Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney on Thursday penned a letter urging the state’s largest hospital and insurer to utilize the same mediation process that was used to settle their contract dispute in 2018.
Chaney told Mississippi Today that the state’s Department of Insurance will be addressing concerns regarding patients’ access to the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s organ transplant unit and children’s hospital, services that cannot be found elsewhere in the state.
Chaney said he could not elaborate on how his office will be addressing these concerns due to state confidentiality laws.
The hospital and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Mississippi have not been in communication since April 1, when UMMC officially went out of network with the insurance company, according to officials from both entities. Tens of thousands of Mississippians – some of them gravely ill and others in need of advanced specialties only available at UMMC – are stuck in the middle of the dispute.
“While UMMC and BCBSMS seem to be even further apart today than in 2018, I firmly believe that the parties can again find common ground that duly acknowledges and accounts for the unique role of UMMC as Mississippi’s academic medical center while also respecting BCBSMS’ vital role in maintaining affordable coverage for its enrollees,” the letter from Chaney to Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine at UMMC, and Carol Ann Pigott, chief executive officer of BCBSMS, states.
UMMC did not respond to requests for comment before publication. BCBSMS said it would not be commenting on the matter before responding to Chaney’s letter directly.
Chaney gave both a deadline of April 27 to respond to his recommendation. Regardless of whether the parties agree to mediation, the Department of Insurance will be addressing concerns that UMMC going out of network with BCBSMS runs afoul of the state’s network adequacy regulations by denying patient’s access to the medical services that cannot be found elsewhere in the state, Chaney said in an interview with Mississippi Today.
“While we hope that we will have mediation, we will also be addressing network adequacy concerning the Blair Batson Children’s Hospital and transplant unit,” Chaney said.
BCBSMS maintains that even without UMMC, it is still meeting its network adequacy requirement. BCBSMS also said that the remedy in a situation where network adequacy is an issue is for it to provide network level benefits to its customers for those services, which it has offered to do by directing its members to sign a written direction of payment instructing the insurer to pay the hospital.
UMMC has declined to accept those payments from BCBS, arguing that it would allow BCBSMS to continue paying at unsustainable rates.
Though the two parties have had similar contract disputes in previous years, this is the first time UMMC has been removed from BCBSMS’ network.
As a result, tens of thousands of Mississippians have been left to face higher out-of-pocket medical expenses or find care elsewhere. Potential transplant recipients who have spent months or years on organ donation waitlists have been placed on hold. Parents of children who require specialized care that can only be provided at UMMC’s children’s hospital have been left with costly and inconvenient options for continuing their child’s care.
UMMC has the state’s only organ transplant center in addition to the only children’s hospital, Level I trauma center, Level IV neonatal intensive care unit and other advanced specialties.
The arbitration process Chaney recommends in the letter was used by the two parties in 2018, and involves bringing in an expert and impartial mediator who can preside over new contract negotiations. UMMC asked for the same increases to its reimbursement rates in 2018 that it is asking for now, but through a mediator the two parties settled on a deal that didn’t raise rates.
Instead, Blue Cross agreed to remove language that made the contract evergreen, meaning the insurance company could no longer change the contract terms at any time.
If the two parties agree to mediation, a deadline will be set for them to settle their differences, Chaney told Mississippi Today. The deadline will likely be June 1 – 30 days before the end of the 90-day “continuity of care” period, where certain BCBSMS patients can still receive care at UMMC and have their insurance accepted.
Under state agency rules, Chaney is not allowed to directly mediate or help settle disputes over contacts between insurance companies and health care providers, but in the letter Chaney said that he could recommend a mediator if both parties agreed to the proposal.
The dispute between UMMC and BCBSMS stems from disagreement over reimbursement rates and Blue Cross’ quality care plan, which measures hospital performance and whether services provided to patients are adequate.
UMMC is asking Blue Cross for substantial increases to inpatient, outpatient and professional reimbursement rates, some as large as 50%. Overall reimbursement from Blue Cross would increase by around 30% in the first year of the new contract.
Mississippi has the lowest reimbursement rate from commercial insurance companies for inpatient services in the nation, according to a 2021 white paper by the actuarial and consulting firm Milliman.
While UMMC maintains that BCBSMS is paying them well below market rates for other academic medical centers in the region, BCBSMS argues that agreeing to the increases would necessitate significant premium increases for their customers.
Mississippi Superintendent of Education Carey Wright announced her retirement, effective June 30, at the State Board of Education meeting on Thursday.
Wright, who first took on the role in 2013, has been the longest-serving superintendent of education since the state board was created in 1982.
“This board is accepting her retirement with much regret and much gratitude for the work that she has done,” said Board Chair Rosemary Aultman when making the announcement at the meeting.
During her tenure, graduation rates have risen nearly 13%, the Early Learning Collaborative program was established to increase Pre-K access, the Mississippi Connects initiative provided a device to every student, and the Mississippi Teacher Residency gave scholarships to aspiring teachers.
“Leading education in Mississippi has been the honor and privilege of my life. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity I have been given to work with dedicated educators and leaders across Mississippi, the entire Mississippi Department of Education team and committed State Board members and legislative leaders. Together we have worked to make a difference in the lives of children,” Wright said in a statement. “Most especially, I am incredibly proud of Mississippi students. There is no limit to what they can accomplish.”
Aultman said there will be discussion on Wright’s transition and the search for the new superintendent in the coming weeks.
The Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees will no longer approve tenure in Mississippi, per amended policies the board quietly approved at its regular meeting Thursday.
Going forward, the presidents of Mississippi’s eight public universities will have the final say on whether to grant faculty members tenure, a type of indefinite appointment that protects academic freedom in higher education. Faculty who are denied tenure by a university president will still be able to appeal the decision to the board.
Before granting tenure, university presidents can now take into account a faculty member’s “effectiveness, accuracy and integrity in communications” as well as their “collegiality” — new language the board added to its policies. Presidents will also be able to consider “contumacious conduct,” or insubordination, a factor that was previously only included in the board’s tenure dismissal policy.
“I worry these new terms would be used to try and chill faculty speech and participation in shared governance,” said Neal Hutchens, a University of Mississippi professor of higher education who specializes in legal issues and tenure.
Thursday’s board book notes that “these policy amendments were discussed in detail during the March 2022 Board meeting.” But that meeting was held at the Mississippi State University Riley Center in Meridian, an hour-and-a-half away from the complex where the board typically meets in Jackson. Unlike most IHL board meetings, it was not live-streamed.
Mississippi Today was not able to attend the March board meeting in Meridian, but a reporter did go to the IHL board’s retreat held the day before. At the retreat, board members discussed the proposed tenure policies, but no faculty were present to give their thoughts on the new language.
Mississippi Today asked Caron Blanton, IHL’s spokesperson, if the board had consulted any faculty on the proposed policy language, but she did not respond by press time.
Hutchens said it is disappointing that the board did not give faculty an opportunity to evaluate the proposed policies in an inclusive, transparent way.
“It would’ve been nice to have some real town halls on this, so that we could ask questions, like ‘what do these standards do that existing HR standards don’t?’” he said.
Faculty work for years to receive tenure, which ensures they cannot be fired without cause, such as insubordination or reduction in academic programs. Tenure is granted after a rigorous committee process that begins at the department level. Last year, the roughly 1,300 tenured faculty in Mississippi comprised 34% of all faculty in Mississippi, according to a Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review report.
Though tenure is meant to protect faculty from outside influences, the process has often been political, especially in Mississippi. In 2019, multiple members of the IHL board voted to deny tenure to University of Mississippi sociology professor James Thomas because they did not like some of his tweets. The decision to single out Thomas’s tenure application in an executive session drew national scrutiny, including from the American Association of University Professors. This session, state Sen. Chris McDaniel introduced a bill to eliminate tenure but it died in committee.
IHL hopes the new policies will de-politicized tenure in Mississippi by keeping those decisions in-house at each university.
Hutchens said he “could see how that could eliminate one layer of political difficulty and give some insulation” to tenure decisions but that is “predicated on having a chancellor/president who is seeking in good-faith to adhere to the standards of promotion and tenure.” He added that university presidents are more accountable to faculty than IHL board members, who are political appointees, not experts in higher education.
The board’s changes only affect three of its eight tenure policies: Promotions in rank, minimum standards for tenured employment, and post-tenure review. In addition to the new language about “collegiality,” the board added a reference to the AAUP’s Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure which says faculty “should remember that the public may judge their profession and their institution by their utterances.”
Hutchens said he is most concerned that presidents could use this new language to undermine the process. He also said policies that reference “collegiality” tend to be used inappropriately against faculty members of color.
“The problem is that such terms can be so vague as to really be more about whether faculty are subservient to institutional leaders and be a ground to dismiss faculty for unwarranted reasons or to deny tenure,” he said.
At the March retreat, Commissioner Alfred Rankins presented a PowerPoint presentation on the basics of tenure to board members. No faculty members were present, but the board said that Rankins, who was a tenured professor at Mississippi State University, could present that point of view.
During the presentation, Rankins emphasized the benefit that tenure provides to a university and its faculty members. If Mississippi universities did not offer tenure, Rankins told the board, the “best and brightest” faculty simply would not come to work in the state.
“It’s highly unlikely they’re gonna leave and come to the University of Mississippi without tenure,” he said. “It’s almost unheard.”
Trustee Gee Olgetree, a real estate lawyer, asked what role the U.S. Department of Education plays in overseeing state-level tenure policies. He referenced a letter that USDOE sent to Florida about Gov. Ron DeSantis’s plan to limit tenure that required universities to continually switch regional accreditors.
Rankins sighed. He said USDOE intervened in Florida because “they evaluate and accredit the accreditors.”
Several trustees were surprised to learn that tenured faculty can, in fact, be fired for cause.
“But I can terminate without cause in my company,” said Teresa Hubbard,the president of CITE Armored, which manufactures SWAT vehicles.
The board also had questions when Van Gillespie, IHL’s associate commissioner for legal affairs, explained why it is generally easier for universities to fire non-tenured faculty, who sign one-year contracts.
“So, Van, if you’ve got a bad tenured guy and a bad non-tenured guy, and you have cause to fire them, there’s no difference in the two?” asked J. Walt Starr, the outgoing board president. “They’re equal as far as you need to get rid of them.”
Despite having unprecedented extra billions of dollars to spend, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said the Mississippi Legislature failed to provide enough help to the capital city, which faces dire infrastructure and crime problems decades in the making.
In a lengthy post-legislative session interview with Mississippi Today, Lumumba said “paternalistic” and “racist” attitudes of legislative leaders towards one of America’s Blackest cities have resulted in Jackson not receiving enough state support in the past and present.
Lumumba pointed out the infrastructure funding Jackson did receive came with strings attached and oversight no other cities face. Lumumba said this raises “the question of whether Jackson has an equal-protection claim against the state of Mississippi,” although he later clarified, “I’m not announcing a lawsuit.”
Lumumba said he believes there is a push on the state level to privatize Jackson’s water and sewer services.
And, Lumumba also noted, lawmakers earmarked more than half as much — $13 million — for a Jackson golf course as they did for fixing the city’s crumbling water and sewerage system, at $25 million (which the city is matching using federal funds).
Below is a transcript of the interview. It has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Mississippi Today: How would you say the city fared this legislative session, with funding for capital projects, and for water and sewerage, specifically?
Lumumba: Let me say this, at a time where you have more resources available than any time in recent history, I think it’s fair to say that Jackson, once again, didn’t get commensurate support, to not only represent our size, but also your contributions to the state of Mississippi. Being a city in dire need for so many resources to address so many challenges, I’m never in a position to turn down — we readily accept any resources that are handed down.
But when you look at some of our requests, and look at how we have been part of this infrastructure discussion, not only in local conversations, but in a national way … It was in fact stated by the president of the United States that as we look at this infrastructure bill, we have to consider cities like Jackson, Mississippi, right? He specifically mentioned Jackson, and that expresses just how much we have been a part of even having these resources in the first place … $25 million honestly is still just a drop in the bucket … No direct allocation was given to Jackson as part of that.
Mississippi Today: As for the state’s matching program, Jackson is the only city not being cut a direct check, so to speak, right? You have to go through the Department of Finance and Administration, they have to oversee Jackson’s work, right?
Lumumba: There is a duplicitous requirement for Jackson. We not only have to go through the regular proposals, but once that’s accepted, we have to go through DFA … What we have learned with the commissions we’ve had to have in Jackson — the only city to have to have commissions (to oversee state support) — is that when it comes to infrastructure it only serves to delay the services and repairs. Rather than being some justified checks and balances, it’s just to have a paternalistic view or approach to Jackson.
… And I’m going to call out what that is already. I’m going to beat them to the punch and let you know that behind the scenes, there has been an effort to try to get Jackson to either privatize its water or do a concession. That has nothing to do with an overall effort to improve the conditions. What that is about is money, how do you profit from Jackson. We have to call that out. And I think that now it’s time to raise the question of whether Jackson has an equal protection claim against the state of Mississippi, not only in terms of an equitable distribution of resources, but we even have inequity in what we are allocated within the city that can only go to one portion of the city or to certain communities … when we asked for money to deal with our water system, which in large part interrupts distribution to South Jackson more than any other part of our city.
Mississippi Today: What are some of those inequities as far as certain communities?
Lumumba: That is still to be determined through this duplicitous process, but yet and still, the same legislative session, we give $13 million towards a golf course — a 10-hole golf course, which, I’m not an avid golfer, but I know very few golfers that are eager to play a 10-hole golf course, right? … I’m not against the project. I am against the failure as we ask for water that serves all our residents to give $13 million towards golf … We also know that there were allocations made to the Fondren Community. I love our Fondren Community. I love how it is blossoming. But there are equity concerns when we’re willing to give $20 million (in bonds guaranteed by Hinds County) towards a development in that area, but yet and still we can continue to ignore people’s basic need for water.
I also anticipate that this is something you want to talk about, too: People raise the issue of, well, you know, Jackson is fighting over a garbage contract. Well, so, the state is fighting over taxes, right? Other cities fight over garbage contracts, Jackson is just a city that is larger than every other city by far, and so we will always be in the news. Frustrations and battles over politics are nothing new. I think anyone who goes towards perpetuating that myth, that that’s an excuse not to help, we have to check. Because what was the excuse the last 40 years when they haven’t given Jackson the resources it needed? … That certainly isn’t a justification to say that your people don’t deserve the sustainability of water or the equity of how water is distributed.
Mississippi Today: You mentioned a push towards privatization of Jackson’s water system. Are some legislative leaders pushing that?
Lumumba: Yes. There have been conversations between leadership and — I won’t say — but representation between the state saying that and, you know, even meeting with companies … I do more research than they give me credit for. I know that in Detroit, before it reached bankruptcy, they lost full control over their water systems … I think that the effort to have this duplicitous process by which we’ve got to get authorized for projects to fix our water system, it to dangle this over our head. To try to force us into the direction they want us to go.
… And might I mention that Jackson does not have some extensive or real history of illegal contract steering. And right know, you have Anna Wolfe doing a whole big story on the state of Mississippi, and the issues of DHS and potential improprieties of the state. So, this is hypocritical at best … This is more about the unstated position that they have towards Jackson when there’s big legislation that deals with Jackson. It’s about how do we take from Jackson. How do we take your airport? How do we privatize your water system? How do we regionalize your water treatment facilities? How do we look at taking the finances of Jackson every single time?
Mississippi Today: Do you meet directly with the legislative leadership and governor?
Lumumba: I do. I have met with the lieutenant governor … I’ve met with Speaker (Philip) Gunn … I cannot report that I’ve ever had a negative interaction with Speaker Gunn. I don’t know what his position is by and large towards the city of Jackson, but I’ve never had a negative experience with him. I do not meet frequently with the governor at all. I desire more interaction with the governor. I’ve definitely met 10 times as much with former Gov. Bryant than I do with Gov. Reeves. And you know, we’re the largest city in Mississippi, and there’s no reason, you know, that we shouldn’t be sitting down and having discussions. We’ve reached out several times.
… We hear things — people give in to these narratives that Jackson doesn’t, that we’re unable to build relationships. We can build relationships. We build national relationships all over. It is less about our inability to build relationships and more about the resistance that is there, more about the unstated position they have towards Jackson … That is why I have developed national relationships. That is why we have brought in philanthropic support … We are remaining in close contact with national leadership … I’ve gone to Washington, I’ve met with (EPA) Administrator (Michael) Regan in addition to his visit to Jackson. We are very interested in the Justice40 initiative. I’ve met with my good friend former Mayor Mitch Landrieu, the federal infrastructure czar … If we’re able to establish these relationships and they see the value and the intent of our city, then how is it that we’re unable to see that right here, where people are suffering the most?
Mississippi Today: So, some lawmakers have been saying that $25 million — $50 million with the city match — is enough for Jackson to get started on water work and for the next nine months, and that the state can come back with more next year. What is your response to that?
Lumumba: Well, let me say this: We have demonstrated, as it pertains to road work, if you give us the money, we can put it to work. We have a 1% commission (for infrastructure work using a local sales tax) and all the money we have in hand is committed to projects. We know that there’s bureaucracy and a lot of red tape with studies and engineering and everything else. But delaying the allocation of money doesn’t make any of that process move any faster. If we had some better sense of what we might have, or even if we had a steady stream of funding over the course of time, then we could better prepare … But we went into this legislative session with a murky understanding of what resources we would have to address our ailing water infrastructure, and if we’re honest, it’s still a bit murky … They gave us the potential of hope, right? … We need more than $500 million just for our drinking water system alone. We know that we can’t go in and expect that we’re going to get $500 million … But I think we’re left at the end of the day with a huge disparity between how Jackson has fared in terms of the resources we have received from the state.
This is combined with the fact that there is a bubble created around certain communities. The state fairgrounds, they receive funds to make sure they don’t have issues with their water system. (University of Mississippi Medical Center) has its water towers to make sure they don’t have issues with water. And so, they insulate certain parts of our city to make sure they don’t see the challenges that the rest of our residents have to deal with.
Mississippi Today: You’ve used the term “paternalistic” for the legislative leadership’s view of Jackson. Is that a nicer way of saying something else?
Lumumba: Paternalistic. It’s racist, is that what y’all want to hear? (directed towards city staffers in the room during the interview) It’s racist. I wasn’t holding that back. It’s what it is. And there are going to be people who don’t like that I say that. But if they really have true heartburn about it, prove me wrong. I dare you. I dare you to prove me wrong.
… To say the things that I’m saying I know does not make me popular among certain crowds, right? But I’m not here to be popular, or even to have, you know, friendships and relationships. It’d be nice to have friendships and relationships. I’m a pretty nice guy. But that isn’t my aim. My aim is to represent my people.
Members of Jackson’s legislative delegation say that — fairly or unfairly — the city suffers from an image problem that makes it hard to secure state money from the Legislature for the city’s crumbling infrastructure and other problems.
Despite the state having unprecedented billions in extra federal and state dollars to cover infrastructure needs, the city wasn’t able to secure the money it had hoped for, particularly for its troubled water and sewerage system. And, of the $25 million state match the city’s delegation expects Jackson to receive, it will be subject to strict state oversight. No other local government in the state will undergo similar state oversight.
“There’s a myriad of reasons for our doing that,” Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson, said of the state oversight. “The city has not in recent years engendered a whole lot of trust as far as the state’s concerns of (Jackson’s) capacity to perform efficiently, expeditiously some of these repairs.”
Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, said the city’s delegation was told up front by legislative leadership that special state Department of Finance and Administration oversight was a requirement for Jackson water and sewerage funding, and the delegation pragmatically accepted it.
“We were told that was going to be a requirement and our goal was to get the money,” Blount said. “There have been problems at the Jackson water department, I think we all know that, but it was a requirement and we were not going to walk away empty handed.”
There is a perception with legislative leaders and lawmakers from elsewhere in the state that Jackson needs more oversight in part because of local government in-fighting, such as the nasty ongoing battle between Jackson’s mayor and city council over a garbage collection contract, and because of long-running city problems such as crime.
Rep. Chris Bell, D-Jackson, said there has been oversight placed on Jackson’s funding in the past, predating the current city administration. In 2009, the Legislature granted the city the authority to levy a 1-cent sales tax to fund primarily road and bridge improvements. But in doing so, it created a special commission to oversee spending the money. Bell said it was not fair then and it is not fair now.
“It has been a common practice for the city of Jackson to receive extra scrutiny when it comes to the allocation of funds,” Bell said. “Is it right? No. However, it’s incumbent on the city and delegation to stress the importance of working together and not continuing to keep such standards in place. It’s also important for the city to utilize our resources on the federal level. Our local lobbying efforts have to increase and be more effective on the state level. State and local leaders need to stop playing the pointing game and get to the business of helping the residents of Jackson.”
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba called the questioning of Jackson’s leadership and management “myths” that legislative leaders use to justify not giving the city the support it needs. He said many of the issues facing the city have been decades in the making. He also said that racism plays a role in the majority-white Legislature’s views toward majority-Black Jackson.
“I would ask them to call out what those leadership problems are, you know?” Lumumba said. “Disagreement with what our principles are isn’t a leadership problem. That is a disagreement. There isn’t a right to lord over Jackson and make decisions for the city. You have a responsibility to the residents of Jackson just like you have a responsibility to all the residents of the state of Mississippi.”
Lumumba also said there’s “hypocrisy” in state government — which has been rocked by scandals of fraud, bribery, embezzlement and malfeasance — to say Jackson can’t manage resources and projects.
“I’ve not misappropriated funds, right?” Lumumba said. “I’ve not given money to a pet project of mine over the interests of Jackson residents. We have merely been chipping away at how we resolve the challenges that our city has … What there is is a resolve (by legislators) not to provide resources to Jackson.
Lumumba said that given Jackson’s dire infrastructure needs, and it being the state’s largest and capital city, the state should have given the city some direct allocations separate from the matching grant program for cities and counties statewide.
Lumumba said he knows the city’s legislative delegation was “inspired to go with something, versus not getting anything at all.”
When pressed during a lengthy interview with Mississippi Today on why he thought Jackson was treated differently, the mayor said, “It’s racist.”
“And there are going to be people who don’t like that I say that,” Lumumba said. “But if they really have heartburn about it, prove me wrong. I dare you. I dare you to prove me wrong.”
Rep. Shonda Yates, I-Jackson, said she was seeking compromise when she authored the bill establishing state oversight. The goal, she said, was to establish a program where the Legislature would provide designated funding with state oversight to deal with Jackson’s water woes. The bill she authored would have put $43 million into a fund with state oversight.
But what came out of the legislative process was the establishment of a fund, but no direct funding for Jackson. Instead, a program was established where federal American Rescue Plan funds that the state received could be accessed by municipalities for water and sewer need if they provided a dollar-for-dollar match from separate federal ARPA funds they received.
The city of Jackson plans to allocate $25 million or about 60% of its ARPA funds to draw down the state match.
And those funds will be only a drop in the bucket of what the city needs. It has been estimated that fixing Jackson’s water and sewer problems could cost as much as $2 billion. Those problems include concerns from federal officials about the safety of Jackson’s water.
Yates said she hopes additional state funding for Jackson’s water and sewer issues can be provided over the coming years.
“I certainly plan to advocate for such,” she said.
“We are going to be coming back next year, and there is ARPA money remaining,” Blount said. “There is only so much that can be spent, only so much work that can be done (by the city) in the next nine months, and the state has ARPA money remaining, so we will be back again because the capital city has got to have a functioning water system.”
Nancy New and her son Zach New reached deals Wednesday to plead guilty in a federal case involving $4 million in public school dollars prosecutors say they bilked for their private school.
New, owner of the now-defunct New Summit School, a once popular private school that served students with special needs, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, which comes with a possible prison sentence of up to ten years. Zach New, vice president for the private school district called New Learning Resources Inc., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a sentence of up to five years. They could each face fines up to $250,000.
The joint federal indictment against the News, filed over a year ago, alleged they defrauded the Mississippi Department of Education out of $4 million in public education dollars by filing fake reimbursement claims. Nancy New agreed to plead guilty in that case, while prosecutors split off Zach’s charge in a separate bill of information, a document that is filed when a defendant agrees to plead guilty without the grand jury handing down an indictment.
The plea deals come on the heels of Mississippi Today’s “The Backchannel” investigation that reveals new details about former Gov. Phil Bryant’s involvement in a separate scandal involving the Mississippi Department of Human Services, for which the News are currently facing separate state charges. The recent plea agreements also come less than three weeks before the News were set to stand trial in the federal case.
In the state case regarding welfare theft, the Hinds County District Attorneys Office is accusing the News of embezzling more than $4 million in federal public assistance funds, $2.15 million of which prosecutors say they used to make personal investments in companies called Prevacus and PreSolMD.
Text messages newly uncovered by Mississippi Today reveal that right before the News agreed to funnel welfare money to Prevacus, the company’s owner and former NFL quarterback Brett Favre offered Bryant company stock in exchange for his help as governor — which Bryant agreed by text to accept after he left office. Favre even referenced in texts to Bryant the public funding the company was receiving from the state and Nancy New. Bryant responded positively.
Bryant’s explanation to Mississippi Today that he did not read his texts carefully enough to appreciate what they meant. Up to this point, officials have not scrutinized Bryant’s role in the welfare scandal and the Prevacus deal. State Auditor Shad White, a Bryant appointee and former Bryant campaign manager and staffer, led the initial investigation.
Federal authorities are still investigating the welfare spending, according to sources.
The federal plea agreements, signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Fulcher Wednesday, do not specify how the defendants may be required to cooperate with prosecutors in the event the News have information that may help officials prosecute other, more powerful figures — a common occurrence in plea deals. But the agreement does reference a separate sealed plea supplement, which usually spell out these conditions.
The News are scheduled to have a pretrial conference in the case before U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves on Friday, April 22. None of the defense attorneys — Cynthia Speetjens for Nancy New and T. Gerry Bufkin and Brandon Essig for Zach New — 0r the U.S. Attorneys Office returned Mississippi Today’s phone calls Wednesday evening or Thursday morning to discuss the plea agreements.
Because the federal charges are resolving before the state charges regarding welfare theft, the News will likely spend whatever prison sentence they receive in federal prison, instead of Mississippi’s state prisons with notoriously barbaric conditions.
In the private school scam, prosecutors say the News claimed public school funds by using the names of kids who didn’t attend the school, people who didn’t work at the school or teachers who had a lower certification level than they claimed. The funding came from a special program called “504 teacher units,” which is supposed to supply a private teacher for a child after a doctor or psychologist determines the student requires placement in a hospital or licensed psychiatric facility.
A Mississippi Today analysis of public records shows New Learning Resources has received roughly $20 million in these funds since 2007.
Between 2016 and 2020, New Summit School in Jackson and North New Summit School in Greenwood each reported hiring between 10.5 and 16 teachers through the “504 teacher units” program per year, according to public records. This translates to around 325 kids with severe mental disorders New Summit claimed to be serving — which is roughly the size of their entire student population.
Prosecutors haven’t outlined where all the money went, but they accused Nancy New of using at least some of the public school dollars to purchase a $250,000 home in northeast Jackson.
Editor’s note: This story contains references to suicide. If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. Local resources include the Mississippi Department of Mental Health DMH Helpline at 1-877-210-8513 and the NAMI Mississippi Crisis Lines at 1-877-210-851.
A scathing 59-page report by the U.S. Department of Justice says that Mississippi routinely violates the rights of incarcerated people at Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman by failing to stop violence or provide proper mental health treatment, especially for those on suicide watch and in solitary confinement.
The report says these conditions are the result of years of “deliberate indifference” from the Mississippi Department of Corrections and calls for top-down improvements. It makes more than 80 recommendations for MDOC to implement at Parchman from structural changes such as offering competitive salaries for staff and more programming for incarcerated people to smaller fixes like identifying “all broken or jammed locks.”
“MDOC has been on notice of these deficiencies for years and failed to take reasonable measures to address the violations, due in part to non-functional accountability or quality assurance measures,” the report says.
The U.S. attorney general may initiate a lawsuit under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act if MDOC does not implement these recommendations in the next 49 days, the report says.
MDOCdeclined to comment for this story.
Parchman has long been plagued by reports of unsanitary living conditions and violence. The report describes a Department of Corrections that is ill-equipped to fix the systemic issues at the prison.Among some of the issues identified in the report:
MDOC oversees “barebones staff” that does not properly investigate violent incidents and rarely, if ever, conducts security patrols in units. Out of 100 assaults on incarcerated people at Parchman, the division responsible for investigating could only produce 24 reports to the DOJ.
Parchman has not had an on-site psychiatrist since 2018, and the prison’s part-time mental health staff frequently mis-diagnose incarcerated people with antisocial personality disorder.
Incarcerated people with mental illnesses frequently request to be transferred from Parchman. But due to the lack of mental health services at MDOC’s regional facilities, incarcerated people can’t be moved “if they are on psychoactive medication.” The report says it is common for incarcerated people to stop taking their medication in order to qualify for a transfer, but the mental health staff appear to have never told any patient that is ill-advised.
Incarcerated people who are suicidal are placed in cells that a suicide prevention expert described as “very dangerous” due to ventilation grates, exposed bars, and mesh-covered windows. There is a blind spot in the CCTV monitor that staff are supposed to use to observe these cells.
Ron Welch, a prisoner’s rights attorney, said responsibility for the conditions at Parchman ultimately lies with the governor and lawmakers who have underfunded the prison system for years. Issues at Parchman began to escalate in 2014, Welch said, after lawmakers started to cut MDOC’s budget.
DOJ’s report “is long, and it’s lengthy, and it’s detailed, but the bottom line is the Department of Corrections can’t do anything without money,” Welch said.
The report says that in the months leading up to the riot, MDOC knew about “widespread rumors” of unlivable conditions, increased murders and suicides, and “mounting concerns that gangs were filling the void left by inadequate staff presence.” Yet MDOC failed to increase staff at Parchman, leaving its existing guards “utterly overwhelmed, and ultimately unable to adequately and quickly respond to fighting and significant injuries in multiple buildings.”
This created an “authority vacuum” that was filled by gang members, the report says.
Guards at Parchman are supposed conduct head counts at the housing units every 30 minutes, but most typically do not even interact with incarcerated people on a daily basis. This is partly due to guards’ fears of safety, but the report says MDOC does not even provide officers with “personnel safety emergency alarms to alert for help when necessary.”
“Instead, officers almost exclusively supervise housing units from removed towers that overlook the units,” the report says, adding that “MDOC takes it a step further and sometimes fails to staff the towers at all.”
As a result, guards do not see and are unable to stop assaults. The report describes one incarcerated person who had to resort to setting a fire in his cell to get the guards’ attention after he was stabbed.
The lack of staff also has a specific impact on mentally ill incarcerated people. The existing mental health staff consist of three part-time nurse practitioners who manage a caseload of over 200 people a week, which is above American Psychiatric Association’s recommended ratio for prison settings. They are not able to provide individual therapy or trauma-informed care for incarcerated people with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The mental health staff at Parchman also do not conduct “formal or regular treatment planning meetings” or keep complete records of incarcerated people’s mental health history. “Treatment goals appear to be cut and pasted to the next treatment plan without any documentation detailing the incarcerated person’s or clinician’s adjustments for progress,” the report says.
Staff appear to over-rely on diagnosing incarcerated people with antisocial personality disorder or substance-induced disorders, the report found. “The high percentage of these diagnoses at Parchman is concerning because once these diagnoses are used, future providers are apt to be dismissive of legitimate mental health concerns,” the report says.
The DOJ also found that Parchman keeps hundreds of incarcerated people in solitary confinement with “decrepit conditions” such as crumbling ceilings, showers without hot water, and pervasive mold. On average, Parchman keeps incarcerated people in solitary confinement for 515 days and sometimes for years.
MDOC kept one incarcerated person in solitary confinement “since his arrival at Parchman in September 2001.” The report says this person never sought or was treated for mental health issues, but that in February 2021, he “began expressing suicidal ideation during the weekly restrictive housing rounds, which was captured in the clinician’s note as ‘Suicidal Ideation.’”
Staff did not conduct a suicide risk assessment, and two weeks later, “he hung himself with a bedsheet.” In the week before his death, he had been asking for relief from the “excessive heat on the unit,” which had reached as high as 145 degrees Fahrenheit, one of the officers told the DOJ.
“When this officer asked if they could turn down the heat, unit supervisors advised not to do so,” the report says.
After the DOJ announced its investigation in 2020, Gov. Tate Reeves said he was beginning the process of closing Unit 29 of the facility. He also appointed Burl Cain, who had overseen Angola Prison in Louisiana, as commissioner.
Cain has said he will fix the conditions at Parchman and in other MDOC prisons. One effort that Cain has taken to address the violence at Parchman is participating in a “gang exchange program” with Colorado and other states.
The DOJ specifically addressed that plan in the report: “While this tactic may have some limited effect, it falls far short of a comprehensive strategy. For example, when a gang leader is moved to an out-of-state correctional facility, a new gang leader will quickly emerge to replace the transferred one.”
GREENWOOD – Federal government officials, together with Congressman Bennie Thompson, traveled to the Delta Wednesday to announce a new program aimed at connecting rural communities with more resources.
The Rural Partners Network will give rural communities a local point person to help them access resources from 13 government agencies, including funding from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. These agencies will also have designated employees focused on rural issues who will be responsible for assisting local officers and improving collaboration between agencies.
“If Greenwood is the gateway to the Delta, we want places like Greenwood to have a gateway to the federal government so they can access the resources they need to thrive,” said White House Domestic Policy Advisor Susan Rice.
Mississippi was selected as one of five states for the pilot program of the Rural Partners Network, with an initial emphasis on Delta communities. The other states are Arizona, Georgia, Kentucky and New Mexico.
The White House, the United States Department of Agriculture and Congressman Bennie Thompson hosted a roundtable discussion with mayors, business councils, and other community stakeholders in the targeted counties to hear about their needs and discuss opportunities of the network to help address them. Multiple officials brought up concerns regarding water and sewer and affordable housing as extensions of economic development projects.
“Housing is a critical need,” said Matthew Harrison, executive director of the Grenada Economic Development District. “We do not have the housing that we need today for the people we have. I’m not sure how we keep up with the economic growth and continue to expand without additional resources to make it happen, so we need this partnership.”
Credit: Julia James/Mississippi Today
Lee Jones, the director of the Mississippi Rural Partners Network, said that the three pilot networks in Mississippi will be the Washington County Economic Alliance (Washington, Bolivar, Sunflower, and Leflore counties), the Greater Grenada – Lake District Partnership (Grenada and Yalobusha counties), and the North Delta Planning and Development District (Coahoma, Quitman, and Tunica counties). Each network will focus on building shared economic opportunities and infrastructure advancements.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said this program presents an opportunity to express appreciation for rural communities, whose people provide most of the country’s provide food, water, energy, recreational spaces and military service. He also credited Thompson for bringing attention to the need for inter-agency collaboration that this program hopes to address.
“For far too long we have been siloed in the federal government, and this is a new day,” Vilsack said.
Vilsack also announced grants from the USDA of approximately $1 million each to the Greenwood-Leflore Hospital, the Delta Health Center and the Delta Health Alliance.
Editor’s note: This story was first published by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting as a follow-up to Mississippi Today’s “The Backchannel” investigation, which examined former Gov. Phil Bryant’s role in the running of his welfare department during what officials have called the largest public embezzlement scheme in state history.
Is the current scandal involving former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant encouraging the funneling of millions in welfare funds to family and friends the first time these kinds of allegations have surfaced?
No. In fact, when Bryant worked as state auditor from 1996 to 2003, he demanded reimbursements from officials he claimed had abused funds from the same Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program.
The demands came after allegations arose that millions of welfare dollars went to things such as the purchase of a gold Jaguar and a trip to Greece to study child care.
Donald Taylor, who served as executive director for the state Department of Human Services from 1999 to 2008, recalled other fraud allegations, too, such an employee taking a DHS credit card on his honeymoon to Hawaii.
The way Taylor views it? “My rule is to do the right thing,” he said. “If you have to stop and think about it, it’s probably not the right thing.”
Asked what he thought about the revelations by Mississippi Today of Bryant’s text messages related to the current welfare scandal, Taylor replied, “It staggers the imagination.”
According to a forensic audit, the state Department of Human Services misused $77 million while Bryant served as governor and his pick, John Davis, headed the agency. Text messages obtained by Mississippi Today show how Bryant may have wielded influence over Davis’ decisions.
Davis and five others have pleaded not guilty to criminal charges. Bryant has not been charged with any wrongdoing and is credited by State Auditor Shad White as the whistleblower in the case.
While state auditor in 2005, Bryant demanded nearly $221,000 from Claiborne County officials, accusing them of misusing welfare funds. Those allegations included paying $1,000-a-meeting payments to local human resources board members after they were told to stop in 2001.
Five years earlier, just after Bryant took office as auditor, the TANF program paid to transport a woman for nine days from her home in Rosedale to her new job at Grand Casino in Robinsonville.
The cost? $10,744.
That was enough money at the time to buy the woman a Kia Rio, complete with a CD stereo system with subwoofers, rear-window defroster, fuel-injection engine, dual airbags and sunroof — with cash to spare.
When The Clarion-Ledger asked a state senator about this, he replied, “$10,000 in nine days? I’m going to get out of the Legislature and get me a couple of cars.”
In fiscal 2001, Mississippi spent nearly $18 million to aid the impoverished in getting rides to work, but documents showed the program was abused.
The total number of miles reimbursed? More than 16 million miles, or traveling around the world 649 times. In galactic terms, that’s more than halfway to Venus.
By contrast, Arkansas spent less than half on the same program: $7.8 million.
Mississippi allowed nonprofits to charge the program $1.74 a mile — over five times more than the federal government then paid to reimburse employees for their mileage.
In contrast, Arkansas permitted friends and family members to provide transportation, reimbursing them at a rate of 29 cents a mile.
Arkansas and other states also helped the impoverished repair their cars and provided funding to buy used cars.
Robert Cook, who ran the Division of Program Integrity for the state Department of Human Services then, said he regarded his job as a “calling” to ensure monies could go to Mississippi’s most vulnerable. “They are intended for the needy and not the greedy.”
If current allegations are true about “denying benefits to children and mothers and then channeling those benefits to their cronies,” it’s “disgraceful,” he said. “If it in fact did occur like it’s being alleged, then I think every individual along that trail should be held accountable. I don’t think we as a society and as Mississippians should demand anything else.”
When political posturing overtakes common sense or officials pad their cronies’ bank accounts, “we go off course,” he said. “In Mississippi, we can’t afford this. Every dime we waste, there’s a Mississippian suffering somewhere because of that.”
Sandra Shelson, who examined the Department of Human Services’ funding two decades ago in her work for the attorney general’s office, said TANF dollars have long suffered from a lack of oversight. Photo courtesy of Sandra Shelson
Sandra Shelson, who examined the department’s funding in her work for the attorney general’s office at the time, said TANF dollars have long suffered from a lack of oversight, “but in all of my years, I’ve never seen it abused like this.”
Two decades ago, one problem was Mississippi officials failed to distribute TANF money, Shelson said. “Then and now, the families this money was intended to provide help and a safety net for didn’t receive the benefit.”
She said a false belief has long been promoted of a “welfare queen” clutching a Louis Vuitton bag and driving a Mercedes when the truth is a pittance of money makes it to Mississippi’s most impoverished.
“Parents need child care to go to work,” she said, “but they may not receive vouchers for child care centers, some of which are barely functional.”
These kinds of false beliefs have led state lawmakers to require all of Mississippi’s welfare recipients to submit to regular drug screening, just to receive benefits, she said. “Meanwhile, we’re using the same money to send an ex-wrestler to Malibu for rehab.”
According to an indictment unsealed this week, John Davis, then-director of the state Department of Human Services, schemed with Nancy New, executive director of the Mississippi Community Education Center, used welfare monies to pay for luxury drug treatment for retired wrestler Brett DiBiase.
His wrestling father, Ted, known as “The Million Dollar Man,” is an ordained minister who started the Heart of David ministries, which received more than $3 million in TANF money to “establish a network of partnerships, services and resources throughout Mississippi communities for faith-based and self-help activities.” A forensic audit called the ministries a “high risk” grantee, citing the lack of supporting documentation.
Davis has pleaded innocent to 20 charges, including bribery, that could put him behind bars for nearly 150 years if convicted on all charges.
New and her son Zach have pleaded innocent to 46 charges that could put them behind bars for more than 200 years if convicted on all charges.
Former state Rep. Steve Holland, D-Plantersville, said he warned Mississippi’s top leaders about possible abuse. “Nothing ever came of it that I know of,” he said.
Holland quoting himself as telling then-Gov. Bryant, “Phil, you need to keep a tight watch on this TANF money. There’s not much accountability.”
He quoted Bryant as replying that he was indeed watching the TANF funds, saying, “I used to be auditor.”
Holland called what’s happened “the biggest scandal in the history of the state, and nothing’s being done about it.”
The NAACP and Southern Poverty Law Center filed a federal complaint alleging the state of Mississippi did not adequately dispense federal COVID-19 relief funds to combat the pandemic’s outsized impact on communities of color.
The complaint, filed on behalf of both the national organization and state chapter of the NAACP, says the state’s actions violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964 after state officials “deliberately shut out advocacy groups” from receiving federal funds to address the pandemic in the minority community.
“The State of Mississippi and other public and private organizations in the state received $15.7 billion in COVID-19 related funding, yet the state has continued to provide a discriminatory program, resulting in disproportionate rates of sickness, hospitalization, and death in Black, Indigenous, and brown communities,” the NAACP complaint says.
The complaint continues: “Mississippi has engaged in unlawful race discrimination when it failed to plan, distribute, or otherwise provide COVID-19 vaccine access in an equitable manner breaching its legal duty to ensure nondiscrimination in federally assisted emergency preparedness, response, mitigation, and recovery programs.”
When asked for comment, State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs said his agency, the Mississippi State Department of Health, recognized the COVID-19 racial health disparities early and worked hard to correct them.
“Although the state encountered numerous challenges to advancing the equity mission — including early vaccine access, trust issues, and technological barriers to vaccine appointments — a statewide coalition of agency, faith, medical and community leaders was able to deliver much needed information, vaccines and PPE to minority populations across the state,” Dobbs said.
The results of those efforts, Dobbs said, are apparent today: a higher vaccine rate among Black Mississippians than whites in the state, a higher vaccine rate among Black Mississippians than Black Americans at large, and a lower COVID-19 mortality rate for Black Mississippians than whites. The vaccine rate for Hispanics, Dobbs added, was near equal to that of white Mississippians.
The pandemic, in its earlier days, did have disparate effects on Mississippians of color — in mortality rates, in spread of the virus and in vaccine rates once they became available. Dobbs and other state officials were brutally honest about those racial disparities and said they worked hard to address them.
But the complaint alleges that as the pandemic wore on, state leaders did not develop a strategy to ensure a higher vaccination rate in the state — especially in the minority community — and did not provide a plan to improve the vaccination rate.
The complaint also points out the state’s health care system has built-in problems that disproportionally impact minorities. For instance, the complaint says more of a plan was needed to aid minorities in being transported to vaccine locations.
“Just as Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves has disavowed the existence of systemic racism, so too has the state’s COVID-19 vaccine program failed to account for these systemic deficiencies and vulnerabilities,” the complaint said. “The state’s vaccine program discriminates against communities on the basis of race, color, or national origin, even when disparities in access to COVID-19 testing foreshadowed these problems.”
The NAACP is asking the U.S. Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights “to immediately investigate and remedy the unlawful and ongoing discrimination.”
“We would like immediate and lasting changes to vaccine policies and procedures to ensure economically and socially marginalized groups have access to vaccine programs in their areas, including urban and rural communities that have inadequate or substandard access to private health care facilities, hospitals, and pharmacies,” said Rev. Robert James, president of the Mississippi chapter of the NAACP.
