Mississippi Today

Medicaid switch confuses beneficiaries, providers and draws feds’ scrutiny

Published

1 year ago

November 21, 2022

Medicaid switch confuses beneficiaries, providers and draws feds' scrutiny

by Isabelle Taft, Mississippi Today
November 17, 2022

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mississippi was not allowed to kick anyone off Medicaid under federal regulations. In exchange, the state received extra federal funding.

But Mississippi didn't simply maintain each person's coverage. Instead, if enrollees on a managed care plan technically lost eligibility (like a new mom more than 60 days after giving birth) or failed to update their information to prove they were still eligible, the Division of Medicaid quietly moved them to “traditional” or “fee-for-service” Medicaid.

That saved the agency money, because it meant that rather than paying a managed care company a monthly rate for each enrollee, it paid providers directly only when the enrollee sought care.

The shift apparently affected tens of thousands of Mississippians, raised concerns with providers who didn't understand why their patients' coverage had changed with no public explanation, and drew the attention of federal authorities who wanted to make sure the state was complying with the requirement of maintaining coverage during the COVID-19 public health emergency.

Managed care enrollment has declined from about 490,000 in June 2021 to about 364,000 in September, a drop of 26%. Enrollment is now well below pre-pandemic levels of 434,000 in September 2019, according to statistics published on the Division of Medicaid website.

The change does not appear to have directly altered Medicaid participants' access to care, because any provider who accepts a managed care plan must also accept traditional Medicaid. But managed care companies tout the benefits they offer members, like 24/7 nurse phone lines, incentives for going to appointments, and free fruits and vegetables, in addition to case management services.

The Division of Medicaid declined to respond to a detailed list of questions from Mississippi Today. The agency said Director Drew Snyder “is not giving interviews at this time,” though he appeared on the Paul Gallo talk show in late August. Instead, the agency provided statements through spokesperson Matt Westerfield.

“We didn't feel it was responsible to pay per member per month capitation payments to the managed care companies for the continuous enrollment population, particularly at a time when utilization was expected to remain low due to the pandemic,” Westerfield said.

He did not respond to a question asking if the agency could estimate how much money it had saved by shifting coverage during the pandemic.

The three managed care companies – United Health Care, Molina and Magnolia – did not respond to emails and phone calls requesting comment.

Medicaid implemented the switch in a way that left some enrollees confused about whether they had coverage.

Mississippi Today previously reported that postpartum women received notices informing them they had lost eligibility for Medicaid. Though Medicaid later sent a second letter telling them coverage had been reinstated, several women told Mississippi Today they still thought they didn't have Medicaid any longer, or they never received the second letter. That meant that some Mississippians who were entitled to coverage for things like postpartum depression and chronic conditions thought they didn't have health insurance and went without care.

Now, it appears people in other eligibility categories also received the letters.

According to documents obtained through a records request, staff at the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in September asked the Division of Medicaid to pause the notices it was sending “to beneficiaries whom the state has determined no longer meet eligibility requirements”— a much larger number of people than postpartum women.

On Sept. 16 – well over two years into the public health emergency – Snyder told CMS that the automated notices were being paused.

Westerfield did not respond to a question asking exactly how many people had received the letters.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, Congress passed a law requiring states to keep everyone on Medicaid throughout the public health emergency. That meant states had to do something they had never done before: change their systems to ensure people who lost eligibility kept coverage.

Making things more complicated for states, no one knew how long the public health emergency would last. In spring 2020, it appeared possible that the emergency would end within a few months, so it wasn't clear how long continuous coverage would last, a point Snyder made during his testimony before the Senate Study Group on Women, Children and Families in September.

Medicaid enrollment climbed each month as new people signed on and none of the usual churn took effect.

But for months, the Division of Medicaid did not inform providers or beneficiaries directly about the continuous coverage provision. It did not post a message on its website reminding people that they could use their coverage throughout the pandemic. It never explained continuous coverage in its quarterly bulletins to providers, nor in its news updates.

One provider bulletin in September 2020 described the additional federal funding Mississippi was receiving, increasing the match rate from 77 to 83 cents on the dollar.

“That should help us weather the storm despite an uptick in enrollment,” Director Drew Snyder wrote, not explaining that enrollment was up because no one could lose their Medicaid during the pandemic.

Westerfield said the agency expects providers to check patients' Medicaid eligibility during or before their appointment, and that providers can check eligibility at any time online. Since providers would be able to see their patients had Medicaid, the agency assumed the continuous coverage requirement wouldn't make a difference on their end.

“Any insinuation that the Division of Medicaid attempted to conceal information about the availability of continuous enrollment for (the) duration of the public health emergency is simply not true,” Westerfield said.

In September 2022, a website post titled "Preparing for the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Unwinding" mentioned continuous coverage and urged stakeholders to help get the message out.

But some providers told Mississippi Today they learned about continuous coverage through word of mouth.

Dr. Emily Johnson, an OB-GYN in the Jackson area, learned about it for the first time from a Mississippi Today reporter in October. She did not know that her patients are not losing coverage 60 days postpartum as they normally do.

“It's always been an issue that women are very focused, that their Medicaid is going to run out and they want to get their postpartum contraception plan established before their Medicaid runs out,” she said. “I had no idea that that was no longer a pressure – that once their six-week or eight-week time was over, that they had continued access.

“It's really sad that this is the first time I'm hearing about that,” she said.

Enrollment in managed care peaked at 490,408 people in June 2021. The total number of Medicaid enrollees was 820,602, according to statistics on the Medicaid website.

Then, it began to fall, apparently because Medicaid began conducting eligibility redeterminations and moving people off of managed care if they would have been disqualified without the PHE, or failed to update their information. Westerfield did not respond to a question from Mississippi Today asking why managed care enrollment started to fall when it did.

By September 2022, managed care enrollment had fallen 26% from its June 2021 peak. Total Medicaid enrollment was just over 867,000.

Doctors started to notice that some of their patients' coverage status had changed.

Leaders of the Mississippi Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics wrote to Snyder in May 2022 asking what was going on. Physicians had reported “some pediatric patients are being transferred from the MississippiCAN programs to fee-for-service Medicaid."

“Unfortunately, the families are unaware of why this is happening,” wrote Hattiesburg pediatrician and chapter President Dr. Anita Henderson in an email obtained by Mississippi Today through a records request. “Recipients rotating off and on to the MississippiCAN or the FFS program are at risk of losing continuity of care, creating confusion for their families, and suffering avoidable medical complications. In addition, this can cause undue administrative and financial burdens for healthcare providers and possibly to the Division of Medicaid.”

Snyder responded that same day. He wrote that when Medicaid reviewed eligibility before the public health emergency, anyone who was not eligible or who didn't respond to requests for documentation would lose their coverage, but that could no longer happen.

“During the PHE, when the state conducts renewals, beneficiaries who are determined not eligible or who are not responding to requests for documentation get to keep their Medicaid coverage, but still may be moved from a managed care delivery system to fee-for-service,” he said.

Dr. Tami Brooks, a Starkville pediatrician, was CC'd in the email chain between Henderson and Snyder. Brooks is part of a group of pediatricians that holds regular meetings with Medicaid staff to discuss issues and concerns. She said she was glad that the switch to fee-for-service did not affect children's access to health care.

But she wants to make sure people understand that if they are on fee-for-service Medicaid, it means the agency has determined they're not eligible, and the only thing protecting their coverage is the public health emergency.

“We're letting our providers know, if you see a fee-for-service child, that likely means that mom needs to get back and recertify them,” Brooks said.

Federal authorities in early September reached out to the Division of Medicaid with concerns about how Mississippi was handling postpartum women's Medicaid coverage during the emergency.

“We received a complaint regarding the state's 60th day postpartum period policy,” wrote a Medicaid official in an email to Snyder. “We would like to set up a call to confirm our understanding on how the state processes coverage after the 60th day postpartum period.”

But within a few days, and after a call between Medicaid officials, including Snyder and CMS staff, the email correspondence broadened to a discussion of the notices Medicaid was sending people who were switched off of managed care coverage during the pandemic, not just postpartum women.

The notice people got when they were switched off managed care was headlined “MississippiCAN TERMINATION NOTICE – Loss of Eligibility.” It contained no information about continuous coverage during the public health emergency.

In an email, federal officials listed two regulations that they wanted to make sure Mississippi had not been violating when it moved people off managed care during the pandemic.

One rule requires managed care companies to inform beneficiaries of “significant” changes to their coverage at least 30 days in advance.

“We assume these enrollees received advanced notice of the transition back to FFS, but would ask the state to confirm that notices were sent to the managed care enrollees at least 30 days in advance of the transition,” a CMS official wrote.

But Mississippi Medicaid Deputy Administrator for Health Policy and Services Wil Ervin wrote that this rule didn't apply because the agency found it only concerned "significant" changes to information included in the managed care enrollees' handbook. Since the shift didn't affect anything in the handbook but instead changed enrollees' coverage entirely, the agency said it did not need to provide advance notice.

CMS also asked Mississippi Medicaid to confirm that the transition from managed care to fee-for-service Medicaid had not disrupted beneficiaries' access to care. Ervin said it had not.

After the meeting with the feds, Medicaid changed the managed care termination notice letter to clearly describe the recipient's ongoing coverage.

“This letter is to inform you that you are no longer eligible for MississippiCAN,” the revised notice read. “You will continue to receive full Medicaid benefits through original Medicaid until the end of the federal COVID-19 public health emergency.”

It's not clear whether Medicaid is sending people the revised notices or has paused them entirely. Westerfield did not respond to that question from Mississippi Today.

“CMS has met with Mississippi several times since the problem was identified to provide technical assistance regarding Medicaid notices,” a CMS spokesperson told Mississippi Today in late October. “The state agreed to pause the use of these notices pending further internal review and discussion.”

The spokesperson did not respond to Mississippi Today's request to interview CMS staffers who participated in the meetings with Mississippi Medicaid.

The public health emergency is currently slated to expire in mid-January. But the Biden administration has said it will give states at least 60 days' notice before lifting the emergency, and since no notice arrived in mid-November, it will be extended again.

When it ends, Mississippi and every other state will begin kicking people off Medicaid rolls once again. Nationally, between 5 and 14 million people could lose their coverage, according to the health policy nonprofit KFF.

States will have at least a year to complete their review of enrollees' eligibility, but they have a good deal of flexibility in how they conduct the reviews and how much time they take.

As of November, Mississippi still did not have a plan for this process, called the “unwinding,” Westerfield told Mississippi Today.According to KFF, 17 states lack such a plan currently.

“We have been in the process of developing a plan while actively reviewing all CMS guidance surrounding the PHE,” he said. “We are also aware that CMS has committed to giving states 60 days advanced (sic) notice before lifting the PHE. Upon completion, we will post our unwinding plan on our website.”

Doctors around Mississippi are concerned that when the public health emergency ends, hundreds of thousands of patients could quickly lose Medicaid coverage.

And people who were switched from managed care to fee-for-service could more quickly lose coverage, since the state has already determined they're no longer eligible or that they need to update their information to prove they still qualify.

Westerfield did not respond when asked whether the agency will prioritize ending coverage for people who have been moved to fee-for-service Medicaid.

“We are trying as pediatricians to try and get parents to make sure they have their information and go ahead and turn that back into the state,” Henderson told Mississippi Today in September. “We know there will be a grace period with the Division of Medicaid … But we certainly are concerned that when the PHE lifts, we will all of a sudden have thousands of children who may lose benefits, lose coverage and lose access to health care, which would obviously be detrimental to their health and wellbeing.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.biloxinewsevents.com/?p=196916

Post Views: 536

Related Topics:Featured Mississippi News Mississippi Today News

Up Next

AG will appeal lawsuit involving public funds to private schools

Don't Miss

Podcast: Friday night lights, playoff edition

Mississippi Today

‘It wasn’t equal:’ Counter-protesters overwhelm pro-Palestinian students at the University of Mississippi

Published

6 hours ago

May 2, 2024

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – Molly Minta – 2024-05-02 18:12:52

OXFORD — Police disbanded a pro-Palestinian student protest at the University of Mississippi less than an hour after it officially started when counter-protesters threw a water bottle and other items at the protest, prompting the protesters to respond in kind with water.

When police removed the pro-Palestinian students from the Quad, a grassy area behind the library, the largely white male students roared.

“Nah, nah, nah, nah, hey, hey, hey, good bye,” the counter-protesters chanted.

The confrontation was in reaction to a largely peaceful protest held by a group called UMiss for Palestine that called on the university to divest from companies tied to Israel, a common demand at student protests across the country in the wake of the Israel-Hamas War. The university has said it doesn't have any direct investment in Israeli-based companies, and that no arrests were made or injuries reported. Nationally, about 2,000 arrests have been made, according to AP.

Protesters at the University of Mississippi in Oxford on May 1. 2024,call on Ole Miss to divest any interest in busiesses doing business with Israel and for free Gaza, which has been under attack by Israeli forces since the deadly Hamas raid on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Credit: Molly Minta/Mississippi Today

Many of the roughly 60 protesters wore masks, chanting “free, free Palestine” and “disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest.”

But they were vastly outnumbered by more than 200 counter-protesters, who drowned them out with shouts of “fuck Joe Biden,” “whose your daddy,” “USA” and “we can't hear you.” Some of the counter-protesters shouted racist remarks, such as “hit the showers” and “your nose is huge.”

The campus in north Mississippi had seen two gatherings last fall after the Oct. 7 attacks — a vigil organized by Hillel, a Jewish organization, and a rally for humanitarian aid for Palestinians — but multiple students on both sides said Thursday's protest was the tensest they had seen. Ole Miss, a largely white university, has few Palestinian and Jewish students.

It was the first pro-Palestine protest at a Mississippi university since students at Columbia University set up an encampment about two weeks ago.

The sheer novelty seemed to draw some of the counter-protesters who came from Fraternity Row, a few blocks away from the Quad.

“Um, we were gonna go to the pool, but then we heard this was gonna happen so we were like fuck that, we're gonna come over here and counter-protest it,” said Trevor Lahey, a 21-year-old business major, who said he came out with his fraternity brothers, though he wouldn't say which one.

Though the pro-Palestinian students have a right to free speech, Lahey added, he thought they were taking it too far.

“I don't care that much, I just don't want them to encamp on my school,” Lahey said. “It looks ugly. I'm paying for them to be there.”

The Pro-Palestinian protesters were not setting up camp. They wouldn't speak to a reporter beyond a statement they had prepared, but Mississippi Today couldn't obtain it by press time.

Earlier in the day, Gov. Tate Reeves said he was aware of the protest and that campus, city, county and state law enforcement were “being deployed and coordinated.”

“Peaceful protests are allowed and protected – no matter how outrageous those protesters views (sic) may seem to some of us,” he wrote. “But unlawful behavior will not be tolerated. It will be dealt with accordingly. Law and order will be maintained!”

Police at the University of Mississippi in Oxford on May 1. 2024, put up barriers to protect pro-Palistinian protestors from a crowd of hostile counter protesters. Credit: Molly Minta/Mississippi Today

University police had initially erected metal barricades separating the student protesters from the Phi Mu Fountain, but the counter-protesters began to congregate behind the library. Just steps separated the two camps, with a handful of officers standing between them.

The situation began to escalate when a student in hot pink athleisure exchanged words with a student protester wearing a keffiyeh. The student protester charged at her, but others held her back.

Then a half-eaten sandwich was thrown at the protesters, prompting the police to hem them in with the barricades.

It's pointless to protest in the U.S., said a 21-year-old student who only gave his name as Dillon. The student protesters could better support Palestine by going “over there,” he said, adding he thought it was a “stupid war” that he doesn't support.

But he still decided to join the counter-protesters, Dillon said.

“I just wanted to see it for myself,” he said. “I wanted to be a part of something. I love my country. I love them, too. I just don't think what they're supporting is right, in my opinion.”

“They shouldn't be throwing shit, in my opinion,” he added, referring to both sides.

That's when a counter-protester threw a water bottle. The student protesters threw something back, and soon, food-related items were volleying across the barricade.

In an attempt to de-escalate, the police began to escort the protesters away. The counter-protesters cheered and started running after them, which some police and staff with the University of Mississippi First Amendment Support Team tried to prevent, leading one student to shout, “I'm not walking with them, I'm just walking this way!”

“Nobody fucking cares, shut up!” a white female protester yelled as she swatted him with a plastic bag of takeout.

“Assault!” The counter-protesters shouted.

A police officer in a vest pulled her aside. Her mouth trembled, and she initially refused to give her full name. A legal observer with the Mississippi Center for Justice slipped her his card.

“I'm trying to let you go,” the officer said, exasperated. “But I'm going to annotate that this happened. If you don't want to cooperate, I'll just take you to jail.”

Police warned other students for their behavior. On Chapel Lane, where the student protesters waited to go inside the School of Applied Science, four officers escorted two Black students to their cars as the counter-protesters jeered.

A plainclothes officer told the crowd to get back.

“I'm doing the same thing they're doing — I have freedom of speech,” one student said to him.

“Absolutely, 100%, but you can't come up to them,” the officer said.

Inside the School of Applied Sciences, the pro-Palestinian protesters holed up in a classroom. They comforted each other, made a plan to leave campus and accounted for all their sashes and flags. Through windows covered in white vinyl, the visages of counter-protesters could be seen.

“Y'all did beautifully,” said one student, who didn't give a name, as students clapped for each other. “I'm so happy.”

Near tears, a student named Jana, whose family is from Palestine, thanked the group.

“Hey guys, I know that what just happened was really intimidating, and it was a little scary, but I just want to say I'm so proud of you guys,” she said. “This wasn't going to happen in Oxford without all of you guys. Palestine was being heard. And I just want to thank you guys so much. I know that was such a big risk, but this is the most that people have ever thought for us, so don't give up. I know that was really hard, but we need to keep fighting. This was just the start of it, okay?”

Jana grew up in Southaven, but her dad was born in a refugee camp in Jericho, in the Palestinian West Bank. She said her family still knows people in Gaza.

The idea that her university could be investing in companies connected to Israel is personal, she said. Along with other students, she's tried to investigate Ole Miss's ties to military defense contractors like Raytheon, and it's something she plans to look into more.

“Our university endowment has no direct investment in Israeli-based companies, the university offers no study abroad opportunities to Israel, and the university has no formal agreements with defense contractors,” Jacob Batte, the university's media relations director, wrote in an email.

Jana said she was surprised at how many students came out, considering many of them aren't affected by the conflict.

“I don't even know if they were just against us, or if they were there to just like, get a good laugh,”she said.

The police helped the protesters get to a bus that would take them to their cars. The counter-protesters started barking at the students, and as a student gave them a middle-finger, one of them shouted “at least it's not a plane this time,” a possible reference to the Sept. 11 attacks.

As the crowd died down, three Black friends in the parking lots said they wished it would've been possible for the two groups to have a dialogue. They didn't know much about the conflict and would like to learn more.

But the counter-protesters made that impossible, they said.

“They just conformed to the larger group,” Hannah Brock, a 21-year-old social work major observed.

Both sides should've had representatives debate, they added.

“It wasn't equal, like—” said Victoria Fox, a 21-year-old criminal justice major.

“They were just throwing out insults,” 21-year-old Carlesis Ferguson said about the counter-protesters. “You couldn't even hear (the Pro-Palestinian students) and it was their protest.”

In the Circle, the former home of the campus's Confederate monument and where the protest was slated to be held before the university convinced students to move it, Chancellor Glenn Boyce spoke at a ceremony for JROTC students. The mood was calm, as if the protest hadn't happened.

“I'm humbled to be here with you today,” Boyce said. “Once again you represent this university's legacy at its absolute finest.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Post Views: 18

Mississippi Today

Supreme Court ruling sidesteps issue of spending public money on private schools

Published

8 hours ago

May 2, 2024

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – Bobby Harrison – 2024-05-02 16:06:09

The Mississippi Supreme Court in a 7-2 ruling found that Parents for Public Schools does not have legal standing to challenge the constitutionality of the state Legislature sending public money to private schools.

The opinion, released Thursday, did not address the issue of whether the $10 million appropriation made in 2022 by the Legislature to private schools was constitutional.

Justice Robert Chamberlin of Southaven, writing for the majority, concluded Parents for Public Schools did not have standing to bring the lawsuit, in part, because harm to the public schools could not be proven.

Chamberlin wrote that the public education advocacy group says the legislative appropriation “will adversely affect the funding of public schools by legislating a competitive advantage to the independent schools who will receive the funds. This alleged future harm, however, is speculative and not sufficient to meet even Mississippi's permissive standing requirements.”

Coloring the ruling of the majority at least in part, is that the funds appropriated to the private schools were federal COVID-19 relief funds and not state money.

The office of state Attorney General Lynn Fitch had argued that the case should be dismissed because of lack of standing. Fitch's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the court's ruling.

Will Bardwell, an attorney for Parents for Public Schools, told Mississippi Today that the Thursday ruling was “outrageous” because the organization he represents had a “direct interest” in ensuring Mississippi's public schools were not undermined.

“This is not how courts are supposed to operate,” Bardwell said. “This is not how courts are supposed to work. When lawmakers ignore the constitution, courts are supposed to stand in their way. Other than Justice Leslie king and Justice Jim Kitchens, seven members of the Mississippi Supreme Court didn't do that today. And that's sad.”

The lawsuit revolved around Section 208 of the Mississippi Constitution, which declares simply that no public funds shall go to any school “that at the time of receiving such funds is not conducted as a free public school.”

During oral arguments before the Court in February, attorneys for Parents for Public Schools contended that it made no difference whether the funds were state or federal funds, only that they were public funds.

Parents for Public Schools argued that it was a group composed of parents of public school children so it should have standing to pursue the lawsuit.

Hinds County Chancellor Crystal Wise Martin agreed with that argument, but the state's highest court overturned her ruling.

Chamberlin wrote that because the funds were federal, “state taxpayer standing
is untenable under the facts of this case.”

Justice Leslie King of Greenville argued that Parents for Public Schools did have standing. King, who was joined in his opinion by Justice James Kitchens of Crystal Springs, questioned whether anyone would have standing to file a lawsuit under the majority's opinion.

King wrote, “The majority's holding today flies in the face of our longstanding liberal standing jurisprudence and severely limits the ability of Mississippi citizens to challenge government actions that violate the constitution.”

Mississippi Today's Taylor Vance contributed to this report.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Post Views: 14

Mississippi Today

IVF heir bill heads to governor’s desk

Published

9 hours ago

May 2, 2024

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – Sophia Paffenroth – 2024-05-02 15:08:05

A bill to correct an outdated law barring in vitro fertilization children from next of kin inheritance passed both chambers Wednesday afternoon and now heads to the governor to be signed into law.

This is the fifth year Rep. Dana McLean, R-Columbus, filed the measure to give inheritance rights to children conceived via IVF after the death of one parent, as 27 other states have done. These bills died in the legislative process the last four years.

“What a relief … I am just so thrilled that after all this time we came to an agreement that will soon be law,” McLean said. “This will help countless families and children have the right to be able to receive these benefits as they should.”

McLean's legislation was inspired by the personal story of one of her constituents, Katie Studdard, whose 5-year-old daughter has been denied Social Security benefits from her late biological father since birth.

“And that's how a lot of bills that we end up sponsoring come to us – from stories, from an issue someone is having where we need to make adjustments to state law,” McLean said.

Rep. Dana McLean, right, sits in the House Chamber during the Legislative Session at the Capitol in Jackson, Miss., Thursday, March 7, 2024. Credit: Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

Studdard, who lives in Columbus, started fertility treatments with her late husband, Chris McDill, before he died of cancer. She did not have success with the embryos while her husband was alive, but decided to continue trying for a baby after her husband's death. She conceived her daughter Elyse a year after her husband died.

House Bill 1542 passed the House unanimously in mid-March and overwhelmingly passed the Senate in mid-April at the eleventh hour. But the Senate passed it with a reverse repealer, referring it to conference in the hopes of expanding the bill beyond its original scope to protect in vitro fertilization and other forms of assisted reproduction, in the wake of recent events calling fertility treatments into question in Alabama.

Ultimately, that was too big a task to take on at the end of the session, with pro-life groups coming out publicly to express concern about new language they didn't have time to vet, explained Sen. Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall. Fillingane was one of the lawmakers tasked with debating the details of the bill in conference.

House and Senate conferees reverted the bill back mostly to its original language and were able to achieve the primary goal of securing inheritance rights for posthumously-conceived children with the final version. In addition to that goal, Fillingane said, conferees were able to come up with a definition for “alternative reproduction,” which didn't previously exist in Mississippi.

“I think Chairman (Brice) Wiggins and Chairman (Joey) Hood (of the Judiciary A committee where the bill was assigned) thought … ‘let's get this issue addressed for this family in Columbus that has waited (five) years … and let's at least get a definition in place sort of as a starting point to build a framework out hopefully over the next sessions to add to protect the IVF procedures and processes and surrogacy,'” said Fillingane.

Sen. Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall, speaks about a bill concerning Medicaid expansion at the Capitol in Jackson, Miss., Thursday, March 28, 2024. Credit: Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

Fillingane had two of his own children through surrogacy, but traveled to California to do so – because the state has clear statutory guidelines around parental rights in surrogacy cases.

“I did not feel comfortable having my kids in Mississippi … there were absolutely no protections that the state of Mississippi offers for parents who have children this way. As a family lawyer, I was uniquely situated to see some of these things,” he said.

Senate Judiciary A Chairman Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, who was instrumental in getting the bill to the finish line, wasn't available for comment.

Although it's been a trying few years, Studdard said she has a newfound appreciation for the Legislature. As a teacher, she has live streamed floor debates during her lunch period at school, has become acquainted with the legislative language of various iterations of the bill, and talked extensively with lawmakers. She says that every time she hears a new legislative word that she doesn't know, she googles it.

“I've learned a lot,” she said. “I think anybody going through any life-changing event, like I did with (my husband's) cancer, and then IVF, and now this bill …you gain a whole new appreciation and so much knowledge you never thought you'd know.”

Studdard is overjoyed that the Senate proposed naming the law after her late husband, Chris McDill, and is proud to model for her daughter and her students that it is possible for an everyday person to enact policy change.

Primarily, she hopes the benefits her daughter will start receiving next year will go toward her future education.

“I just think this financially will create so much security for her and her education, that's number one for me,” Studdard said. “I want her to not have to worry about taking out a student loan. I want her to have a good financial start to life when she goes to college. To be able to hand that to your child is a gift.”

When McLean first authored a bill to address Studdard's predicament, it was the first year of her first four-year term. Now, it's the first year of her second term, and she says it feels full circle.

“When (Studdard) first told me about her little girl and being a single mom, at that time Elyse was just a baby, and it really hit home to me because I am also a single mother of a daughter, and I understood the significance of this and how we really need to protect children and women and mothers and families,” McLean reflected. “I felt like it was really something I could get behind.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Post Views: 8