After the Leg failed to give the state health department the funding it needed to fully staff county health departments, some no longer offer clinical services and the agency may close others. Mississippi SHO called the reorganization a "pathway for survival."

Legislators seem poised to make a move to regulate kratom this legislation, with four bills pending in the Senate and House. Will they make kratom 21+, ban kratom extracts or make it a controlled substance?

Panola County officials made an unorthodox demand of the county’s ambulance service last month: stop picking patients up from the hospital. An interesting case study in the pitfalls of the rural emergency hospital program... mississippitoday.org/2025/02/12/pan…

Federal cuts to health funding in MS were first estimated at over $100 mil. But the DOGE receipts kept coming, and this week cuts ticked up to twice that amount -- $238 mil. Will impact health workers, bird flu efforts, substance use programs, and more. mississippitoday.org/2025/04/02/fed…

The Dept of Health is "working aggressively to educate physicians and providers on measles," many of whom have not seen the disease before. Measles was eliminated in the US in 2000. But vax rates have dropped in MS, leaving more children vulnerable. mississippitoday.org/2025/04/10/hea…

A double blow for MS, which just lost funding for STI services last month when the federal government froze millions of dollars of Title X funding. mississippitoday.org/2025/04/16/fed…

Great story from Allen Siegler on the impact of fed cuts to mental health services in MS, including a program for mothers in recovery. mississippitoday.org/2025/05/07/men…

A Supervisor in Rankin County called two victims of police torture “dopers” and “rapists” at a breakfast hosted by the Rankin County Sheriff with no factual basis.

There's a pill to prevent HIV infection, so why do so few Mississippians take it? The state has one of the highest new-infection rates in the U.S. Experts say one reason is Mississippi's lack of Medicaid expansion. NEW from Mississippi Today/Gwen Dilworth: publichealthwatch.org/2025/05/13/a-p…

There's a pill to prevent HIV infection. But MS is the farthest behind the rest of the country in reaching people who could benefit from the medication. I spoke to advocates, PrEP users, researchers, and doctors about why MS lags so far behind. mississippitoday.org/2025/05/13/pre…

How many religious vaccine exemptions have been requested in your county? MS' childhood vaccination rate is high, but experts say relying on statewide figures can be deceiving, because they can camouflage clusters of unvaccinated people. More: mississippitoday.org/2025/05/14/mis…

Jackson Medical Mall was MS' first shopping mall before it became a pioneering health facility in the late 1990s. As UMMC clinics and Jackson-Hinds Comprehensive Health Center prepare to leave, what will the mall become next? mississippitoday.org/2025/05/22/jac…

My story on the future of Jackson Medical Mall took me to the archives. Here's a rendering of Jackson Mall in the Clarion Ledger from 1970. mississippitoday.org/2025/05/22/jac…

Jackson Medical Mall's first clinic - the Jackson Medical Mall Children's Clinic - opened in 1997. Here's the Clarion Ledger's Metro section headline on June 9, 1997.

UMMC came to Jackson Medical Mall in 1998 with the opening of its specialty and primary care clinics. It was estimated they would bring over 100,000 patients to the mall. Here's the front page of the Clarion Ledger on January 22, 1998. More: mississippitoday.org/2025/05/22/jac…

These Hattiesburg-area parents’ children died of addiction. Local officials in the area are managing opioid settlements without their input. mississippitoday.org/2025/06/11/par…

The electronic system that manages patient information for UMMC now includes a field for “citizenship,” but the medical center won’t say why it added the category. buff.ly/Evc8gXX

NEW: Lawmaker probing Mississippi prisons says she found inmates languishing without proper medical care, turning some short prison stints into death sentences. The suffering raises questions about how hundreds of millions in taxpayer money have been spent mississippitoday.org/2025/06/19/law…