With the announcement of possible closure of several of Mississippi’s rural hospitals, we are committed to advocate to increase access for our patients and improve the quality of healthcare for all Mississippians.
The Mississippi Department of Health reports that over half of the hospitals in the Mississippi Delta are having financial difficulties. Many more hospitals across the state are at risk of closure, and this will cause a ripple effect throughout Mississippi. When hospitals close, most of the time they cannot reopen due to outdated structures that are not suitable to meet current building codes.
Several key factors have caused the current financial crisis including rising overhead costs, decreases in reimbursements, and population shifts. Hospitals, physicians, and the healthcare team courageously stepped up to provide care during the COVID pandemic, but this caused the hospitals to spend any reserves available to meet the immediate healthcare needs of the communities.
Increased numbers of Mississippians arrived at rural hospitals during the COIVD pandemic with no insurance and were provided uncompensated care. Uncompensated care also affects private insurance payers. As a result of decreasing payments in both Medicare and Medicaid, many times costs are then transferred onto private insurance patients.
Mississippi is currently one of 11 states that has not joined the Affordable Care Act. Under the federal program, the Mississippi Medicaid program would cover all adults with income below the 138% poverty level while the federal government reimburses the Medicaid program 90% of the costs. The remaining 10% would have to be covered by the state of Mississippi.
The current rural hospital crisis is complex, but it is also critical to the future success of healthcare in Mississippi. Mississippians need access to a healthcare model that is financially sustainable. Currently, many rural hospitals need short term loans from businesses, community leaders, and from the State of Mississippi to keep the doors of the clinics and hospitals open. Over the long term, we must consider federal funding programs like the Affordable Care Act and support the creation of a task force for the development of an efficient and financially sound statewide hospital network to meet the healthcare needs of local communities relative to the size and scale of the population.
We will continue to discuss with legislators about solutions to solve this crisis. Waiver models using the Affordable Care Act developed in other states like Arkansas have been examined. Resources can be pooled from the federal matching funds, private insurance companies, and hospitals to cover the remaining 10% of the obligations. We can help Medicaid develop better quality and efficiency in the delivery of healthcare. We can help Medicaid operate more efficiently similar to Accountable Care Organizations modeled at Hattiesburg Clinic. We can support incentives to increase competition in the Mississippi healthcare insurance marketplace. We can support the creation of a healthcare commission with hospitals, physicians, elected officials, community business leaders, and local communities to work through the solutions.
The opportunity for MSMA physicians to lead is upon us.