It’s funny how things work out.
They’re not always funny in the humorous sense, but just in terms of irony.
Last Friday morning, I received a text letting me know that new Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney was going to be at North Sunflower Medical Center for a tour and a working lunch.
A few hours after discussing the Delta’s rural health crisis at length, two Delta towns were almost completely destroyed by a tornado, leaving hundreds of victims needing immediate aid at multiple Delta hospitals.
Dr. Edney, an internist from Vicksburg, is no stranger to the Delta.
And he’s becoming no stranger to Mississippi’s rural health care problems either.
“The Delta had challenges well before anybody else did,” Edney said. “They did not have the resources everybody else did. Please pay attention to what’s happening to health care in the Delta.”
Edney described health care outcomes in the region as “tragic.”
Edney is making the rounds to all of the state’s hospitals, most of them rural, but he said his trip to Ruleville had a special purpose.
“I’m amazed at what’s going on here,” Edney said of NSMC’s health care and financial success.
After Edney’s presentation, I got a chance to talk with him for about 10 minutes, digging a little deeper into the state’s health care crisis.
We actually spoke about the Sharkey Issaquena Community Hospital, where my mother, just hours later, was on night duty as a nurse when an EF4 tornado destroyed most of Rolling Fork.
The south Delta hospital came up in the conversation because it’s no secret that declining populations and revenues are threatening the futures of critical access hospitals all around.
Sunflower County, although healthier than most, should not ignore what is happening around them in health care.
Edney made note of Greenwood-Leflore’s issues, which followed the discontinuation of services like baby deliveries and Greenville’s closure of its NICU.
Ruleville, unlike most hospitals, is adding services, Edney said, and they also have something else surprisingly unique, according to the veteran doctor.
“This hospital has good community support,” Edney said. “People use the hospital. That’s a very big deal. When you have a medical center 10 miles away, and people choose to stay here, that says volumes… I’m not seeing that everywhere. There are counties where leaders are not supporting their hospital. There are leaders who really don’t know how to support their hospital, and there are leaders who are all in. The hospitals that are doing the best are those that the communities are supporting.”
One of the big debates since the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 has been on the expansion of Medicaid.
Mississippi, Edney said, is one of just 10 states that has not folded to some form of Medicaid expansion, something that would have brought about $15 billion to the state’s health care industry over the past decade-plus had the state joined.
The consequence to not expanding Medicaid lies not just in the $15 billion but also in the declining federal reimbursements.
“The revenue from Washington is going down, not up,” Edney said. “They expect you to take the billion dollars, take it and go do good with it.”
The Legislature appears to be winding down its 2023 session with no plans to expand Medicaid outside of postpartum care, although lawmakers seem to soften on the issue a little more each year.
But by the time they jump on board, or the federal government mandates expansion, it may be too late for the state’s rural hospitals, which will receive some infusion of cash after the Legislature passed a $103 million grant for hospitals this week.
Larger hospitals stand to claim larger chunks of that cash, while Delta hospitals, who won’t sneeze at the allocated funds, will continue to suffer.
But it’s not all about expansion and legislative dollars.
The region suffers from a bleeding population, and a good number of those who remain here are uninsured.
“There’s 20 hospitals of some type in the Delta,” Edney said. “With the population decline, there’s no way to continue to sustain 20. That’s why you hear people say that even with expansion, we still have struggles, but expansion makes it easier.”
Edney is seeking solutions, and that’s a good thing.
We need solutions.
Imagine where Sunflower County would be without its two hospitals and the services they offer.
Last week’s EF4 tornado was bad enough, ripping through some of the most rural parts of the Delta.
Imagine that happeneing in a more densely populated part of the region, one where a critical access hospital has been deemed unsustainable.
Edney was correct when he said to pay attention to what is happening with the Delta in terms of health care.
