JACKSON, Miss. — Over half of Mississippi’s rural healthcarefacilities are at threat of closing rightaway or in the near future, according to the state’s leading public health authorities.
Dr. Daniel Edney, the state health officer, spoke to state senators at a hearing Monday about the monetary pressure on Mississippi healthcarefacilities. Edney stated 54% of the state’s rural healthcarefacilities — 38 — might close. The possible closures threaten to intensify bad health results in one of the country’s poorest states.
“That is a circumstance that is unbearable from an financial viewpoint — to lose 54% of our medicalfacilities in the state — much less from an gainaccessto to care pointofview,” Edney stated.
Rural medicalfacilities were under financial stress priorto the COVID-19 pandemic, and the issues have intensified as expenses to supply care haveactually increased. Mississippi’s high number of low-income uninsured individuals implies healthcarefacilities are on the hook for more unremunerated care. At the verysame time, labor expenses weigh on healthcenters as they battle to pay competitive salaries to keep personnel.
“The expenses on an earnings declaration for a healthcarefacility have escalated,” stated Scott Christensen, chair of the Mississippi Hospital Association Board of Governors. “The liabilities on the balance sheets of healthcarefacilities around the state have reached some unsustainable levels provided what we face.”
The essence of the issue dealingwith Mississippi’s healthcarefacilities is that profits have not kept rate with increasing expenses, Christensen stated.
The pressure is most intense in Mississippi’s Delta area, an farming flatland where hardship stays entrenched. Greenwood Leflore Hospital has