Jackson Jambalaya

A sore loser that came in seventh is attacking the umpire and challenging the rules. Sounds like bad parents after their kid's team finishes next to last in the tournament, but are trying to claim the trophy anyway.

Here is the "Mississippi Truth". The Mississippi Hospital Association hired an out of state company to bid on this in order to avoid accountability for increasing and innapropritae medical care costs. They tried to kill managed care in the legislature since it was passed and failed. They tried suing Medicaid and failed. Then they tried to pass legislation to mandate they be given a contract, paid for by us taxpayers and that failed.

Now this lawsuit and attempted character assasination. Why? To avoid the oversight and accoutability that would limit their abuses and curb their ill gained profits. Anyone who has paid for an emergency room visit lately will understand (ex. sixty dollars for a Tylenol).

Simply put, they want to be the fox guarding our henhouse. They will lose this lawsuit and they should. Then, all public officials and media representatives should remember their trail of attempted character assasinations, false claims of being a Mississippi company and their track record of lies and false promises to legislators, executive branch elected officials, and the media.

The Association has no credibilty. Hospitals should not be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in membership fees yearly and instead should spend that money on their patients. Instead of investing that money in healthcare, they are using it to protect and increase their illegitimate profits and to prop up an Association that is detroying their good will and credibilty.

Medicaid has some "excellent" and "professionally" done commercials on Supertalk. Wonder how much they cost?

11:13 is SPOT on!! The hospital Assn hasn't been a viable advocate for its members since that old bastard, Sam Cameron left. They also had another lobbyist (I can't recall his make), who knew Medicaid better than anyone in Mississippi who left when Cameron retired.

12:41 and 11:13 nailed it. The hospitals in the hospital association should sue that bunch for malpractice. Then,the people they have libeled and slandered should sue the association for damages. Then, the hospital patients and taxpayers whose dollars underwrite these hospitals should file class action lawsuits against the member hospitals for misuse of public funds and abuse of public trust.

Or maybe the Attorney General and State Insurance Coomisioner could investigate their behavior and make them disgorge their outrageous medical profits swindled from sick folks. Bet that would keep their $500 an hour lawyers from creating any more mischief or defaming honorable folks.

... they are using it to protect and increase their illegitimate profits ...

Please define what level of profits are legitimate.

Here's a bonus question: Which is more useless: The Mississippi Medicaid Commission (is it the only commission left?), The Mississippi Hospital Association or The Mississippi Municipal League?

I know the spending is not comparable, but what about the utility and public good? What does the latter do other than give elected officials several chances a year to meet at casino resorts and spend public funds?

The Medicaid empire, just like the public welfare bureaucracy and public schools administrative offices in general, as well as the state departments involved in all of them, are nothing more than employment agencies. If these blood suckers were all tooled down or abolished, the state employee ranks would be cut by 2/3.

Drain the Swamp........let's keep up, now Son. There hasn't been a "Medicaid Commission in 25 years.

Medicaid is the worst run agency in the state. Makes MDE look good.

11:13, would you mind if I copied your comments and sent them to Anna Wolfe at the CL? She used to do a halfway decent job of covering the city and all the fun things going on there with our former Mayor. But since moving over to her new beat, whatever that is, she obviously hasn't bothered to learn anything about it, or to look for actual facts and truth - instead she has decided to take the dribble given her by the MS Hospital Assn (or its lobbyists) and report them as fact. She could learn a lot just by reading your explination.

Mind if I forward it to her? Not that I think the CL would be worth much more, but at least it might help her save what's left of her reputation as a reporter.

The CL just prints what MHA sends to them. And the legislature usually just passes what the MHA tells them to. I hate to see the smear campaign MHA is doing to the folks that did the ratings (who had no incentive to not pick the best proposal)

Whoa !
Medicaid" pays a decapitated rate per patient and the insurance company get to keep the money not paid "?
So , if the Medicaid human covered exceeds the rate, it's what? Sayonara?
And, if the Medicaid human stays well, the funds can't be used for the sick human and our tax dollars go to an insurance company? How is THAT a savings to taxpayers or driving down costs?
And, what are the safeguards to make sure a Medicaid human isn't denied costs so the insurance company can collude to reduce the care and keep even more money?
I don't think the concern should be over which company wins the contract, but that there is a contract that seems so lucrative as to start a fight!

11:13 says copy, paste and send at will. As short-staffed as they are at the Clarion Ledger, she probabably does not have time to do thorough research. If she did, she would already know that the hospital association is the group trying to corruptly influence the bidding process. Politicians beware.

You might check with 12:41 and send their comments as well. Hard to believe these hospital's (and smart politicians) would let themselves get suckered into this corrupt effort to obstruct cost accountability and defy oversight.

They should look into Singing River Hospital's unconscionable looting of the retirees pension fund to enrich their local business cronies at the expense of taxpayers and retirees. That would be only one example of illegitimate profits. Emergency room costs billed to Medicaid or private insurance would be another. It is up to 300 percent higher than if billed to an uninsured person.

Hey 7:30, the word is "capitated". To answer your question, if a patient's care costs more than the rate, the company still pays for their care and eats the loss instead of the taxpayers. If the patients stay healthy and their care cost less,the company keep the difference. The outcome is less cost to taxpayers, more cost certainty and healthier Mississipians who can work and pay taxes.

7:30......You've just showed you complete lack of understanding of "insurance". Do YOU have insurance?? How do you think YOUR insurance company makes a profit???

"Drain the Swamp........let's keep up, now Son. There hasn't been a "Medicaid Commission in 25 years. September 15, 2017 at 2:10 PM"

Call it what you like. Facts are facts. The head is appointed by the governor. Maybe the only one remaining like that. They used to all, pretty much, be called commission. Like DPW, which is now called something else.

A pile of shit, like a rose, by any other name...........

See how that works, 2:10. Do keep up, now.

Boat Hog.....you're as uninformed as The Swamp drainer. Actually, 49 of the 50 States have Medicaid Director's appointed by their Governor. How, pray tell, would you like to see it done??

10:09...Boar (not boat) Hog here. I referred to state agency heads in Mississippi, not 49 other states. I don't give a shit how their jobs are filled in other states. This one is appointed, thus is a commissioner by any other name, the same as it was before a more politically pleasing title was adopted. As with Department of Public Welfare....

2:10 (perhaps you) said 'There has not been a Medicaid Commission in 25 years'. What's the difference now that it's called by another name? It's still a useless bureaucracy, just something else to give the sitting governor a plum to bestow.

If the Legislature would dump this agency as well as the Education Department and half the school districts, not only would Mississippi cease to be an employment agency, the State Employees Retirement System would immediately reverse fortunes.

@September 15, 2017 at 6:35 PM

Medicaid is not the worst run agency in Mississippi. That title belongs to whoever has the taxpayers in Mississippi cough up the most money in lawsuit settlements. Medicaid is not one of them. Go do your homework.

I think he meant the old Welfare Commission in the comments.