Senate Bill 2323 would change state anti-trust statutes and allow for more cooperation between government-owned hospitals regardless of geographic location in Mississippi. Republican Senator Joey Fillingane of Sumrall says these laws currently prohibit collaboration based on proximity to other hospitals. He says this legislation could provide immediate relief for hospitals needing outside help to maintain their operations.
Fillingane says “They’re struggling financially, and we’re complaining about how inefficient and burdensome they have been lumbering along, when in reality a lot of that is the legislature’s fault for not unshackling them to be able to collaborate, to acquire or sell amongst themselves as community government-owned hospitals.”
Fillingane used two hospitals facing financial strain as an example; Singing River Health System on the Coast which is currently waiting to be purchased, and Greenwood Leflore Hospital which recently closed down its pregnancy ward.
Democratic Senator David Jordan of Greenwood has signed on to sponsor the bill. He says it could help hospitals like the one in his hometown navigate financial strain.
“What saddens me so, this state lost $14 billion in Medicare (Medicaid) expansion, which would help to build out reserve if we were to accept it," says Jordan. "But we turn it down. The poorest state in the nation turning down money to serve its people, to me, is tumbling into the future backwards. I can't see that being productive."
This change would rewrite how hospitals are affected by anti-trust laws, but Senator Fillingane says the healthcare field is so unique there is not as much of a market risk seen in other forms of commerce.
