Mississippi Today

Falling short: 99% of Mississippi nursing homes don’t meet new staffing regs

Published

2 years ago

December 13, 2023

Viometrice Simmons remembers when she first fell in love with nursing. She was about 5 years old, sitting on the porch of her childhood home in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, as her aunt picked corn from the garden.

When she heard her great grandmother calling for her aunt from the bedroom, Simmons strode into the room, hopped up on the hospital bed and helped to turn and change the 84-year-old the way she had seen the women in her family do many times.

Forty-seven years later, that’s still the way she operates as a certified nursing assistant in the Mississippi nursing home she serves.

“When you walk in that door, every resident is your patient,” Simmons said.

Despite her dedication and more than 30 years of experience, she is only making $17 an hour at the nursing home where she currently works. In order to make ends meet, she works two jobs between 6 a.m. and 5 p.m., sometimes working overtime until 10 at night. She says some nights she gets out of work and sits in her car for an hour and a half because she’s too drained to move.

“I feel helpless. I feel exhausted,” she said. “But I know I got to keep going because who else is going to do it? If the people with the hearts give up, there’s going to be no one left for the people in there who are just forgotten about.”

Simmons never considered going back to school to become a registered nurse. What she loves about her job is being a familiar and reliable face for her residents. A CNA is responsible for providing the majority of hands-on resident care, and is often the person a nursing home resident sees the most on any given day.

“I don’t just want to be pushing pills,” Simmons said. “I want to let them talk to me. A lot of the residents tell me things that their families don’t even know about them.”

Poor pay and high turnover are among the reasons Simmons believes new federal staffing requirements in nursing homes will be, in effect, meaningless.

“Where are they going to get the staff from?” Simmons asked. “People are not doing it because they’re underpaid, and they can’t feed their families on that kind of money.”

In Mississippi, all but two of the 200 skilled nursing facilities – those licensed to provide medical care from registered nurses – would need to increase staffing levels under federal regulations the Biden administration proposed in September, according to data analyzed by Mississippi Today, USA TODAY and Big Local News at Stanford University.

That’s in line with the national trend: Over the first quarter of 2023 – from January to March – less than 1% of skilled nursing facilities in the U.S. met the draft rule’s two core standards of provider care.

After signing the executive order in September, Biden accepted public comment through Nov. 6. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is the agency responsible for reviewing the more than 40,000 comments and writing the final rule – which hasn’t happened yet and can take anywhere from months to years. Sixty days after the final rule is published in the Federal Registrar, the first phase in a staggered implementation process will begin.

Falling Short: Rebuilding elderly care in rural America

Rural nursing homes across the country, already understaffed, face significant new federal staffing requirements. With on-the-ground reporting from INN’s Rural News Network and data analysis assistance from USA TODAY and Big Local News at Stanford University, eight newsrooms explore what the rule change would look like for residents in communities across America. Support from The National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Foundation made the project possible.

The proposal, which comes at the heels of a years-long battle nursing home lobbyists waged against reform, outlines minimal standards. For example, the draft rule mandates 2.45 hours of CNA care and .55 hours of RN care per resident per day. That’s less than the 2.8 hours and .75 hours recommended by a CMS landmark 2001 study – even though residents’ needs have gotten more complex over the last two decades with more people living longer.

The proposal also mandates having an RN on duty 24-7. Current regulations mandate having 24-7 care, but allow the position to be filled by licensed practical nurses, who are used more frequently because their salaries are lower than those of RNs. The proposal does not have a requirement for LPN care, leaving experts worried nursing homes will simply replace LPNs with other staff.

“The 24-hour staffing requirement is good, as long as they make that in addition to the administrative nurses,” explained gerontologist and national nursing home expert Charlene Harrington. “But the other requirements they propose are just shockingly low. And that’s partly because the nursing homes have been lobbying against these standards for over a year and a half. So, all these advocates and the experts are very upset about it.”

The only two skilled nursing homes in Mississippi already meeting the not-yet imposed standards are Reginald P. White and James T. Champion nursing facilities – sister organizations of East Mississippi State Hospital, one of the state’s two psychiatric hospitals. The two Meridian nursing homes met the staffing minimums every day of the 91-day second quarter of 2023.

These homes receive about 20% of their funding from the state, according to Mississippi Department of Mental Health Planning and Communications Director Adam Moore. That’s in addition to the funding they receive from Medicaid and Medicare, as well as personal insurance and private pay.

Kevin Walker, administrator of Reginald P. White Facility, and Judd Nance, administrator of James T. Champion Facility, were surprised to learn they met the new requirements every day between April and June.

“We probably try to staff a little heavier than most nursing homes do, but we think we’re short all the time,” Nance said.

Having adequate staffing is one of the strongest predictors of whether nursing home residents will do well. And doing well doesn’t just mean the bare minimum of safety.

Any nursing facility participating in Medicaid or Medicare reimbursement is required by law to provide services that “attain or maintain the highest practicable physical, mental, and psychosocial well-being of each resident,” as dictated by the Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987.

Richard Mollot, the executive director of Long Term Care Community Coalition – a national nonprofit dedicated to advocating for residents of nursing homes and their families – says that when it comes to laws, the Nursing Home Reform Act is unique because it focuses on the customer – in this case, the resident.

“Most laws focus on the industry itself,” Mollot said. “For instance, all car manufacturers are expected to meet specific miles-per-gallon efficiency or have certain safety features. Nursing homes, on the other hand, are required to provide the staffing, supplies, and services to assure that every resident is able to attain and maintain their highest practicable well-being as an individual, based upon a comprehensive assessment of the person and a care plan that includes not only clinical needs, but the resident’s cultural background, goals, and personal preferences, too.”

Currently, states are in charge of regulating staffing in nursing homes. Some states have no staffing minimums, while the ones that do keep the requirements very low. In Mississippi, regulations require there to be at least a ratio of one CNA for every 15 residents during the day, and 25 residents at night – despite the fact that studies have shown one CNA for every six to eight residents during the day and 11 to 13 at night is optimal.

Even these suboptimal regulations are rarely enforced, according to Harrington, due in part to a national shortage of inspectors. States are required by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to conduct annual surveys and certifications of nursing homes receiving Medicaid and Medicare. In Mississippi, 54% of nursing home state surveyor positions were vacant in 2022, and 44% of the working surveyors had less than two years of experience.

“Enforcement is very weak, especially on staffing,” said Harrington. “We’d like to see CMS really crack down on the nursing homes that don’t have enough staff, and maybe put a hold on admissions until they have enough staff. If they’re not actually able to hire staff they shouldn’t be able to admit patients.”

Negligence that seems minor can compound into serious health issues and death – not to mention it often breaches basic expectations of dignity. Even in rehabilitation centers, where residents should be receiving support for mobility, low staffing can mean they are placed in diapers rather than assisted to bathrooms.

In previous nursing homes, Simmons says she witnessed bathroom requests going unanswered and continent residents being diapered out of convenience.

The results can be devastating. Residents who are confined to bed and unable to go to the bathroom not only suffer low morale, but can also develop concurrent urinary tract infections. In the elderly, these infections can cause delirium and exacerbate dementia. Those who try to get up on their own may suffer falls, broken bones and concussions as a result.

“You see residents with UTIs and falls and stuff because they’re crying out for help to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and they fall because they have to go to the bathroom and they’re told to go to the bathroom in their briefs,” Simmons said. “Who wants to be sitting somewhere with a wet brief on? It’s humiliating. And it’s unacceptable.”

According to Mollot, it’s a violation of the Nursing Home Reform Act, and one that could be resolved with adequate staffing.

“Nursing homes claim that diapering residents is necessary because they don’t have enough staff to respond to call bells or implement resident-centered toileting practices,” Mollot said. “But if you think about it, that is pretty outrageous. In effect, facilities are admitting that they are taking in and retaining vulnerable human beings for whom they have neither the ability nor intention of providing decent care. Why do we accept the warehousing of millions of vulnerable Americans every year?”

Simmons says she has been let go twice, in two different states, shortly after filing incident reports to Occupational Safety and Health Administration and to the staffing agency she was contracted with.

But Simmons is resolved to continue advocating for the residents she serves and hopes that in time, higher pay and more stringent regulations will lead to better working environments for staff and quality of life for residents in nursing homes.

“I don’t care if they fire me from every job,” she said. “When I know something is not right, I’m going to stand up for it. And can’t nobody stop me from doing that.”

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

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Mississippi Today

Jackson’s performing arts venue Thalia Mara Hall is now open

Published

11 hours ago

June 30, 2025

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-06-30 17:29:00

by Maya Miller, Mississippi Today
June 30, 2025

After more than 10 months closed due to mold, asbestos and issues with the air conditioning system, Thalia Mara Hall has officially reopened.

Outgoing Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba announced the reopening of Thalia Mara Hall during his final press conference held Monday on the arts venue’s steps.

“Today marks what we view as a full circle moment, rejoicing in the iconic space where community has come together for decades in the city of Jackson,” Lumumba said. “Thalia Mara has always been more than a venue. It has been a gathering place for people in the city of Jackson. From its first class ballet performances to gospel concerts, Thalia Mara Hall has been the backdrop for our city’s rich cultural history.”

Thalia Mara Hall closed last August after mold was found in parts of the building. The issues compounded from there, with malfunctioning HVAC systems and asbestos remediation. On June 6, the Mississippi State Fire Marshal’s Office announced that Thalia Mara Hall had finally passed inspection.

“We’re not only excited to have overcome many of the challenges that led to it being shuttered for a period of time,” Lumumba said. “We are hopeful for the future of this auditorium, that it may be able to provide a more up-to-date experience for residents, inviting shows that people are able to see across the world, bringing them here to Jackson. So this is an investment in the future.”

In total, Emad Al-Turk, a city contracted engineer and owner of Al-Turk Planning, estimates that $5 million in city and state funds went into bringing Thalia Mara Hall up to code.

The venue still has work to be completed, including reinstalling the fire curtain. The beam in which the fire curtain will be anchored has asbestos in it, so it will have to be remediated. In addition, a second air-conditioning chiller needs to be installed to properly cool the building. Until it’s installed, which could take months, Thalia Mara Hall will be operating at a lower seating capacity of about 800.

“Primarily because of the heat,” Al-Turk said. “The air conditioning would not be sufficient to actually accommodate the 2,000 people at full capacity, but starting in the fall, that should not be a problem.”

Al-Turk said the calendar is open for the city to begin booking events, though none have been scheduled for July.

“We’re very proud,” he said. “This took a little bit longer than what we anticipated, but we had probably seven or eight different contractors we had to coordinate with and all of them did a superb job to get us where we are today.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Jackson’s performing arts venue Thalia Mara Hall is now open appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Centrist

The article presents a straightforward report on the reopening of Thalia Mara Hall in Jackson, focusing on facts and statements from city officials without promoting any ideological viewpoint. The tone is neutral and positive, emphasizing the community and cultural significance of the venue while detailing the challenges overcome during renovations. The coverage centers on public investment and future prospects, without partisan framing or editorializing. While quotes from Mayor Lumumba and a city engineer highlight optimism and civic pride, the article maintains balanced, factual reporting rather than advancing a political agenda.

Mississippi Today

‘Hurdles waiting in the shadows’: Lumumba reflects on challenges and triumphs on final day as Jackson mayor

Published

15 hours ago

June 30, 2025

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – @ayewolfe – 2025-06-30 17:08:00

by Anna Wolfe and Molly Minta, Mississippi Today
June 30, 2025

On his last day as mayor of Jackson, Chokwe Antar Lumumba recounted accomplishments, praised his executive team and said he has no plans to seek office again.

He spoke during a press conference outside of the city’s Thalia Mara Hall, which was recently cleared for reopening after nearly a year of remediation. The briefing, meant to give media members a peek inside the downtown theater, marked one of Lumumba’s final forays as mayor.

Longtime state Sen. John Horhn — who defeated Lumumba in the Democratic primary runoff — will be inaugurated as mayor Tuesday, but Lumumba won’t be present. Not for any contentious reason, the 42-year-old mayor noted, but because he returns to his private law practice Tuesday.

“I’ve got to work now, y’all,” Lumumba said. “I’ve got a job.”

Thalia Mara Hall’s presumptive comeback was a fitting end for Lumumba, who pledged to make Jackson the most radical city in America but instead spent much of his eight years in office parrying one emergency after another. The auditorium was built in 1968 and closed nearly 11 months ago after workers found mold caused by a faulty HVAC system – on top of broken elevators, fire safety concerns and vandalism.

“This job is a fast-pitched sport,” Lumumba said. “There’s an abundance of challenges that have to be addressed, and it seems like the moment that you’ve gotten over one hurdle, there’s another one that is waiting in the shadows.”

Outside the theater Monday, Lumumba reflected on the high points of his leadership instead of the many crises — some seemingly self-inflicted — he faced as mayor.

He presided over the city during the coronavirus pandemic and the rise in crime it brought, but also the one-two punch of the 2021 and 2022 water crises, exacerbated by the city’s mismanagement of its water plants, and the 18-day pause in trash pickup spurred by Lumumba’s contentious negotiations with the city council in 2023.

Then in 2024, Lumumba was indicted alongside other city and county officials in a sweeping federal corruption probe targeting the proposed development of a hotel across from the city’s convention center, a project that has remained stalled in a 20-year saga of failed bids and political consternation.

Slated for trial next year, Lumumba has repeatedly maintained his innocence.

The city’s youngest mayor also brought some victories to Jackson, particularly in his first year in office. In 2017, he ended a furlough of city employees and worked with then-Gov. Phil Bryant to avoid a state takeover of Jackson Public Schools. In 2019, the city successfully sued German engineering firm Siemens and its local contractors for $89 million over botched work installing the city’s water-sewer billing infrastructure.

“I think that that was a pivotal moment to say that this city is going to hold people responsible for the work that they do,” Lumumba said.

Lumumba had more time than any other mayor to usher in the 1% sales tax, which residents approved in 2014 to fund infrastructure improvements.

“We paved 144 streets,” he said. “There are residents that still are waiting on their roads to be repaved. And you don’t really feel it until it’s your street that gets repaved, but that is a significant undertaking.”

And under his administration, crime has fallen dramatically recently, with homicides cut by a third and shootings cut in half in the last year.

Lumumba was first elected in 2017 after defeating Tony Yarber, a business-friendly mayor who faced his own scandals as mayor. A criminal justice attorney, Lumumba said he never planned to seek office until the stunning death of his father, Chokwe Lumumba Sr., eight months into his first term as mayor in 2014.

“I can say without reservation, and unequivocally, we remember where we started. We are in a much better position than we started,” Lumumba said.

Lumumba said he has sat down with Horhn in recent months, answered questions “as extensively as I could,” and promised to remain reachable to the new mayor.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post 'Hurdles waiting in the shadows': Lumumba reflects on challenges and triumphs on final day as Jackson mayor appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

The article reports on outgoing Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba’s reflections without overt editorializing but subtly frames his tenure within progressive contexts, emphasizing his self-described goal to make Jackson “the most radical city in America.” The piece highlights his accomplishments alongside challenges, including public crises and a federal indictment, maintaining a factual tone yet noting contentious moments like labor disputes and governance issues. While it avoids partisan rhetoric, the focus on social justice efforts, infrastructure investment, and crime reduction, as well as positive framing of Lumumba’s achievements, aligns with a center-left perspective that values progressive governance and accountability.

Mississippi Today

Feds unfreeze $137 million in Mississippi education money

Published

17 hours ago

June 30, 2025

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – @devnabose – 2025-06-30 15:37:00

by Devna Bose, Mississippi Today
June 30, 2025

The federal government is restoring $137 million in education funds to Mississippi schools.

The U.S. Department of Education notified states last week that it would reinstate pandemic relief funds. The decision comes less than three months after the federal government revoked billions nationwide as part of Trump administration efforts to cut government spending.

State education agencies and school districts originally had until March 2026 to spend the money, but the federal government claimed that because the pandemic was over, they had no use for the money.

That March 2026 deadline has been reinstated following a series of injunctive orders.

A coalition of Democratic-led states sued the federal government in April over the decision to withhold the money. Then, a federal judge granted plaintiff states injunctive orders in the case, which meant those states could continue spending their COVID-relief dollars while other states remained restricted.

But the education department decided that wasn’t fair, wrote Secretary Linda McMahon in a letter dated June 26, so the agency was restoring the money to all states, not just the ones involved in the lawsuit.

“The original intent of the policy announced on March 28 was to treat all states consistently with regards to safeguarding and refocusing their remaining COVID-era grant funding on students,” she wrote. “The ongoing litigation has created basic fairness and uniformity problems.”

The Mississippi Department of Education notified school districts about the decision on Friday.

In the meantime, schools and states have been requesting exemptions for individual projects, though many from across the country have been denied.

Eleven Mississippi school districts had submitted requests to use the money to fund services such as tutoring and counseling, according to records requested by Mississippi Today, though those are now void because of the federal government’s decision.

Starting immediately, school districts can submit new requests to the state education department to draw down their federal allocation.

Mississippi Today previously reported that about 70 school districts were relying on the federal funds to pay for a range of initiatives, including construction projects, mental health services and literacy programs.

In 2023, almost half of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds, pandemic relief money allocated to schools across the country, went to students’ academic, social, and emotional needs. A third went to operational and staff costs, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Education.

Though Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann previously said that legislative leaders might consider helping agencies that were impacted by federal funding cuts, House Speaker Jason White said Monday that he did not have an appetite for directing state funds to pandemic-era programs.

Small school districts were already feeling the impact of the federal government’s decision to rescind the money. In May, Greenwood Leflore Consolidated School Board voted to terminate a contract on a school construction project funded with federal dollars.

The litigation is ongoing, so the funding could again be rescinded.

Clarification: A previous version of this article misstated the status of school districts’ pandemic relief money.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Feds unfreeze $137 million in Mississippi education money appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Political Bias Rating: Centrist

This article primarily reports on the federal government’s decision to restore $137 million in education funds to Mississippi schools after a temporary freeze. It presents factual information about the timeline, legal actions, and responses from various state officials without adopting a partisan tone. The piece mentions the involvement of Democratic-led states suing the federal government and notes Republican-aligned efforts to cut spending, but does so in a balanced way focused on reporting events and statements rather than promoting a political viewpoint. The language remains neutral and factual, avoiding loaded or biased framing, making it a straightforward news report with centrist bias.