A healthier Mississippi with more medical services, specifically for the underserved, was a hallmark of Gov. Phil Bryant’s speeches when he was running for office.
It continued as a theme in Bryant’s first State of the State address, now more than five years ago: “We must be mindful of the increasing demand for health care, realizing that collaboration of all healthcare providers is the only way to achieve success,” he said. Bryant painted a picture of a vibrant medical corridor in the state capital, rivaling those in Houston and Memphis, and talked about medical zones across the rest of the state with tax incentives to add doctors in rural areas.
It hasn’t happened. Instead, hospitals large and small are sitting in a bowl of financial spaghetti created by the whims of lawmakers and regulators in Jackson and Washington.
Earlier this month, nearly 200 University of Mississippi Medical Center employees were told their jobs had been eliminated. Dr. Lou Ann Woodward, who administers the $1.7 billion mega-center, said another 85 vacant positions will not be filled and 439 members of the teaching faculty will take pay cuts.
What got in the way of the governor’s vision?
The blame is shared by him, by the Legislature, Congress, this president and the previous president for failing to figure out who would pay for what. Too, private insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry have not been idle bystanders.
Driving the cuts at UMMC was a total $32.7 million revenue shortfall, $8.2 million of which came via cuts Bryant ordered for almost all state operations because the state’s income has not met projections.
The rest (initially $35 million but reduced to $24.5 million) traces to the state Division of Medicaid suddenly reducing the reimbursements it will pay hospitals for providing care when no one else pays.
Woodward put on her game face. She reminded the media that UMMC, the state’s only Level One trauma center and the exclusive location for many highly advanced medical services, has had its financial ups and downs.
Other hospital administrators were not so chipper in their reaction to the Medicaid “reformulation.” The heads of some smaller, rural hospitals said they don’t know if they can stay open.
The state’s health care industry looked upon Bryant with a jaundiced eye back when he stood solidly against an Obamacare incentive for states to expand Medicaid for working people who could not afford private policies. Bryant left billions on the table and lots of people who needed insurance without coverage. But Congress is diddling over whether to do exactly what Bryant feared.
What the people want from government is what Candidate Bryant insisted was possible, beneficial to all. Neat, clean, clear. What people have received is oodles of financial noodles extending and overlapping in every direction — a complete and total mess.
Makes one wonder: Is there a Level One trauma center for financial disasters?
