The Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees voted unanimously Thursday to allow the University of Mississippi Medical Center to take control of Greenwood Leflore Hospital, potentially providing a lifeline to the medical facility that has been at the heart of the state’s healthcare crisis.
The 12-member board signed off on a proposal to allow all GLH property to be donated to UMMC, meaning the state’s lone academic medical system will not have to pay to absorb anything from the hospital that serves a substantial portion of the Delta. The IHL board’s approval was required because it governs UMMC and Mississippi’s other public universities.
However, the proposed deal could still collapse if GLH is not granted relief from the Mississippi Division of Medicaid. According to reporting from the Mississippi Free Press, DOM has asked a bankruptcy judge for permission to withhold $2.4 million in supplemental payments to GLH, a move hospital officials say would deplete the facility’s remaining cash reserves and force it to close by June 30.
“In the event GLH were to close, it would negatively impact a core foundation of any transaction with a larger system,” GLH consultant and former interim CEO Gary Marchand said in a statement to the Mississippi Free Press. “The result is the inability to bill DOM for services provided to Medicaid recipients in future months. Any new operator would have to be re-credentialed to provide services to Medicaid recipients and this process could take six months or more.”
The dispute stems from DOM’s efforts to recover millions of dollars in alleged overpayments made through the Mississippi Hospital Access Program and its request to withhold additional supplemental payments to GLH. DOM maintains that the proposed withholding is separate from an earlier court order that paused the state’s efforts to recoup the alleged overpayments. GLH, meanwhile, is seeking a court order requiring DOM to continue making the supplemental payments.
GLH filed for bankruptcy in April, citing the financial strain created by the repayment demands and ongoing cash flow challenges while pursuing a takeover by UMMC.
GLH – which has a service area of approximately 300,000 people, per its website – has gone to great lengths in recent years to stay open. Those efforts have included laying off hundreds of employees, eliminating several services, and working with state lawmakers to restructure its debts with the goal of becoming part of UMMC.
If GLH were to shutter, the closest hospital would be UMMC’s Grenada campus, roughly 35 miles away. For the proposed takeover to move forward, both the Greenwood City Council and the Leflore County Board of Supervisors must also approve the transfer.