Health – Page 39 – The Mississippi Link

Mississippi gets funds for anti-obesity program

Kermit Comments Off

The Mississippi State Department of Health will receive $8.5 million over the next five years to help combat obesity and chronic disease across the state.

State Health Officer Dr. Mary Currier said in a news release that the funds come from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Currier says the money will support a comprehensive, statewide approach to promoting health and controlling and preventing chronic diseases and their risk factors. […]

Miss. insurer could cut ties to 2 hospital systems

Kermit 0

Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi has told the state’s second-largest hospital owner that it will end its contract with the company’s 10 Mississippi hospitals at the end of August.

The insurer sent the termination notice to Health Management Associates hospitals statewide on June 25. Naples, Fla.-based HMA had sued Blue Cross for $13 million a week earlier, claiming the Flowood, Miss., insurer is breaking contract terms by underpaying for a number of procedures. […]

Humana to sell policies in unserved Miss. Counties

Kermit 0

All Mississippians will have at least one insurance option on the new federal online marketplace when it starts enrolling customers in October.
Humana, based in Louisville, Ky., announced Friday that it would cover people in the 36 Mississippi counties where no insurer had agreed to write policies.

Coverage under those policies begins Jan. 1.

“This builds on Humana’s current presence,” the company said in a statement. “By working together with local health care providers, we believe we can enhance quality of care and improve health outcomes in the state.” […]

Anti-drug initiative loses funding

Kermit 0

Washington County has lost funding for its community anti-drug program that has operated for 25 years.

Audine Hayes, executive director of the Anti-Drug Community Partnership RADAR Center, tells the Delta Democrat Times that the Mississippi Department of Mental Health chose to close it down by the end of summer due to budget cuts.

Hayes said the RADAR Center began as a 12-person task force comprised of Hayes, law enforcement officials, business professionals and school administrators who chose to take a proactive approach in changing the lives of youth in the Delta. That 12-person group eventually expanded to more than 150. […]

State’s first West Nile Virus death reported in Montgomery County

Kermit 0

The Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) reports the first West Nile virus death for 2013, along with two new human cases. The death was in Montgomery County – in Duck Hill – and the new reported cases are in Forrest and Wayne counties.

Tuesday’s report brings the state total for 2013 to six cases, including one death. This time last year there were no reported deaths from WNV in Mississippi.

So far this year, cases have been reported in Madison, Forrest (2), Wayne, Lowndes and Montgomery counties. The MSDH only reports laboratory-confirmed cases to the public. […]

Pickering to study viability of hospitals

Kermit 0

The office of State Auditor Stacey Pickering will be studying which community-owned hospitals in Mississippi are facing economic difficulties and why.

Pickering says he is concerned that some accessibility to health care will be lost if those hospitals can’t remain viable.

Pickering spoke last week to a forum hosted by Mississippi State University’s Stennis Institute of Government and the Capitol press corps.
[…]

Bryant: Medicaid special session starts Thursday

Kermit 0

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said Monday that he’s calling lawmakers into special session at 10 a.m. Thursday to keep the state’s Medicaid program alive and funded once the new state fiscal year begins July 1.

The Republican is not asking lawmakers to expand Medicaid, which is an option under the federal health care law that President Barack Obama signed in 2010.

Many Democrats have been pushing to expand Medicaid or to allow low-income working people to use federal subsidies to buy insurance on the private market.
However, Republican leaders say the state can’t afford to add another 300,000 people to Medicaid, and they don’t want to increase people’s dependence on government programs. […]

Only abortion clinic in Miss. fights to stay open

Kermit 0

It can’t meet the mandates of a 2012 state law and the governor wants to shut it down, but Mississippi’s only abortion clinic is not about to quietly retreat.

The clinic’s owners are fighting on a legal front, with a federal lawsuit against the state, and supporters and staff are trying to make inroads on site – urging patients to call elected officials and peppering state-required counseling with their own views and information.

Protesters, too, are zeroing in on the clinic. A national anti-abortion group, Operation Save America, has targeted Mississippi as a state where it hopes to end abortion, and it has sent people from as far as Colorado and Nevada to protest. Congregants from local churches pray outside the clinic several days a week. Some hold fetus posters and use microphones to call out to patients. […]

New Kilmichael Clinic holds first heath fair this Saturday

Kermit Comments Off

Dr. Katrina Poe and the new Kilmichael Clinic in Montgomery County will hold their first health fair since they opened their doors in September 2012.

In conjunction with Kilmichael Hospital, the fair will be held on Saturday, May 18, in front of the hospital at 301 Lamar Avenue from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Eulandia Thompson, Office Manager for Kilmichael Clinic, said the health fair will feature several health-related vendors including Mid-Delta, Sta-Home and Legacy Hospice. […]

Miss Alcorn awarded scholarship from the Mississippi Professional Educators

Kermit 0

Airnecia Mills, a graduating senior who majored in elementary education, and Miss Alcorn 2012-13, was recently selected to receive a $500 scholarship from the Mississippi Professional Educators (MPE). Upon graduation from Alcorn, she said she is planning to teach first grade students at Weddington Elementary School, Greenville Public School District, and pursue her master’s degree in elementary education.

“I was honored to receive the scholarship, especially because I was the only undergraduate African-American student awarded this year,” Mills said. “I am planning to use the scholarship towards graduate school.” […]