Mississippi True or Mississippi False Flag?
MHA has wanted a slice of the Medicaid business for several years. Medicaid awarded two managed care contracts for the MississippiCan program in 2011. MHA tried to get a piece of the action in 2014 when it tried to use the legislature as a legbreaker to collect some Medicaid vig. MHA tried to get a $30 million tax credit. It also asked the the legislature to give the Commissioner of Insurance the authority to weaken the requirements that other health insurance plans must meet if they want to operate in Mississippi. No big deal unless the program crashes and doesn’t have enough money to cover the losses. However, the legislature said no but did allow the hospitals to create a “provider-sponsored health insurance plan” that could compete for Medicaid managed care contracts. Such contracts are big business as Medicaid devours six billion dollars in Mississippi. The MississippiCan contracts expired this year so MHA saw its chance to grab a piece of the $2 billion Medicaid managed care action.
MHA created Mississippi True, a non-profit company. It bid for one of the contracts but scored second to last out of seven proposals. It is currently protesting the results and sued Medicaid last week to block the execution of the contracts.
Jackson Jambalaya
10/6/17
Magnolia Tribune
