New forms of joint health care, including hospitals that have left the state hospital association

The new health care alliance will bring together several of Mississippi’s largest hospital systems — all of which left the state hospital association after controversy over Medicaid expansion — under the umbrella of the one of the largest and most influential firms in the state.

The new team will be led by former Mississippi Medicaid Administrator Drew Snyder, who served under two Republican governors who blocked Medicaid expansion and the flow of billions of federal dollars to health insurance. good for low-income Mississippians for more than a decade.

The new partnership will focus on “providing sustainable solutions to the challenges facing access to care,” the press release said. It will include representatives from the state’s leading acute and trauma care hospitals, rural hospitals, mental health providers and primary care providers.

Critics, including the Mississippi Hospital Association, say the creation of the new group is motivated by partisan politics.

Many hospitals left the hospital association after the association’s political action committee made its largest donation to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Brandon Presley, a strong supporter of Medicaid expansion. in 2023. All but one entered the new partnership.

This means that lawmakers in 2025 will hear from two separate groups of hospitals and health care organizations, asking questions about how their overall impact will be canceled without a unified voice. .

Snyder, who declined repeated requests to comment for this story, will lead the Mississippi Health Partnership under the multistate umbrella, based in Jackson, of Capitol Resources and part of the new health policy consultancy, Health Resources.

Capitol Resources is a strong supporter of Republican Gov. Father Reeves. The firm’s political action committee has contributed nearly $75,000 to Reeves since 2018.

Five of Capitol Resources’ Mississippi clients hold multimillion-dollar contracts with the Division of Medicaid.

A question to the Mississippi Ethics Commission released just days before Snyder announced his resignation from the Medicaid Department sought comment on whether the agency’s former head could work for an appeals firm with clients in the field. Same as his public service except. to violate the law of the land. Feedback requests are anonymous.

The Ethics Commission ruled that a public servant cannot act for compensation in matters “in which he was directly or personally concerned while serving the government,” but he cannot be barred. working for an operating company.

A state ethics expert told Mississippi Today that when public servants turn to private practice, especially in the same field as public service, ethical issues can arise.

The knowledge and information that civil servants have can be used as “legislation,” which leads to unfair business dealings with private organizations and government agencies, said professor John Pelissero, director of Government Ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.

Capitol Resources has spent years representing Cetene, a company that currently has $5.2 billion worth of contracts to manage care for Medicaid beneficiaries through its subsidiary Magnolia Health. The company paid the lobbying firm $3.9 million over the past decade, according to the Secretary of State’s website.

Tim Moore, the former head of the Mississippi Hospital Association, said he is concerned about the conflict created by an appeals firm representing two health care organizations with competing interests.

“How do you represent a managed care company and a number of hospitals at the same time?” he said.

Moore was fired by the Mississippi Hospital Association Board of Governors after the hospitals withdrew from the association.

Clare Hester, founder and managing partner of Capitol Resources, did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

Proceedings of the Mississippi Hospital Association

The Mississippi Hospital Association for many years has been one of the most powerful lobbies in the Capitol. But that began to change with the passage of the federal Affordable Care Act, which made the difference between whether the state should expand Medicaid or not.

The trade union split in May 2023, beginning with the departure of the state’s largest hospital, the University of Mississippi Medical Center, in May. Four other hospitals, led by Gregg Gibbes, left the organization in 2024.

The leaders of the hospitals at the time refused to say what made their decision to leave so soon, without mentioning the concerns of the leadership of the hospital association. But the move was widely interpreted as a rebuke of corporate support for Presley and, in particular, Medicaid expansion.

Research has shown that Medicaid expansion could provide billions of dollars to Mississippi’s struggling hospital system.

When Reeves faced a re-election bid, due in part to his opponent’s support for Medicaid expansion and his staunch opposition, he worked with Snyder to create a new grant program. with additional payments to hospitals to offset lower Medicaid payments. Although the program did not directly support low-income Mississippians, it is estimated to generate $700 million for the state’s largest hospitals.

House Republican leaders pushing for Medicaid expansion in the last legislative session said the program has prevented some major hospitals from being strong advocates for the expansion, in part because of fears that Gov. Reeves will punish such action by ending extended payments.

The Mississippi Hospital Association has 76 current hospital members, according to its online directory. Some are members of the hospital administration.

“The Mississippi Hospital Association will continue to be a trusted voice on health issues and provide educational and quality advocacy solutions based on sound health care policy – not politics – as we’ve been successful for nearly 100 years,” president and CEO Richard Roberson. said Mississippi Today. Roberson is the former head of TrueCare, a provider-led, nonprofit health care organization that contracts with Medicaid.

Kent Nicaud, one of Reeves’ top campaign donors and president and CEO of Memorial Hospital, will serve as chairman of the partnership’s board. Memorial Health System left the hospital association in 2023, and is the current customer of Capitol Resources.

Moore said having two major health care trade associations in the state would “create division within the industry, which is not good.”

“…The best thing for all hospitals is to unite with one voice, because they have the same issues, whether it’s a small or a big hospital,” he said.

Along with the hospitals that have left the organization, the Mississippi Healthcare Collaborative includes several of Capitol Resources’ existing clients, including 21 Nationally Qualified Health Centers, and Universal Health Services, a company with five centers of behavioral health in Mississippi.

“For too long, many health care providers have been charged with our advocacy. It’s time to sit at the same table and work together,” said Terrence Shirley, CEO of the Community Health Center Mississippi Association, which represents Qualified Community Health Centers, in a press release.

Other members of the new group include Methodist Rehabilitation Center and Northwest Regional Medical Center in Clarksdale.

Group members are based in 78 of Mississippi’s 82 counties.

Ochsner Medical Center, which left the Mississippi Hospital Association last year and is a buyer of Capitol Resources, is not listed as a member of the new partnership. Ochsner did not respond to Mississippi Today at press time.

Geoff Pender contributed reporting.

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