JACKSON, MS (Mississippi News Now) -
Governor Phil Bryant met Friday with members of the Mississippi Hospital Association to discuss financial problems hospitals and other healthcare providers will be facing if they lose millions in federal dollars.
Hospital administrators have been pushing for Medicaid expansion, and Governor Bryant is against it.
Expanding Medicaid in Mississippi will cover an estimated 300,000 more people and help hospitals recoup some of the federal dollars they will probably lose. The governor is opposed to adding additional people to Medicaid.
"After meeting with a number of the state's hospital leaders and discussing potential impacts of federal mandates on their ability to continue to serve our state's health care needs, we have come together in good faith to work out a possible solution to our funding issues."
"We have agreed to begin to working together immediately to seek solutions to the very significant business challenges facing our state's hospitals and other health care providers," said Mississippi Hospital Association Board of Governors Chairman Claude Harbarger. "We must arrive at solutions in this calendar year or face significant reductions in health care services in the state of Mississippi."
Some hospital administrators feel they may be forced to lay off employees if the lose the federal dollars they've been receiving for treating uninsured patients.
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