Hospitals in Mississippi facing financial difficulties, but it’s not just at the state level, it’s federal too.
“The state trauma system is severely underfunded, and we understand,” said Timothy Moore, President, and CEO of the Mississippi Hospital Association. “We know that the state doesn’t have the money to fund additional care there, but it needs to be done, so how do we do that?”
Moore said that they are looking to draft legislation that would help the medical branches that have the direst needs.
“We are of the mindset that it is going to be very difficult to change the funding of hospitals at this point and time because of all the cuts everywhere else,” said Moore. “What are you going to cut there?”
Moore added that they are looking to address five topics over the course of the 2018 legislative session. He said that they will be focusing on Medicaid, financial feasibility of hospitals, certificate of need, trauma funding, and mental health.
“A lot of times people think about healthcare as just simply physical, when you really get into healthcare and you start learning more about it, you find out that so much of the physical is affected by the mental and if you don’t address those needs, then your physical condition is going to get a lot worse,” said Moore. “There are very few people in Mississippi that have not been touched in some form or fashion by the opioid crisis. That’s a part of mental health, behavioral health. Trying to find ways to make sure that they are funded, we address those needs and that’s a big part of what we do.”
