus, would remove archaic, misogynistic language from the 1800s from Mississippi’s rape and sexual battery laws and remove a spousal defense for those who commit marital rape. The bill would clarify the definition and elements of rape and sexual assault, replacing passages such as “assault with the intent to forcibly ravish a female of previously chaste character.”

Sandy Middleton, director of the Center for Violence Prevention, said, “Mississippi has a backlog of rape cases, but it’s not at the crime lab. The kits are sitting in hospital emergency room refrigerators or the trunk of police cruisers.”

Middleton and other advocates said statistics are scant, but one review showed that from 2019 through 2021, only 20 rapes were prosecuted in Mississippi. While there are problems finding statistics on reported rapes, one national report said Mississippi had 1,148 reported cases in 2020.

A 2019 Associated Press report said that at the time there was a backlog of 600 rape kits that had not been DNA tested.

Middleton said a Jackson area hospital recently reported that it had 50 rape kits in a refrigerator awaiting law enforcement to pick them up, and some had been there for a year and a half. Of those, 15 were from cases where children were raped.

Besides lack of testing of evidence, Mississippi’s antiquated rape laws hinder prosecution.

McLean said she believes many prosecutors use the state’s sexual battery laws instead of the rape statute with harsher penalties because the latter’s language is so antiquated.

READ MORE: Lawmaker continues bid to remove archaic, misogynistic language from state rape, sexual battery laws

McLean’s bill would delete language in the law that says a person would not be guilty of rape or sexual battery if the alleged victim was the defendant’s legal spouse at the time of the offense and the couple is not separated and living apart. It would also change law that said a legal spouse may be found guilty of sexual battery if the spouse engaged in forcible penetration without the consent of the alleged victim. McLean said because current law uses language such as “forcible” and “consent,” this could be used as a defense if a spouse was incapacitated, such as passed out drunk or on drugs.

Although since the early 1990s every state recognizes marital rape as a crime, some including Mississippi still have laws on the books that either provide protection for the perpetrator or lesser penalties. 

Both bills recently passed the House unanimously. But they both passed the House overwhelmingly last year as well, only to die in Senate committee.

Advocates supporting the bills, flanked by several House and Senate lawmakers, held a press conference on the measures on Wednesday. They said Senate Judiciary A Chairman Brice Wiggins, who’s been assigned the rape kit bill, has worked with them and appeared supportive. Wiggins did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

House Bill 995 to remove archaic and misogynistic language and a spousal rape defense from the law has been assigned again to Senate Judiciary B Chairman Joey Fillingane’s committee. Last year, after he let the bill die without a vote in his committee, Fillingane said he agreed with the bill’s intent, but said there were numerous bills in both chambers aimed at changing rape and assault laws. He said he wanted to have hearings out of session and make sweeping changes instead of having multiple different bills.

Fillingane on Wednesday was noncommittal on whether he would take the bill up for a vote in committee this year, only that, “We are certainly looking at it and studying it.” He said he has not had hearings or drafted sweeping changes to rape and assault laws, but is doing such work with other older state code. He said the rape code McLean’s bill aims to update “is very outdated and the whole section is in need of a revision.”

Advocates on Wednesday said rape survivors want justice and deserve to know the status of testing in their case.

The post Bills to bring Mississippi rape laws into 21st Century move to Senate appeared first on Mississippi Today.

For the first time since the early 1990s, the federal courts will not be drawing Mississippi’s congressional districts.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a case filed by a group of Black Mississippians alleging the current drawing of the four congressional districts was unconstitutional because it diluted minority voting strength. That Supreme Court decision ensured that the task of drawing congressional districts would be left to the state Legislature instead of the federal courts.

The lawsuit was filed after the Republican-led Mississippi Legislature drew the districts in the 2022 session. A three-judge federal panel had drawn the districts after the 2000 and 2010 censuses. Political districts, such as U.S. House districts and state legislative districts, normally have to be drawn after each census to adhere to populations shifts.

READ MORE: Lawmakers face redistricting lawsuit as 2023 session and election cycle start

The NAACP and other groups alleged that the districts drawn and approved by the GOP-led Mississippi Legislature in the 2022 session were unconstitutional. A three-judge panel ruled against the group making that allegation.

That case was then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. But the nation’s highest court dismissed the case, leaving the four districts drawn by the Legislature intact.

Among other things, the plaintiffs said that the districts drawn by the Mississippi Legislature placed more Black residents in the 2nd District than needed to elect an African American House member. By “packing” more African Americans in the 2nd District, plaintiffs argued, white lawmakers diluted their voting strength in other districts.

READ MORE: Civil rights attorney signals possible lawsuit over new legislative districts that dilute Black votes

Under the plan approved by the Legislature, District 2, the state’s only Black majority district, runs nearly the entire length of the state with Adams, Amite, Franklin and Walthall counties in southwest Mississippi being added to the district. The new district extends from Tunica in northwest Mississippi to the Louisiana-Mississippi border in southwest Mississippi. The only county that borders the Mississippi River not in the district is heavily Republican DeSoto County.

District 2 is the only one of the state’s four congressional districts to lose population since 2010 — more than 9% or about 65,000 people, according to the 2020 U.S. Census.

District 2 incumbent Rep. Bennie Thompson, the state’s lone African American and Democratic member of the congressional delegation, supported a proposal of the NAACP to make District 2 more compact with a smaller Black majority than in the legislative plan. The NAACP argued under its plan an African American candidate could still be elected in the 2nd District while allowing Black voters to have more of an impact in other districts in the state.

The three-judge panel initially drew a congressional map for the state after the 2000 U.S. Census when the Legislature could not agree on a redistricting plan. The state lost a congressional district based on the results of the 2000 Census because of slow population growth.

Then in 2011, the three-judge panel redrew the districts to adhere to population shifts found by the 2010 Census after the Legislature again was again unable to agree on a congressional map.

The Legislature did agree on a plan after the 2020 Census, but it was opposed by all African American state legislators.

The post U.S. Supreme Court leaves congressional redistricting to Mississippi Legislature appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Flanked by residents and student physicians from all over the state, Mississippi doctors and the Mississippi State Medical Association had one ask for Speaker of the House Phillip Gunn on Wednesday. 

“We’re simply asking the speaker to allow (Senate Bill) 2212 to be brought for a vote,” said Dr. Anita Henderson, a pediatrician from Hattiesburg. 

Last year, Gunn killed the legislation before it could be brought to a vote on the House floor. He has been noncommittal as to whether he will allow his chamber to vote on it this session.

In a press conference hosted on the second floor of the Capitol, Mississippi doctors emphasized the importance of extending postpartum care in the state and at times spoke directly to the House, asking them to pass SB 2212 to extend Medicaid postpartum coverage from 60 days to 12 months.

According to a Mississippi Today poll of House lawmakers conducted this session, a majority support extending the health insurance coverage for moms on Medicaid. 

Currently, Mississippi women who have Medicaid have health insurance coverage for two months after giving birth. But many women in Mississippi and other states who have not expanded Medicaid lose coverage after that, despite complications associated with recovering from pregnancy continuing past that point. 

Wyoming’s Senate and Utah’s House are currently considering similar legislation. Mississippi and Wyoming are the only two states with neither extended postpartum coverage nor expanded Medicaid.

“I know that those moms are suffering, and I know that those babies are likely to suffer as well,” Henderson said. “Babies need their mothers, and their mothers need health care.”

SB 2212 was passed by the full Senate on Feb. 7. It’s the second time in four years the Republican-led Senate has voted in favor of extending postpartum care. 

The bill now goes to the House, where Speaker Phillip Gunn’s office will likely assign it to the House Medicaid Committee. 

When cornered by media on Wednesday afternoon and asked whether he planned to take up the Senate postpartum bill, Rep. Joey Hood, who chairs the House Medicaid Committee and represents Ackerman, responded, “We’re just going to continue to work it through the process.” When asked follow ups about when the House Medicaid Committee was going to meet and what he thought about the MSMA calling on him to extend postpartum coverage, he repeated the statement several times. 

In spite of urging from health professionals for years, state leaders like Gov. Tate Reeves and Gunn have remained steadfast in their opposition. 

Gunn has repeatedly referred to the bill as Medicaid expansion, another hotly contested Mississippi legislative issue. He indicated to WAPT on Wednesday he would not allow the bill to come up for a vote for that reason. 

But the bill doesn’t expand Medicaid eligibility — it extends coverage for those already on Medicaid. Gunn has also said that he’s waiting on the state Division of Medicaid to take a stance on the issue, which they’ve refused. 

“It’s really not a right versus left issue,” Henderson said. “It’s a right versus wrong issue.”

Reeves last week said he needs more data to support that the legislation will help mothers. 

Donning a button that said “The Kids Sent Me,” Henderson presented lots of data: Two-thirds of babies born in Mississippi are born to mothers on Medicaid, and the state’s already-dismal maternal mortality rate is worsening. Mississippi has the highest infant mortality rate, preterm birth rate and low birthweight rate in the country.  

Things are only set to get worse: The state’s neonatal ICUs and labor and delivery units are closing. With the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn abortion rights last summer, the state is expecting thousands more births.  

And when a baby is born prematurely, it can cost the state more than half a million dollars more. 

Every medical organization and the state economic council supports the extension of postpartum care for a reason, Henderson said. 

“Children are 25% of our population, but 100% of our future,” Henderson said. “What I’m here to tell you is the future of Mississippi is being born right now … and if we want Mississippi to look differently in 10 years, in 20 years, we need to address maternal mortality, and we need to tackle the problem of prematurity.”

Dr. Michelle Owens, an OB-GYN board-certified in maternal fetal medicine, said the situation is dire. 

“The process of transitioning back to a non-pregnant state is not arbitrarily cut off at 60 days, or at two months,” Owens said. “It takes almost a year to have a baby. It takes almost a year to get back.”

Henderson said she frequently sees mothers who are suffering from postnatal conditions like postpartum depression, hypertension and cardiomyopathy long after they give birth. 

When she screens new mothers and they present complications after 60 days, there’s not much she can do. 

Owens said the extension of coverage has the potential to be “transformative.”

“Mississippi moms can’t wait, and Mississippi has waited long enough,” she said.

The post ‘Mississippi moms can’t wait.’ Doctors urge legislators to extend postpartum coverage appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Thanks to a new federal program, a few rural Mississippi hospitals at risk of closure might have been given a lifeline. 

The Mississippi Department of Health finalized its rules for “rural emergency hospitals” last week, so Mississippi rural hospitals with less than 50 beds and critical access hospitals can now apply for the designation. 

Critical access hospitals — another designation designed to reduce hospital financial strain — must have 25 or fewer inpatient beds, be located 35 miles from another hospital, maintain an annual hospital stay of less than 96 hours for patients and provide full-time emergency services.

The federal government created the rural emergency hospital program, which was finalized in November, to ease the financial strain of rural hospitals across the country at risk of closure.

To qualify, the hospitals must agree to have emergency care available all day, every day, and provide observation care and outpatient services. 

But there’s one more catch: In exchange for monthly payments and higher Medicare reimbursements, rural emergency hospitals must end all inpatient care and discharge or transfer its patients to bigger hospitals within 24 hours of their arrival. 

Ryan Kelly, executive director of the Mississippi Rural Health Association, said the program is ideal for hospitals that have low patient counts and are in deep financial distress.

“It’s a good opportunity,” Kelly said. “This is no silver bullet, but the more tools we can put in the tool belt to solve this issue, the better.”

The premise of the program is that so many rural hospitals already struggle with low census counts and inpatient care costs far higher than what they’re paid. In states that have not expanded Medicaid, the program could be a solution for small hospitals that only operate some of the health services in their communities and have shuttered other units in order to maintain operations. 

Harold Miller, president and CEO of the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, takes issue with several of the program’s requirements.  

Seniors whose health conditions most often need more intensive care might have to be transferred to a larger facility if their local hospital is a rural emergency hospital, and transferring patients is no longer as easy as it used to be, he said. Bigger hospitals, already under strain, must be willing to accept them. 

The University of Mississippi Medical Center, for example, was on diversion (or at capacity) for both critical care and medical-surgical beds consistently from Jan. 30 to Feb. 11 of this year, according to a website that tracks hospitals on diversion. The website is updated at least twice a day. 

Richard Roberson, the vice president of state policy for the Mississippi Hospital Association, said UMMC is not alone. 

“You always had hospitals go on diversion, even prior to COVID, so that’s not a new thing … but what we’re seeing now is more and more diversions becoming the norm in some places,” he said. 

Hospitals – even larger ones – are making decisions based on limited budgets, inadequate nurse staffing and increased wages for employees.

“Unfortunately, what’s happening is it’s impacting patient care,” said Roberson. 

Additionally, when a facility is converted into a rural emergency hospital, it can no longer provide swing bed services. In that case, when there’s no separate skilled nursing facility, the community loses its nursing home, too. 

Rural emergency hospitals also can’t utilize the federal 340B drug pricing program, which allows hospitals that treat low-income populations to buy prescription drugs at a discount. 

“For some very small hospitals, all of the changes in payments might mean that the hospital is more profitable than it was before,” Miller said. “But it also has to eliminate services for the community in order to do that. Why should a small rural hospital that is losing money be forced to eliminate important services in order to get higher payment?”

And still, there is no guarantee that the hospital will be paid enough to remain open, Miller said. 

However, for some Mississippi communities in danger of losing their only hospital, the payoff might be worth the risk. 

According to a report from the CHQPR, 19 out of the state’s 74 rural hospitals are at risk of closing within the next two to three years, putting Mississippi fourth in the country for percentage of rural hospitals at immediate risk of closure. 

The University of North Carolina’s Sheps Center estimates that more than 1,700 hospitals might be eligible. Kelly said he estimates around five Mississippi hospitals will qualify for the program. 

Though the federal program took effect Jan. 1, the state had to finalize its qualifications before hospitals could begin applying for the designation. 

Mississippi will be one of the first states to roll out the program, Kelly said. 

“We’ve been waiting on the Department of Health to finalize their rules,” he said. “Now, they have the guidelines that they need to follow through and begin work.”

To become rural emergency hospitals, officials must first notify the MDSH Office of Licensure of their intent to convert, provide required documents and complete the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ application. Then, they must complete an initial survey, and apply for an MSDH rural emergency hospital license. 

Community Health Editor Kate Royals contributed reporting to this story.

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The House Republican majority flexed its muscle Tuesday and abruptly cut off Democrats’ efforts to offer amendments that aimed to improve the health of poor Mississippi women and children.

The debate came on Republican-authored House Bill 1671, which provides multiple tax credits for businesses and individuals for making contributions to pregnancy crisis centers that were created to try to curb abortion in the state and for contributions to various adoptions services.

The bill, Republican supporters said, was designed to provide additional help for women and children after the 2022 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court ending a national right to an abortion and resulting in a near total abortion ban in Mississippi.

Democrats had planned to offer multiple additional amendments that they said would provide additional help for women and children. The amendments, all based on Democratic bills Republicans killed earlier in the session without debate or a vote, included:

• Extending postpartum Medicaid coverage for new mothers from 60 days to one year as at least 35 other states had done.
• Increasing welfare benefits for poor mothers and children.
• Placing more oversight over the Mississippi Department of Human Services as a result of the ongoing scandal where at least $77 million in welfare funds were misspent, resulting in the criminal conviction of some public officials and private contractors.

“We let rich Mississippians steal welfare funds. This amendment simply says we will raise the allotment for (poor) women and children,” said Rep. Robert Johnson, the House Democratic leader from Natchez. “If you don’t want to take care of them in the hospital, at least vote to feed them.”

But Democrats didn’t get the chance to offer and debate most of their amendments. On motions by Rep. Steve Massengill, a Hickory Flat Republican, the GOP majority voted to cut off debate on two Democratic amendments, though a handful of Republican members voted with Democrats to debate those issues.

Then Rep. Jody Steverson, a Republican from Ripley, voted to stop the amendment process and to end debate on the bill. Steverson’s motion to end debate prevailed 68-46, though four Republicans voted with the Democrats. The four Republicans opposing the Steverson motion were Becky Currie of Brookhaven, Jansen Owen of Poplarville, Kent McCarty of Hattiesburg and Dana McLean of Columbus.

Before the vote, various Democrats pleaded with their Republican colleagues that debate be allowed to continue.

“These amendments are in support of women, families and children in the state of Mississippi,” said Zakiya Summers, a Democrat from Jackson. “…Let’s vote them up or down. That is the process.”

Johnson said, “When a motion is made to table an amendment, that means they (Republicans) don’t want to hear what you have to say. That means they don’t they want anybody to know what we are up here doing. That means an issue as important as mothers, children and the birth and the life and the ability to survive, nobody wants to talk about it …The public will know that not only are you against women and children, but against the democratic process.”

READ MORE: How House Republicans are avoiding tough votes on health care solutions

As Democrats made their case to Republican colleagues to allow debate on the amendments to continue, several House Republicans sitting in the chamber were noticeably ignoring their Democratic colleagues. Republican Rep. Nick Bain, pictured above, tossed a ball and laughed loudly with several GOP colleagues as Summers spoke about the need to continue debate and help poor women.

The Republicans’ motion to cut off debate came after Rep. Omeria Scott, a Democrat from Laurel, had opted to slow the legislative process down earlier Tuesday by requiring a handful of bills to be read before final passage. Scott demanded the reading of bills after Speaker of the House Philip Gunn prevented her from asking questions on a bill. Gunn had ruled the time to ask questions had passed.

“The chairman asked me to do it,” Steverson said when asked why he chose to make the motion to end debate. “I was glad to do it. If they (Democrats) want to lengthen the day, we can shorten the day. It is a two-way street.”

Rep. Trey Lamar, the Republican from Senatobia and powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said the decision was made to cut off debate because of the bill reading.

“It looked like it was going to go on for a while,” Lamar said.

Rep. Tommy Reynolds, a Democrat from Water Valley and one of the longest serving legislators in the House, said of the cutting off of the debate: “The thing is, all the cartilage that was there in years past is now gone. It’s bone on bone … I miss moderation. But it’s not in fashion anymore these days.”

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With a Wednesday deadline for action on major tax cuts, elimination or rebates, Republican House and Senate leaders said such measures don’t appear likely, largely due to lack of support from fellow Republicans who hold supermajorities in both chambers.

“There’s tremendous support to eliminate the tax on work (income tax) in the Mississippi House of Representatives,” Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, said Tuesday. “… But a small group in the Republican Caucus doesn’t want us to take it up, and we are on notice the Democrats are going to block vote against it. It’s a three-fifths vote, so that’s where it’s at.”

In the Senate, Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann had vowed to push for income tax rebate checks for Mississippians. But Finance Chairman Josh Harkins, R-Flowood, on Tuesday said many in the Senate are more focused on “paying off debt, not taking on more debt, infrastructure needs and a lot of other financial issues to consider.”

READ MORE: Phase out income tax or cut taxpayers checks? GOP lawmakers, governor disagree

Hosemann late last week had lamented lack of support for his tax rebate checks proposal in the Senate and said, “I still think it’s a good idea.”

The Legislature, after much internecine Republican fighting that threatened to derail other legislation, last year passed the largest income tax cuts in state history, to be phased in over four years. House Speaker Philip Gunn had pushed for eliminating the state income tax. Hosemann had pushed for more measured cuts. The end result: Mississippi after the cuts are fully made in 2026 will have one of the lowest income taxes in the nation.

READ MORE: 5 things to know about the Great Mississippi Tax Cut Battle of 2022

But tax revenue has continued to pour in at record pace, and there’s a $3.9 billion surplus in state coffers. This prompted Gunn to re-up his vow to eliminate the personal income tax, and Hosemann to advocate one-time rebate checks for taxpayers and talk of cutting or eliminating the state’s sales tax on groceries, among the highest in the nation.

Hosemann and Senate leaders said the national and state economies are in turbulent, inflationary times with recession possible, and that much of the state surplus is from unprecedented federal spending that isn’t likely to continue. They warn that fully eliminating the income tax in such uncertain economic times is foolhardy. Many state business leaders, including the state’s chamber of commerce, shared this trepidation last legislative session.

Gunn and and House leaders said Mississippi’s economy is on a roll that will continue, and that eliminating the personal income tax would help the state compete for economic development. Gunn points to nine states with no income tax, including Florida, Tennessee and Texas, as having thriving economies and growing population.

Wednesday is the deadline for first floor action on revenue and appropriations bills. Since late last week, media, lobbyists and other observers had hovered around Ways and Means and Finance meetings, expecting them to roll out major tax cut or rebate bills. Both Lamar and Harkins had indicated such measures might be forthcoming.

On Tuesday, both indicated they are not forthcoming.

Leaders in both chambers on Tuesday said tax cuts could still be in the offing this session, and that bills are still alive where cuts or breaks could be added as amendments. But that becomes far more unlikely after Wednesday’s deadline, when introducing new tax cut legislation would require a two-thirds vote to suspend rules, a monumental hurdle.

Lamar on Tuesday said a “small number, maybe 10 or 12” of the 122-member House’s 76 Republicans indicated they didn’t want to take up income tax elimination. Other legislative sources reported more than double the number of Republicans Lamar reported were balking.

“I do chalk a lot of it up to it being an election year, although you would think during an election year they would want to eliminate the tax on work,” Lamar said.

Lamar said he would still be open to any tax cuts, including sales taxes on groceries.

“What I can tell you is the Mississippi House of Representatives has voted for income tax elimination, voted to cut car tags in half, and voted to cut grocery taxes in half. The Mississippi House of Representative’s commitment to tax reform is unquestioned … I believe with all my heart that ending the income tax, joining the nine other states that don’t have it, is the right policy for the future of Mississippi.”

Harkins said: “I thought we had a deal on taxes last year — to be worked in over four years. I feel like we settled the tax issue last year for the time being.”

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