Greenwood Leflore Hospital has cleared one major hurdle in completing a transfer of its ownership to another operator.
The Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees unanimously approved a request Thursday from the University of Mississippi Medical Center to take ownership of Greenwood Leflore Hospital, which is situated on approximately 14.5 acres of land on River Road.
The proposed transfer of GLH property also includes the wellness/outpatient rehabilitation center in the 1800 block of Strong Avenue, the plant shop on Chambers Street and the flex building in the 1400 block of Strong Avenue.
All the property would be donated at no cost to UMMC, the state’s largest hospital system. UMMC plans to take possession of the property on Aug. 1.
IHL trustee and former board president Gee Ogletree said a lot of study went into this decision.
“I’d like to say one thing — that when y’all come in here and hear us say ‘yes,’ it doesn’t mean we haven't talked about this,” Ogletree said. “This has been an area that we looked at very carefully. The chancellor (Glenn Boyce) and his team have done a great job of presenting very detailed information to us, including a very thorough analysis of risk and opportunities. And there has been significant discussion in committee meetings, and I know a number of us, Charlie (Stephenson), you, me and others have called and spoken to people directly, and we’ve gotten the information we need to be able to vote on this now. So, Chancellor, I appreciate your help and your team's help.”
According to the board packet, UMMC is interested in acquiring the property to increase training opportunities while providing hospital, clinical and medical services as UMMC “deems appropriate.”
John Pearce, IHL associate commissioner for finance, reiterated that in his statement to the board prior to the vote.
“UMMC intends to utilize the facility to expand healthcare services and create additional training opportunities for students, residents and fellows in a community setting,” he said during the meeting Thursday, which was livestreamed on IHL’s YouTube account.
The Greenwood hospital is jointly owned by the city of Greenwood and Leflore County. The transfer agreement now has to be approved by the Greenwood City Council and the county Board of Supervisors. It also has to be approved by the federal bankruptcy court that is overseeing GLH’s Chapter 9 reorganization.
City Council President Ronnie Stevenson said the IHL board’s decision was a major step toward preserving healthcare services in Greenwood but there is still more work to be done.
“We have three main hurdles we’ve got to cross,” Stevenson said. “The first one was IHL. The second one is to make sure we have the funds to get to Aug. 1. The third one is the bankruptcy court. We’ve cleared the first one. Now, we’ve got two more to go, but I am excited that we got past this one.”
Now, the Greenwood hospital must find a way to ensure it has the funds to operate until UMMC can take over operations on Aug. 1. That process became more difficult after the Mississippi Division of Medicaid (DOM) informed the hospital that it would be withholding its June $2.45 million in Mississippi Hospital Access Program payments.
GLH is asking a federal court to either order the Division of Medicaid to release payment this month to the insolvent hospital or let a state court consider ordering.
If the June payment from MHAP is withheld, GLH claims in a motion filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Jackson, it could kill UMMC’s takeover of the Greenwood hospital.
One of the terms of the 96-page transfer agreement with UMMC is that the Greenwood hospital “shall not, prior to the closing date cease operations, close GLH or effect a close of business.”
Without the MHAP payment, the hospital will be forced to shutter prior to the Aug. 1 closing date, “thus jeopardizing the closing of the UMMC transaction and risking the cessation of all hospital services in the central Mississippi Delta,” the motion states.
Gary Marchand, former interim CEO and consultant to the GLH board, said shuttering the hospital early would cause problems for the new owners. UMMC would take over GLH’s Medicaid payer ID on Aug. 1 as long as the hospital stays open.
“In the event GLH were to close, it would negatively impact a core foundation of any transaction with a larger system,” Marchand said in an email to the Commonwealth. “The result is the inability to bill DOM for services provided to Medicaid recipients in future months. Any new operator would have to be recredentialed to provide services to Medicaid recipients, and this process could take six months or more.
“It is doubtful any larger system would have an interest in providing services to Medicaid recipients and uninsured residents facing the temporary loss of the ability to bill and collect payments for services provided and not recover its operating costs on a timely basis.”
GLH has been battling for a year with the Division of Medicaid over MHAP overpayments to the hospital and how those should be repaid to the state.
The state agency clawed back more than $3 million in 2025 and was planning to continue taking back $900,000 per fiscal quarter until the overpayments were repaid. However, the hospital appealed to Hinds County Chancery Court saying the agency violated its own policy by not allowing the hospital a hearing on the recoupments. The court reduced the December 2025 recoupment to $447,000 and then issued a ruling in March pausing all additional clawbacks.
In April, the hospital filed for bankruptcy protection, listing the repayments still due to the Division of Medicaid among its largest unsecured claims.
A month later, the Division of Medicaid petitioned for the dispute with GLH to be moved from state court to federal court.
The hospital is asking the federal court to either remand the case back to Hinds County Chancery Court or enter an emergency order prohibiting Medicaid from withholding or reducing the MHAP payment for June. The Division of Medicaid also has a motion pending to move the case to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Aberdeen.
DOM filed a complaint Wednesday with the bankruptcy court, asking it to settle the disagreement between the state agency and the Greenwood hospital over withholding the $2.45 million MHAP payment. DOM claims that the Hinds County Chancery Court ruling only applied to fiscal year 2024 recoupments, which total $3.08 million still to be repaid. The hospital also owes $4.9 million for fiscal year 2025, according to DOM’s filing. The hospital listed only $1.8 million for the 2025 liability when it filed for bankruptcy.
The state agency claims, “A plain reading of the chancery court opinion will reflect there is no prohibition or even mention of DOM simply withholding funds as opposed to actions of recoupment that it engaged in prior to the entry of the Chancery Court. However, this concerns the MHAP parameters for (state fiscal year) 26.”
If the bankruptcy court disallows DOM’s efforts to withhold the June payment, its complaint asks the court to ensure that the funds are used by the Greenwood hospital only for expenses that “are necessary to literally ‘keep the doors open’ … especially when considering that DOM is owed somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 million” by the hospital.
In its motion Wednesday, the hospital claims that the Division of Medicaid is violating not only the state court’s order but also the agency’s own rules and regulations by threatening to withhold the June disbursement.
The Jackson federal court is planning to hold a status conference via Zoom on GLH’s motion on Monday at 1:30 p.m. before District Judge Kristi H. Johnson. As of Thursday, no hearing or conference had been set for DOM’s suit in the bankruptcy court.
Emails requesting comment from DOM executive director Cindy Baxley were not returned as of press time Friday.
- Brent Maze is editor and publisher of The Greenwood Commonwealth. Contact him at 662-581-7243 or bmaze@gwcommonwealth.com.
