Health department's budget request prioritizes training doctors, increasing health insurance coverage

New programs to train early-career doctors and help Mississippians enroll in health insurance are at the top of the state Department of Health's budget wish list this year.

The agency tasked with overseeing public health in the state is asking for $4.8 million in additional state funding, a 4% increase over last year's budget appropriation.

The department hopes to use funding increases to start three new medical residency programs across the state. The programs will be located in south central Mississippi, Meridian and the Delta and focus on internal and family medicine, obstetric care and rural training.

The Office of Mississippi Physician Workforce, which the Legislature moved from UMMC to the State Department of Health last year, will oversee the programs.

The office was created by the Legislature in 2012 and has assisted with the creation or supported 19 accredited graduate medical education programs in Mississippi, said health department spokesperson Greg Flynn.

A $1 million dollar appropriation requested by the department will fund a patient navigation program to help people access health services in their communities and apply for health insurance coverage.

People will access these services at community-based health departments, said Flynn.

Patient navigators will help patients apply for coverage through Medicaid or the Health Insurance Marketplace, said Health Department Senior Deputy Kris Adcock at the Joint Legislative Budget Committee meeting on Sept. 26.

"We want to increase the number of people who have access to health care coverage and therefore have access to health care," she said.

The Health Insurance Marketplace is a federally-operated service that helps people enroll in health insurance programs. Enrollees can access premium tax credits, which lower the cost of health insurance, through the Marketplace.

The department received its largest appropriation from the state's general fund in nearly a decade last year, illustrating a slow but steady rebound from drastic budget cuts in 2017 that forced the agency to shutter county health clinics and lay off staff.

State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney said he is "begging for some help with inflationary pressure" on the department's operations budget at the State Board of Health meeting Oct. 9, but additional funding for operations was not included in the budget request.

"They're (lawmakers) making it pretty clear to me that they're not really interested in putting more money in (operations) to run the agency, and I understand that," he said.

State agencies present budget requests to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee in September. The committee makes recommendations in December, and most appropriations bills are passed by lawmakers in the latter months of the legislative session, which ends in April.

The Department of Health's budget request will likely change in the new year depending on the Legislature's preferences, Edney said Oct. 9.

The state Health Department's responsibilities are vast. It oversees health center planning and licensure, provides clinical services to underserved populations, regulates environmental health standards and operates infectious and chronic disease prevention programs.

Over half of the agency's $600 million budget is funded with federal dollars. State funding accounts for just 15% of its total budget.

-- Article credit to Gwen Dilworth of Mississippi Today