A new health care alliance brings some of Mississippi’s largest hospital systems — all of which left the state hospital association following controversy over Medicaid expansion — under the umbrella of the state’s largest and most influential lobbying firm. It will be integrated.
The new organization will be led by former Mississippi Medicaid Director Drew Snyder, who spent more than a decade working to expand Medicaid and fund billions of dollars to provide health insurance to low-income Mississippians. He served under two Republican governors who blocked the flow of dollars.
A press release states that the new collaboration will focus on “providing sustainable solutions to challenges facing access to care.” Participants will include representatives from the state’s major acute and trauma care hospitals, local hospitals, mental health providers, and primary care providers.
Critics, along with the Mississippi Hospital Association, argue that the formation of the new group is motivated by partisan politics.
After the hospital association’s political action committee made its largest-ever donation in 2023 to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Brandon Pressley, a strong supporter of Medicaid expansion, many hospitals left the hospital association, but one hospital All but one hospital have joined the new collaboration.
This means lawmakers in 2025 will hear from two separate groups: hospitals and health care providers, raising questions about whether their overall influence will be weakened without a unified voice. It turns out.
Mr. Snyder, who declined repeated requests for comment for this article, is a member of the Mississippi Healthcare Collaborative, a subsidiary of multi-state Jackson-based lobbying firm Capitol Resources and its new health policy consulting arm, Health Resources. will lead the.
capitol resources strong supporter Remarks from Republican Governor Tate Reeves. The company’s political action committee has donated nearly $75,000 to Reeves since 2018.
Five of Capitol Resources’ many Mississippi customers have multimillion-dollar contracts with the Medicaid department.
A questionnaire with the Mississippi Ethics Commission, released days before Snyder announced his resignation from the Medicaid department, describes how the agency’s former head worked at a lobbying firm with clients in the same field as public service. We were seeking an opinion on whether it is possible to work without a permit. Violate state law. Requests for opinions will be accepted anonymously.
The Ethics Committee made the following judgment: Civil servants cannot be paid for anything they were “directly or personally involved in while working for the government,” but they are not prohibited from working for companies that do.
National ethics experts told Mississippi Today that ethical issues can arise when public servants move into private sector jobs, especially in the same fields as civil servants.
Professor John Pelissero, Director of Government Ethics at the Marckura Center, said the knowledge and information held by public servants can be used as a “fetter” and unfairly limit government agencies’ dealings with private companies and lobbying groups. He said there was a possibility of a connection. Studied applied ethics at Santa Clara University.
Capitol Resources has represented Centene for years, and the company currently has a contract worth $5.2 billion to manage care for Medicaid recipients through its subsidiary Magnolia Health. The company paid $3.9 million to lobbying groups over the past 10 years, according to the Secretary of State’s website.
Tim Moore, former president of the Mississippi Hospital Association, said he is concerned about the conflict created by a lobbying firm representing two health care organizations with competing interests.
“How do I represent a managed care company and a large number of hospitals at the same time?” he said.
Moore was fired by the Mississippi Hospital Association Board of Directors following the hospital’s departure from the organization.
Claire Hester, founder and managing partner of Capitol Resources, did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
Evolution of the Mississippi Hospital Association
The Mississippi Hospital Association has long been one of the most powerful lobbies on Capitol Hill. But things began to change with the passage of the federal Affordable Care Act, which created a partisan rift over whether states should expand Medicaid.
The industry group split in May 2023, starting with the exit of the state’s largest hospital system, the University of Mississippi Medical Center, in May. In 2024, four more hospitals, led by Greg Gibbs, left the association.
Hospital leaders at the time declined to say what prompted the decision to leave, other than citing concerns about the hospital association’s leadership. But the exodus was widely interpreted as a rebuke of the association’s support for Presley, particularly for Medicaid expansion.
Expanding Medicaid would provide millions of dollars to Mississippi’s struggling hospital systems, according to a study.
Mr. Reeves, facing an uphill re-election bid due in part to the support of opponents and his staunch opposition to Medicaid expansion, is working with Mr. Snyder to push hospitals to compensate for low Medicaid payments. Created a new program to provide additional payments. Although the program did not directly help low-income Mississippians, it was estimated to generate $700 million in revenue for the state’s largest hospitals.
House Republican leaders who pushed for Medicaid expansion in the last Congress say the program prevents some large hospitals from being strong proponents of expansion, in part because said there was concern that Governor Reeves would punish such a move by ending the benefit expansion.
The Mississippi Hospital Association currently has 76 hospital members, according to an online directory. Some are members of the hospital system.
“The Mississippi Hospital Association continues to be a trusted voice in the health care field, as we have been successfully for nearly 100 years, providing education and quality advocacy based on sound health policy, not politics.” We will provide solutions,” he told Mississippi Today. Mr. Roberson is the former president of TrueCare, a provider-led nonprofit managed care organization that contracts with Medicaid.
Kent Nickard, one of Reeves’ largest campaign donors and President and CEO of Memorial Hospital, will serve as chairman of the cooperative’s board. Memorial Health System left the hospital association in 2023 and is now a customer of Capitol Resources.
Moore said having two major health care trade associations in the state “creates division between industries, and that’s not good.”
“…The best thing for all hospitals is to come together with one voice, because whether you’re a small hospital or a large hospital, you have similar problems.” he said.
In addition to the hospitals that left the association, the Mississippi Healthcare Collaborative includes existing Capitol resources, including 21 federally qualified community health centers in the state and Universal Health Services, which has five behavioral health centers in Mississippi. Also includes a built-in client.
“For too long, too many health care providers have been isolated in our work. It’s time to sit at the same table and work together,” said Mississippi, representing federally qualified community health centers. Terrence Shirley, chief executive officer of the State Association of Community Health Centers, said in a press release.
Other members of the new group include Methodist Rehabilitation Center and Northwest Regional Medical Center in Clarksdale.
Members of this group are located in 78 of Mississippi’s 82 counties.
Ochsner Medical Center, which left the Mississippi Hospital Association last year and is also a Capitol Resources client, is not listed as a member of the new partnership. Ochsner did not respond to Mississippi Today by the time of publication.
Geoff Pender contributed reporting.
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