Budget cuts coming to Mississippi - Geoff Pender, The Clarion-Ledger

As state lawmakers prepare to cut most budgets further for the coming year, the University of Mississippi Medical Center last week announced layoffs of 195 employees, elimination of 85 vacant positions and other measures to cope with recent mid-year state cuts of more than $8 million and a loss of $24.5 million in indigent care payments from Medicaid. An initial draft of UMMC's state funding for fiscal 2018 calls for a further cut of $1.4 million, less than 1 percent. Lawmakers last week passed to the governor a bill that would allow UMMC to purchase or partner with other private or public hospitals and operate more like a business than a public institution with the joint ventures. http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2017/03/18/budget-cuts-coming-mississippi/99303538/