State Health Officer Dr. Dan Edney has made it clear that hospitals across Mississippi are very much so still in crisis mode.
During an appearance on MidDays with Gerard Gibert, Edney provided an update on the state’s struggling hospital system.
“No one is knocking it out of the park right now,” Edney said. “We have a spectrum of hospitals that literally see their drop-dead date ahead of them if something does not happen.”
According to Edney, hospitals across the entire state are struggling with those in the Delta and southwest Mississippi seeing the worst of the crisis. He explained that most of the hospitals in those specific regions have already begun the process of applying for emergency hospital status, which means they will no longer be able to provide inpatient services.
“The Delta is like the concentration of all the struggles we’re having in healthcare just magnified there,” Edney said. “Southwest Mississippi is right behind them. Natchez and McComb areas are doing okay. Not great, but okay. The rest of southwest Mississippi is struggling mightily.”
When asked, Edney attributed poverty as the primary issue. Mississippi currently has the nation’s highest poverty rate with some hospitals like Greenwood Leflore seeing up to 80 percent of their care going uncompensated.
“Poverty drives everything in Mississippi,” Edney added. “We have such a high percentage of impoverished Mississippians. That gets in the way of everything. It gets in the way of simple public health measures. It gets in the way of having medical homes so that people can get their colonoscopies when they’re 50. We have too many diabetics and hypertensives walking around that don’t have a clue that they have it until they get sick. Poverty gets in the way of everything, and there is no silver bullet for poverty except continuing to improve our economic standing.”
As for possible solutions, Edney explained that while Medicaid expansion wouldn’t be the ultimate fix, it would be a massive step in the right direction.
“Medicaid (expansion) does not fully pay the bills, but it’s better than nothing,” Edney said.
If Mississippi were to join 40 other states in expanding Medicaid, the state’s healthcare system would automatically be eligible to receive around a billion dollars – even after the federal government recently decided to cap the amount it’s willing to dish out.
“The feds have made a decision. They’re funding at the level they’re going to fund. They’re not pushing more revenue into the pipeline,” Edney explained. “Here’s what’s on the table: You can take what’s available to you or not. They don’t much care, and if you don’t take it – God bless. Go do the best you can.”
Earlier this year, state lawmakers passed $104 million in lifeline money through the Hospital Sustainability Grant Program, which is funded by the American Rescue Plan Act, as a band-aid for struggling hospitals.
While Edney said most hospitals that have submitted an application to receive funding through the program have been accepted, he admitted that the money being offered is barely a drop in the bucket.
Watch the full interview with Dr. Edney below.
