On June 30, Dr. Carey Wright’s tenure as the State Superintendent of Education in Mississippi drew to a close.
Her nine years in the post were marked both by controversies and real gains in educational achievement.
Now, the State Board of Education is facing the most important task any board faces, finding a new leader. In conducting their search, the State Board should consider these attributes in a candidate:
1) Are they committed to the purpose of education?
The purpose of education is not to preserve the status quo. It is not to defend institutions and systems. It is not even to garner high test scores on information forgotten soon after testing ends. The purpose of education is to prepare kids for life. All the short-term measurements in the world cannot replace the goal. Decisions that run through the Mississippi Department of Education and every district in the state should be treated against the goal of real life preparation.
2) Do they understand Mississippi?
Dr. Wright moved to our state after a career in Maryland and D.C. Those are very different environments from Mississippi. It’s not to say that outside candidates should not be considered, but it is important that whoever is hired understands our culture, the diversity of our student population, and that needs vary dramatically from district to district.
3) Do they understand the role of local education leadership and believe in Mississippi teachers?
Dr. Wright came into the role of State Superintendent having never served in a similar post or even as a district-level superintendent. While it is not essential to have that background, having that experience likely would have created more empathy for and deference toward local leadership. Whoever is the next Superintendent should put a strong emphasis on empowering local education leaders and educators to be responsive to their community’s needs instead of a heavy top-down approach that devalues the potential contributions of Mississippi’s teachers.
4) Are they flexible to experimentation with true accountability?
Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously said that states are the laboratories of democracy. Within a state, communities are those laboratories. We should be discouraging a system that attempts to create cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all education and actively encouraging districts to think outside the box and innovate. The next State Superintendent should be prepared to break the mold. He or she should also not confuse preemptive regulation that prevents innovation with accountability. True accountability does not tie everyone’s hands on the front end but holds people responsible for achieving results.
5) Do they respect parents’ primary role in the education of their children?
Ultimately, parents are responsible for preparing their kids for life. Our education system is a tool that aids parents in carrying out that responsibility. The students in our schools are not the property of those schools. But too often, rhetoric and practice treat parents like secondary players.
The next State Superintendent should respect the fact that parents are an important voice. Because every child is unique and many parents have differing views of what their children need to be successful, he or she shouldn’t treat families having choices as an attack on traditional schools but as a path to satisfying the needs of students and better ensuring that children are prepared for life.
Mississippi Today is pleased to announce the soft launch of our first sister newsroom, Verite, a Black-led, mission-driven newsroom, which is set to begin publishing in the fall. The New Orleans newsroom is the first step in plans for a network of local, independent newsrooms across the Southeast that center accountability and a community-first perspective.
Verite’s in-depth, data-based reporting will focus on solution-based coverage on crucial topics, such as education, housing, health care, criminal justice, the environment and politics — while centering the voices of communities that have been historically ignored and uplifting a region that has been left behind compared to similar national metropolitan areas.
“Local matters in the South, and we have searched high and low for the right local news leaders for our first expansion,” said Mississippi Today CEO Mary Margaret White. “I could not be more confident about the talent we have on board for New Orleans.”
Led by Executive Director David Francis (former EVP and publisher of NOLA.com|The Times-Picayune) and Editor-in-Chief Terry Baquet (former managing editor of Nola.com|The Times-Picayune) and Managing Editor Tim Morris (former political editor and columnist of The Times-Picayune), Verite aims to build a newsroom that’s founded on local trust, equity and a deeply rooted understanding of the vibrant cultures and information needs of the New Orleans metropolitan area.
“Black and brown journalists continue to be overlooked and underrepresented in the newsroom,” said David Francis, Verite Executive Director. “At Verite we want our newsroom to be a platform for the community as well as for hiring and elevating journalists that reflect the diversity of the community, appreciate the New Orleans culture and understand the needs and perspectives of the city.”
Through partnerships with HBCUs and other institutions, Verite will connect the dots between the classroom and their professional newsroom by offering internships, fellowships and mentorship for minority students training them to join the Verite mission. Recognizing that over 75% of newsroom employees are non-Hispanic whites, Verite’s investment will create a pipeline of talent across the country that can be shared and celebrated.
“When we set out to create Verite, we wanted to fix the relationship gap and invest in human potential to uplift the new generation of reporters, editors and communicators from under-served communities,” said Terry Baquet, Verite Editor-in-Chief. “Maintaining our commitment to training these new reporters will add to their experience and help provide viewpoints in other markets. This approach is a cornerstone of our vision and will result in aiding all news outlets to better serve the greater community.”
Verite has received a grant from The Ford Foundation which will specifically support editorial planning, recruitment and the hiring of a top-notch team of journalists. Verite is also the recipient of a planning grant from the American Journalism Project that will provide tailored support including, 1:1 guidance, capacity building resources, peer learning opportunities and other tools to strengthenVerite’s business and revenue operations.
For more information about donating or signing up for the Verite newsletter, please visit www.veritenews.org and follow along on Twitter @VeriteNewsNola
Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney says he believes that the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) is violating state law by turning patients away from the state’s only safety net hospital.
The state insurance department, according to Chaney, has received numerous complaints from UMMC patients who have been told by their doctors that they cannot receive care at the hospital because they are insured by Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi.
UMMC has been out of network with Blue Cross, the state’s largest insurer, since April 1 due to disagreements over reimbursement rates and Blue Cross’ quality care plan.
Chaney said that he believes UMMC turning away patients would violate Mississippi Code 37-115-31, which states that UMMC “shall be utilized to serve the people of Mississippi generally.”
“If you are the university hospital, you have a moral and ethical obligation to take care of Mississippians and a statutory requirement that you do so,” Chaney said.
Chaney said that his office has forwarded several of these allegations to UMMC and “other proper authorities that can enforce the law.”
Under federal law, public hospitals like UMMC may not deny a patient care based on the ability to pay or who the insurance provider is. UMMC and Blue Cross are still honoring in-network rates for Blue Cross patients who come into UMMC’s emergency room. Mississippi Today has not independently confirmed any instance of UMMC turning away a patient in an emergency situation.
UMMC’s official policy is that each Blue Cross customer must sign a form that confirms the patient is aware that UMMC will not accept payment from Blue Cross for any elective services and that they will be responsible for their medical bills if they continue their care at the hospital. With Chaney’s allegations, it is unclear if this policy is being followed with each Blue Cross patient.
“The problem is the people at the top that we deal with (at UMMC) are telling us one thing when what’s happening down at the bottom is totally different from what they’re telling us,” Chaney said.
UMMC spokesperson Marc Rolph said the hospital had “no comment” on Chaney’s allegation that UMMC is violating state law.
Federal law required UMMC to continue honoring in-network rates for certain patients for a 90-day period after it went out of network, but that “continuity of care” grace period expired on July 1. Since then, children with rare genetic conditions and transplant patients have been forced to seek their care out of state or switch to another insurer.
Chaney has also previously alleged that without UMMC in its network, Blue Cross is violating network adequacy requirements. There are a litany of specialty services UMMC provides, such as its children’s cancer care program and transplant programs, that can’t be found anywhere else in the state. State law requires that Blue Cross customers have reasonable access to these services if the services are covered by their insurance plan.
Chaney launched a network adequacy review of Blue Cross on July 1, the results of which likely won’t be finalized or made publicly available for months.
Four years ago, investigative reporter Anna Wolfe began uncovering a scheme that the state auditor eventually called the largest public embezzlement case in the state’s history. State officials channeled tens of millions in welfare dollars on behalf of politically-connected individuals and ventures, among them pro sports players, nonprofit executives, a former governor and more.
Despite officials keeping them under wraps for over two years, Mississippi Today finally exposed text messages between former Gov. Phil Bryant and former NFL legend Brett Favre, revealing new depth to their involvement that the public would not have known otherwise. More than two years in, it’s not clear who will face accountability (no additional figures have been arrested since February 2020), or where the investigations might go from here.
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Gov. Tate Reeves tried to keep the University of Southern Mississippi out of the state’s ongoing welfare scandal. Instead, with a controversial firing, Reeves focused the nation’s attention on the university.
Attorney Brad Pigott filed a July 11 subpoena on University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation regarding the $5 million it received to build a volleyball stadium — the single largest known purchase within the state’s massive welfare embezzlement scandal. About a week later, Pigott was fired by Reeves’ welfare agency.
A former U.S. attorney, Pigott was hired to lead the agency’s civil lawsuit against dozens of people and entities in efforts to recoup up to $24 million in misspent or stolen federal welfare funds originally sent to Mississippi to help the state’s poorest residents, just a fraction of the overall $77 million scandal. That money, as we now know, ended up in the hands of welfare administrators and many of their high-profile friends who did little to nothing to help the state’s poor.
Pigott says his abrupt termination was politically motivated, that staffers in Reeves’ office had long wanted him to keep USM Athletic Foundation out of his civil lawsuit. The last thing Pigott did as head of the case was subpoena communications the USM athletic foundation had with former Gov. Phil Bryant and NFL quarterback Brett Favre — two people who have, up until the civil case, escaped public legal scrutiny in the scandal. Favre was sued civilly; Bryant was not.
“I believe I was fired as a result of a pattern of orders from the (current) Mississippi governor’s office concerning protecting an entity, called the University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation, from any responsibility in this matter,” Pigott told the New York Times.
Reeves has not denied this assertion, and a statement from his appointed welfare director, which suggested that the subpoena prompted him to remove Pigott from the case, appears to confirm Pigott’s suspicion. The welfare agency said the subpoena was a surprise, but Mississippi Today published an email the newsroom obtained that showed Pigott sent the department a draft of the subpoena more than a week before filing it.
The story has jarred the conscience of the state and nation. Mississippians have skeptically watched state leaders investigate the welfare scandal for more than three years now. Criminal charges originally filed in early 2020 have fallen squarely on six people further down the totem pole, but no one else has been arrested. The welfare department’s civil suit, filed in May, names 38 people or organizations. But Pigott’s firing calls into question the future of even that case.
While carrying out an effort, apparently, to protect USM from being a main focus of the state’s investigation into the scandal, Reeves has ensured that Southern Miss is at the very focus of it.
As taxpayers are rightfully wondering why Reeves would insert himself into this scandal he had previously been left out of, it is appropriate to dig into the only thing that has consistently driven him to move on anything: politics.
Reeves, like most successful statewide politicians, has long courted the sizable Southern Miss voting bloc. The Hattiesburg university is the third largest in Mississippi, and the most recent data published by the USM Alumni Association lists 75,000 active alumni in the state of Mississippi — close to 10% of the state’s total gubernatorial cycle electorate.
Reeves’ electoral performance in south Mississippi, where USM alumni are most concentrated, quite likely won him the Governor’s Mansion in 2019. Reeves picked up 23% of his total statewide vote share in Hattiesburg and south. A key to that Pine Belt and Gulf Coast success was his full-breathed support from local elected officials, many of whom are USM alumni.
Importantly for Reeves, one of the most successful political fundraiser in Mississippi history, USM support comes with plenty of political cash. Mississippi Today reviewed the governor’s campaign contributions and found sizable donations from at least 11 USM Athletic Foundation board members.
And several people on the foundation’s board are either direct beneficiaries or known investigation targets of the welfare scheme.
Zach New, who pleaded guilty to state and federal embezzlement charges related to misspending federal grant funds, sits on the USM Athletic Foundation board. Both Zach New and his mother Nancy New, who sat on the athletic foundation’s board before her son replaced her, have donated modestly to Reeves’ campaigns since at least 2015.
Together, the News ran a nonprofit that received and was tasked to administer federal welfare funding to programs that would help the needy. But they instead steered much of it to friends and celebrities, such as Favre and another football star Marcus Dupree, and even diverted $5 million in welfare funding to the USM Athletic Foundation for the volleyball center at their alma mater.
Reeves has long been in the News’ orbit, recording an education commercial for his gubernatorial campaign in mid-2019 at the special needs school the News owned in Jackson — where, at that time, they were running a separate federal fraud scheme to which they have since pleaded guilty.
At the end of 2019 and early 2020, when the News sensed they would soon face criminal charges, the Reeves administration was poised to take office. Several times, according to text messages obtained by Mississippi Today, they turned to Reeves’ incoming chief of staff, among other powerful political sources, for help. Reeves’ former chief of staff told Mississippi Today the incoming administration steered clear of assisting the News.
NFL legend and USM alumnus Brett Favre, who was close with the News and publicly took credit for a multi-million dollar donation that helped build the volleyball center, also sits on the USM Athletic Foundation board. Favre endorsed Reeves in 2019, calling the future governor “a friend and family man who is committed to making our state a better place.” Deanna Favre, the quarterback’s wife, wrote Reeves a $2,500 check just days before the 2019 governor’s election.
The quarterback also attended a Reeves fundraiser in July 2019 — a couple months before Reeves faced a crowded GOP primary for governor.
It’s always a great day on the campaign when you get to spend some time with friends. I am truly blessed to call @BrettFavre and @PhilBryantMS my friends and have their support in my run for Governor! pic.twitter.com/DShiRaCFFP
Another USM Athletic Foundation board member is Poncho James, a close acquaintance of Favre’s who invested at least tens of thousands in the so far fruitless experimental pharmaceutical company called Prevacus that Favre was backing and that received welfare funding. James hosted that Hattiesburg fundraiser for Reeves in 2019, where Favre snapped the picture with Reeves and Bryant. James also wrote the future governor a $2,500 check for that race.
James, according to text messages obtained by Mississippi Today investigative reporter Anna Wolfe, believed that getting Reeves elected in 2019 could help their concussion drug venture.
Tommy Duff, one of the state’s few billionaires, also sits on the USM Athletic Foundation board. He is president of the board of trustees of the Institutions of Higher Learning, which voted to approve the lease that allowed for Nancy New and her nonprofit to pay the athletic foundation $5 million to build the volleyball facility, according to the board’s meeting minutes.
Duff has given Reeves at least $32,000 for his campaigns since 2011. In recent months, however, the two have reportedly fallen out. Duff, who typically writes a sizable check to Reeves each year, last gave to the governor’s campaign in 2020.
Rodney Bennett, former president of University of Southern Mississippi, sat until recently on the USM Athletic Foundation board. Bennett wrote Reeves’ campaign a $1,000 check in 2019 and another $1,000 check in 2020.
Other USM Athletic Foundation board members have given Reeves large campaign contributions over the years. Chuck Scianna, a Texas businessman, wrote Reeves a $25,000 check in 2018, a $10,000 check in 2020, and another $10,000 check in 2021. Hattiesburg businessman and board member “Abb” Payne has given Reeves at least $22,500 since 2015. Joe Quinlan, a bank executive and foundation board member, wrote Reeves a $5,000 check in 2019.
Clare Hester, one of the state’s most high-powered lobbyists, represents the Southern Miss Athletic Foundation. Hester and Reeves have long had a close working relationship, with the lobbyist giving Reeves at least $40,000 in campaign contributions.
For his part, Reeves is not coy about his relationship with USM. He regularly travels to Hattiesburg to announce government grants or projects, and he attends sporting events.
Time will tell how those USM supporters and alumni feel about how Reeves has handled the events of the past few days — and whether state or federal investigators will focus even more attention on the USM Athletic Foundation.
“All I did, and I believe all that caused me to be terminated from representing the department or having anything to do with the litigation, was to try to get the truth about all of that,” Pigott told Mississippi Today hours after his firing. “People are going to go to jail over this, at least the state should be willing to find out the truth of what happened.”
Under the program, each family can receive eight BinaxNow rapid tests each month. No doctor’s note or documentation is needed, though the recipient’s name, number of tests and zip code will be logged. The tests can be picked up during regular health department hours without an appointment.
The number of tests each county health department received was based on the county’s population and the number of days the clinic is open. Each county health department can order more tests as often as necessary.
Liz Sharlot, director of communications at MSDH, said that the free test program has been in the works for the last few months and that the health department is “filling a public health gap and need by providing these home tests to the community.”
The move to supply free tests to Mississippians will help ease the financial barrier to at-home testing, as a pack of two self tests typically costs around $20.
This move by the health department comes as Mississippi faces another surge in COVID-19 infections. The state was seeing an average of 105 new infections each day at the beginning of May, but is now seeing an average of 1,445. Hospitalizations have also increased by more than 50% over the past month.
The MSDH program is similar to a federal free test program, where USPS will ship eight tests to any home in the U.S. A third round of free at-home tests can be ordered at COVIDtests.gov.
“If it allows me to change one person, it would make it all worth it.”
That’s how Ben Little describes his life’s story which includes struggles with addiction, a suicide attempt, and prison time followed by a new life found in the salvation of Jesus Christ. Today, Ben uses his own life experiences to help others at The Mission in West Point where he serves as the director. The center stands as a beacon of hope for those in recovery by providing education-based intervention, treatment, and counseling services.
Early Years
Ben grew up in Brandon living a relatively normal life. He was raised in a Christian home by his grandparents. In his teens and through college, though, he found himself seeking purpose without a strong direction.
“I always knew there was something more but never really could find it.”
Ben spent most of his young adult life searching. He was searching for a place to belong, searching for a purpose for his life, and searching for something to make him feel whole. That search led him to pain medication in his early 30s where he quickly became addicted. Ben had taken a job in Connecticut and was working as a finance director. During that time he got married and had a son.
Addiction
His addiction to drugs started with his wife’s prescription pain pills.
“I was a high-functioning addict,” he said. “I was able to hide it and go to work at the same time. I went to detox which is where I was first introduced to heroin.”
Ben had lost his wife and his son. He was at the lowest point of his life and turned to something stronger – heroin.
“The day after detox was when I first used heroin,” he said. “It didn’t take long. Over the next two years I became homeless and was living out of my car in Connecticut.”
In despair having lost his family, his job, his home, and everything that meant anything to him, Ben made a decision.
“It was on March 8, 2013, that I made the decision to take my life,” he said.
The next day Ben was found lying on the floor by a friend who called his family back home in Mississippi. His parents made the trip to Connecticut to bring him back home hoping life would get better. It didn’t.
“Thirteen hundred miles didn’t change anything except my drug of choice,” said Little. “I began using methamphetamine when I got home and 16 months later I had six felonies in three counties.”
Incarceration
In February 2014 it caught up with him when he was held on a charge in Hinds County.
“That was the first time I had to face the consequences of my own actions and that’s where my journey began,” he said.
While in jail, Ben had what he describes as his “Damascus road moment,” referring to Saul’s conversion in the Bible.
“I told God that if He was real, I would give him all that I had, which was nothing,” said Little. “I knew I was going to wear stripes, I knew I was losing everything except for my Bible and that I was going to prison with nothing.”
He struggled for the first two years with relapse during incarceration as prison is not an escape from drugs but rather an intersection of access to drugs.
“I had no value and God began to change my heart,” he explained.
Finding Hope
He began to reflect on his life as his 40th birthday approached. Ben was ready to leave the life of addiction and the pain behind. He made it his mission to begin anew and on his 40th birthday February 23, 2017, he got sober.
“From that day forward I have been completely clean and sober. I haven’t had a taste or desire and I’ve taken people to detox who were doing the same drugs that I did, it’s like a totally different person,” he said.
During his time in Mississippi Department of Corrections custody, Ben spent time at Parchman, and Greene County before being moved to Central Mississippi Correctional Facility (CMCF) where he spent the last three and a half years of his incarceration. At CMCF he worked for the chaplain and then was moved to teach the GED program. In his last 18 months, he was recommended by the superintendent to join the veterans program at the prison. The program, run by BR Hawkins, is exclusively for incarcerated veterans. They are housed separately and are able to participate in their own classes and programs including training therapy dogs. While Ben is not a veteran Hawkins allowed him to participate in the program because of his good standing at the prison. Ben joined and worked as a spiritual mentor from 2018 until his release in 2019.
The veterans unit was the only self-contained unit on the CMCF campus that had air conditioning.
“We only got the A/C because they came in and told us that it was inhumane to have the dogs that we were training in a building with no A/C. That was the most humiliating thing to hear because we were human beings,” he said.
During his time there, the president of Mississippi University for Women Nora Miller came to speak to the veterans. He was able to share his newfound passion for counseling and teaching with Miller who would later be influential in helping him to return to school after his release.
Ben was married in 2018 to his wife Sheila during his incarceration.
“We had known each other before,” he said, “and she found me by searching online. When she did, my mugshot came up and she called around to the prisons before she found out where I was.”
The two wrote letters back and forth for three years, she came and visited every week for two years, and they were married at the chapel at CMCF in 2018.
Second Chance
Ben was released in November 2019 and just a few months later by January of 2020, he was attending school. He began volunteering at the Mission as a one-on-one counselor and by February he was part of the full-time staff. He began to use his life experiences to show others what it could look like on the other side of addiction.
“I think it helps the guys to know that they are dealing with someone that understands, and knows, and has felt rock bottom and has still made it through it,” said Little. “If you’ve got breath, there is opportunity.”
Second chances are important in order to push people forward out of these damaging cycles.
“If you don’t get a second chance, you are never going to fall forward,” he said. “So often, we fall and make mistakes, we go one direction, either we fall back into making the same mistakes and into the same unhealthy patterns or we fall forward.”
It is vital for recovery to see the problem and the person separately, to see the negative from the positive.
“Being incarcerated you feel like you don’t matter, many people that are incarcerated don’t have anyone to call or put money on the books, they feel like they are forgotten.”
So many individuals that come out of the justice system are not used to interacting with genuine compassion. The cycle of manipulation is ingrained in their minds so programs like the one at The Mission help to unravel that mindset.
“Everybody thinks going home is a better alternative, when in reality that could be their trigger,” Ben said.
The Mission provides mentorship to men and helps them to get away from any selfish behavior. It helps to create a healthy family perspective and teaches them how to live outside of themselves and truly care for someone else.
“They are all trying to be better than the day before, that is something that they all have in common,” said Little.
During his time at MUW, Little not only received a degree but also child advocacy studies training in order to counsel with the knowledge that addiction affects not only the individual but especially children.
Little is now doing all he can to further his education and act as a voice for so many of those within the justice system. He is able to go with The Mission program participants and represent them in court and speak on their behalf. This fall he will work towards his master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling at Mississippi State University.
“I want to be a voice for the voiceless and to assist in finding alternative measures to train and educate inmates prior to their release on the realities that they are truly going to face and the hardships that are coming,” said Little. “We can’t give up on people. I never thought I’d be doing what I’m doing. I’m someone who didn’t get life right the first time, but I don’t think any of us got it right the first time.”
You can help provide second chances in Mississippi. Please sign the petition below.
The infected individual is a Mississippi resident and the infection was confirmed at the Mississippi State Department of Health Public Health Laboratory. The health department said that it is currently trying to identify people who may have encountered the infected person.
Over the past few weeks, the Monkeypox virus has spread to dozens of countries and infected thousands. As of July 22, there were nearly 2,900 Monkeypox cases nationally, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data. Nearly all infections outside Africa have occurred among men who have sex with men.
Mississippi was one of the few remaining states with no reported cases before Monday. MSDH has received a limited number of doses of a Monkeypox vaccine that the department says will be used to treat individuals the department identifies who have been exposed to Monkeypox.
The monkeypox virus, which is part of the same family of viruses as smallpox, has not caused any deaths yet, but does produce painful symptoms.
Symptoms of monkeypox can include: Fever, headache, muscle aches, swollen lymph nodes, chills and exhaustion. Infected persons often experience a rash that looks like pimples, or blisters that appear on many parts of the body. The illness typically lasts for two to four weeks.
Transmission often occurs through close skin-to-skin contact with an infected person. Airborne transmission also occurs during prolonged close contact with an infected person.
The World Health Organization declared Monkeypox a global public health emergency on June 23, the first time it has taken this step since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020. Monkeypox, COVID-19 and polio are the only diseases that have this designation.
Caden LeMieux smiles on the day he was discharged from UMMC. He left for Houston the next day.
Caden LeMieux is lying in a bed at Hermann Memorial Hospital in Houston, Texas, more than 500 miles away from his home, his mother and the majority of his friends and family in Neshoba County.
He’s 450 miles from the doctors and nurses at the University of Mississippi Medical Center he’s been seeing for more than a year for primary sclerosing cholangitis, a serious and long-term liver disease that has been treated at Mississippi’s only organ transplant center.
The 28-year-old was admitted to UMMC July 7 following excruciating stomach pain and high levels of bilirubin, which caused his skin and eyes to turn yellow. LeMieux, who is 6’2, usually weighs somewhere in the 130-pound range, but weight kept coming off.
He was told he was in active liver failure and needed a transplant imminently. But UMMC couldn’t do it, his doctor said. The reason: the hospital’s ongoing contract dispute with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi, which left the state’s largest hospital out of network with its largest private insurer since April 1.
While the two parties are currently in mediation, there is no resolution in sight.
“They (the UMMC doctors and nurses) tried their best to find a loophole around it … the best they could,” said LeMieux, who has Blue Cross through his stepmother’s Texas plan. “They couldn’t come up with anything.”
LeMieux’s mother Cristi Montgomery described the difficulty of that moment.
“I tell you, they were teary-eyed because they knew it wasn’t fair,” Montgomery said of the doctors and nurses who’d been taking care of LeMieux at UMMC.
Caden LeMieux at his youngest brother’s graduation in May 2022. Credit: Courtesy of Cristi Montgomery
“I really didn’t want to leave (UMMC),” LeMieux said on Monday, a day after undergoing a procedure to drain fluid from his lungs to allow him to breathe more easily. “It’s been a lot of nights I’ve gotten overwhelmed.”
Neither UMMC nor Blue Cross responded to requests for comment for this story by the time of publication.
Montgomery said the dispute between UMMC and Blue Cross has forced her son out of his comfort zone in a trying time.
“You’re having to meet people that you’re not comfortable with, establish new relationships — we ain’t got time for that. We’re sick enough, don’t take us out of our comfort zone,” said Montgomery.
UMMC and Blue Cross are butting heads over reimbursement rates and the insurance company’s quality care plan. UMMC, the state’s only academic medical center and safety net hospital, is asking Blue Cross for substantial increases in its reimbursement rates. Blue Cross officials say this is unreasonable and would necessitate an increase in members’ premiums.
Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney has issued calls for the two parties to come to an agreement to no avail. He recently informed Blue Cross his department will be conducting a target market conduct examination of the insurer to determine whether it is compliant with the state’s network adequacy regulations, which require insurers to provide adequate in-network care to customers.
LeMieux made the nine-hour drive to Houston just over a week ago. His mother drove him from Jackson to Baton Rouge, where his father, who lives in Houston, met them. He finished out the ride with his dad and was back in the hospital the next day.
LeMieux was fortunately still considered an active patient at Hermann Memorial Hospital after living there with his father several years ago. His family thought he would only be in the Houston hospital temporarily and then return to his father’s house to wait for a liver to become available. Doctors have since decided he’s too sick to leave, and he will have to stay in the hospital until his transplant.
Until then, he and his loved ones play a waiting game. He will have to spend an additional 10 days in the hospital after receiving the transplant — assuming there are no complications — and then will have to remain in the Houston area for at least a year. His transplant follow-up care will include twice-weekly clinic visits with the goal of eventually reducing the frequency.
But LeMieux, Montgomery, and Colville LeMieux, Caden’s father, aren’t looking that far ahead yet. They’re focused on the immediate situation. They feel lucky to have the support and prayers of their community, Montgomery said.
But they can’t help but wonder.
“I asked the hospital, ‘What if his daddy hadn’t lived there? We would have to go live in Houston or go to UAB or Ochsner’s?’ Of course you want to do what’s best for your kids, but let’s be real, we own our own businesses, we don’t have any vacation time, we can’t just take off,” said Montgomery, who runs a bakery in Philadelphia with her husband.
Colville LeMieux, Caden’s father, had a similar take: “I don’t know what we would’ve done if we hadn’t had him under care here at a Houston doctor also. What is a person supposed to do?”
On Monday, Montgomery started the drive to Houston. She doesn’t know how long she’ll be there or how her bakery in Neshoba County will stay afloat in the coming weeks and months. But she does know she needs to be with her son.
“It’s easy to say, ‘Either you trust God or you don’t,’ but that’s all we have is to trust and believe and take it one day at a time. When Caden’s nine hours away and he sends you a message that says, ‘I’m scared,’ and then calls and he’s crying …” she trailed off.
“It’s just a lot. But you still do what you have to do.”
Mississippi has had a conservative super-majority for about a decade. What do we have to show for it?
To be fair, income taxes have been cut. Last year saw a universal occupational licensing law, making it easier for people to move to our state. Mississippi passed a law to combat Critical Race theory. Nor should we forget that our state managed to avoid the sort of draconian lockdowns we saw elsewhere.
These are important accomplishments, but like many in Mississippi, I can’t help thinking that conservatives in our state ought to be able to do so much more.
Our state still ranks 50th out of 50 by many measures. We do not just need bold ideas to change this. Conservatives need to do a much better job of working together to achieve common goals. This is why we have started the Mississippi Leadership Academy.
The Leadership Academy aims to encourage the next generation of leaders in our state. We will introduce them to some of the significant public policy challenges our state faces, as well as to some key institutions and individuals that impact public policy in our state.
Our carefully designed six-step program will give young leaders the skills and knowledge they will need to be agents of change.
Participants in the program will meet many of our state leaders. They will spend time learning about the legislative process in Jackson and look at how laws are made. We want those that take part in the program to appreciate how a lack of economic liberty has been holding back our state.
I am delighted that we have a great lineup of participants, who will contribute to the program. These include State Auditor, Shad White, Chip Pickering, several nationally recognized thought leaders and leading academics.
The program will be run out of our offices in Jackson and begin in October, and the application process had just opened via our website. Those that are accepted will be expected to commit to spending one day per month on the course.
The liberty movement in Mississippi could be a far more effective force for change. We could try cutting the tax burden to make us competitive compared to Tennessee and Texas. Instead of expanding the size of the state bureaucracy, we could cut it by shutting down many of those boards and commissions that clutter up Downtown Jackson.
If federal handouts made a state wealthy, ours would be the richest state in the Union. Rather than looking for more federal funding, we could have lighter regulations to stimulate growth.
If West Virginia and Arizona can introduce school choice, why can’t we?
The rising generation of leaders in our state needs to mobilize and push for real change.
I am confident that those that graduate from the program will have had a first-class introduction to the public policy process in our state. They will also have the opportunity to build a network of contacts among current and future leaders within our state.
If you are interested in applying – or if you know of any young Mississippians that have an interest in public policy and the future of our state – please do apply right away.
Applications for the Mississippi Leadership Academy 2022-23 program can be found on our website at mspolicy.org/leadership-academy
