Six Mississippi hospitals are in the red and in danger of closing.
Tim Moore, President, and CEO of the Mississippi Hospital Association said that the Public Employee’s Retirement System, or PERS, may have something to do with it.
“When you participate in PERS, not only do you have to account for your liability with your facility, but you get a portion of all of the state’s unfunded liability,” Moore said.
He added that they would like these factors to be taken into account.
While Moore said that the five of the six hospitals do have a common denominator with the PERS connection, he added that hospitals are having a tough time across the nation.
Moore said that they are looking to see what they can do to keep the hospitals in business, while at the same time keeping their customers and patients healthy. He added that Emergency Rooms in hospitals are the area that has the most loss of profit.
“Healthcare is far from a free market…,” Moore said. “If you looked at patients who received services across the state of Mississippi… two billion dollars worth of services were provided to uncompensated care.”
