Hospitals throughout Mississippi will be looking at the Northwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center in Clarksdale and observing methods as local officials attempt to keep the facility open.
Tim Moore, president and CEO of the Mississippi Hospital Association, expressed those sentiments when discussing the four hospitals in the state that filed for bankruptcy Aug. 30. Three of the hospitals, including Clarksdale’s, are all in different stages and are owned by Curae, but the Northwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center is in the worstfinancial shape, according to the bankruptcy court in Nashville.
There was a possibility the hospital could have closed in December, which would have meant laying off 484 employees, but the Coahoma County Board of Supervisors has vowed to make sure the hospital remains in operation.
“I think they’re trying to find a solution from what I understand. I certainly applaud them for doing that,” Moore said. “I think some of the other communities are looking and watching to see exactly how that kind of plays out and what happens. There are some other facilities where they are concerned where they are now and how they could make it work.”
Moore said there is an opportunity to be innovative and maintain access to care. He noted the hospitals in Greenville and Greenwood are both in the Delta and they, along with Northwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center, could try and work together to consolidate costs and resources.
The Board of Supervisors had several meetings last week and were scheduled to meet today to have an agreement to remain open.
Board attorney Tom Ross said an order was expected to be entered by the bankruptcy court during one of the meetings.
The consulting firm, Trilogy, is identifying issues and Medical Equipment Exchange was hired to appraise equipment at the hospital.
“By Nov. 5 (Monday), the hospital, in some shape, form or fashion, we’ll be contributing to the running of the hospital or we’ll be taking over,” said Board of Supervisors president Paul Pearson.
Pearson said before everything is finalized, there are many legal issues to consider.
“The mechanics of how it’s going to be done are still being worked out,” Ross said.
The Board of Supervisors attended bankruptcy court in Nashville Oct. 23 and Ross does not expect to have to go back.
Moore said the Northwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center is not part of the Mississippi Hospital Association, but he is working with local administrators to maintain care for everyone.
“From our perspective, one of our biggest concerns is access to care in that corner of the state and what that will mean from a public health standpoint if they’re not able to pull something off here,” he said. “I’m afraid we’re seeing this way too much.
“In Mississippi, it’s becoming harder and harder to provide. You have a higher number of uncompensated care, a patient that needs care. Typically, a patient that does not have any kind of coverage waits and waits and waits until the issue is exacerbated to the point you end up in emergency room.”
Moore said the situation is uncontrolled and very expensive for hospital or providers to contain. He did praise the Board of Supervisors for their efforts in case there were issues with the Northwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center.
“If I understand, they were prudent enough to hold a considerable amount of reserves in case something like this ever happened,” he said. “I think this is very admirable of the Board of Supervisors up there and the thoughtfulness of, ‘What if we get in a bind one day? We’re going to need this.’”
Moore said that provides the Board of Supervisors time to figure out what to do and find an operator, which is the No. 1 priority. He added he has had conversations with the office of Gov. Phil Bryant and US Rep. Bennie Thompson and no one wants to see a 181-bed hospital close.
“There’s too many jobs there,” Moore said. “From an economic perspective, that will be a huge burden to that community, but aside from that, you have severely limited access to care.”
Moore said small rural hospitals are not the way they will be in the future and that could impact the approach.
Healthcare providers are paid by insurance or government payers through a system of reimbursement.
Moore said reimbursement has been an issue.
“Reimbursement is what we’re finding is the biggest issue,” he said. “Everybody is pushing reimbursement now whether that be the federal government. We were a non-expansion state. That was not in the cards for Mississippi to expand, but we got all the negative connotations of the ACA (Affordable Care Act). All the cuts and the restrictions that came forward with that that were supposed to be offset by dollars that you would have received by increasing access to care didn’t come to Mississippi. We got the bad. We didn’t get the good.”
