JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – With the re-election of President Donald Trump, health care leaders in the state say there is a new opportunity to expand Medicaid.

This year, State lawmakers fail to pass expansion billpartly due to provisions regarding eligibility requirements.

Trump had allowed waivers of work requirements during his first term, but the Biden administration rejected it. With Trump scheduled to return to the White House in January, health officials are optimistic that some kind of expansion could be on the agenda again.

This is also a major priority for the Mississippi Hospital Association, which recently set the legislative agenda with WLBT. Priorities for the 2025 session include expanding Medicaid, Certificate of Need reform, strengthening the state’s healthcare workforce and improving data security.

“This is one of the biggest problems we can solve for Mississippians and healthcare providers as it relates to Medicaid expansion and make our workforce healthier,” said MHA President and CEO Richard Roberson.

Trump White House in 2020Healthy Adult Opportunity Waiver“There were things for working adults. There are also exceptions for people who don’t work but are maybe caregivers for children or loved ones, who are full-time students; all of those things are core values ​​of Mississippi, things that Mississippians believe in.”

During the 2024 session, lawmakers failed to meet a deadline to pass Medicaid expansion legislation; That’s partly because the House and Senate can’t agree on how many people to cover and the work mandate, which opponents say it won’t meet. It passes the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services.

But Roberson is hopeful and says the final conference report from the last session follows the provisions in the Healthy Adult exemption.

“I think it’s a great starting point from where the legislature left off,” he said. “It gives us a starting point on this topic that we’ve never had before. “And I think we have a great opportunity to evaluate that and incorporate and look at other aspects that the federal government would approve under a new administration.”

“It may not (cover) as many Mississippians as traditional Medicaid expansion would, but it will still cover a significant number of Mississippians, probably 70 to 80 percent of those eligible.”

Hospital Association officials are also pushing for reform of the state’s Certificate of Need rules, including raising caps on equipment costs to guard against inflation.

“Every few years the legislature will take a look at CON requirements. The last significant revisions to these were made in 2016, and the Mississippi Hospital Association worked with the legislature on them,” Roberson said.

CON laws are needed

One of the revisions this year will be an increase in the cap on medical equipment costs from $1.5 million to $3 million.

“Overall healthcare costs have increased 10, 15, 20 percent in the last few years since COVID. “However, since 2016, when we last reviewed this law, some of these costs have increased by 30, 40 percent,” he said. “Right now… a hospital might pay more than $2 million for some of the equipment it uses for patients – scanners… imaging machines… It’s become very expensive.”

MHA also wants CON laws regarding dialysis to be repealed and for hospitals to be able to provide inpatient and outpatient care.

The association does not want to eliminate CON laws entirely, saying they are necessary to ensure health care is “delivered in the most cost-effective environment.”

“It also helps prevent fraud and abuse. What we don’t want is more people coming into healthcare, taking advantage of people, driving up costs and not providing (the) good services that people need,” Roberson said. “CON plays a role in preventing potential bad actors from getting in.”

Other legislative agenda items include creating new programs to attract and retain doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals, as well as working with partners to encourage hospitals to take more steps to secure patient data.

“Cybersecurity is a huge issue in many industries right now, and healthcare is not immune,” he said. “Several years ago, actually in 2023, Singing River Health System experienced a significant breach, a ransomware attack, affecting over 800,000 patients… and almost half a million files were released by the hackers.”

“This is a significant threat, and a lot of times these hackers… are very sophisticated,” Roberson continued. “So we are looking at ways to strengthen cybersecurity protections so that our patients can be assured that their files and our patients’ information are (maybe) best protected.”

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