Welcome to your daily briefing on healthcare developments in Mississippi. Today we're covering 5 key stories including updates on mississippi healthcare headlines, background & context. Let's dive in.
2 stories
Aequor has compiled state-specific licensing and certification details for nursing, allied health, therapy, schools, and locum tenens roles on its Mississippi resource page.
Healthcare professionals in MS can streamline credential verification and renewal planning through a single discipline-organized hub.
The Mississippi Division of Medicaid transitioned to a new Fiscal Agent on Oct. 3, 2022, introducing MESA (Medicaid Enterprise System Assistance), a new MMIS and provider portal designed to enhance connections between health services systems and improve access to health information.
For Mississippi healthcare professionals, MESA offers an upgraded digital gateway to Medicaid services that can simplify administrative workflows and improve information exchange with the state's Medicaid program.
Reach healthcare professionals
3 stories
The No Surprises Act good-faith-estimate requirement applies to all licensed providers offering services to self-pay or uninsured patients — not just hospitals or large groups. The estimate must be provided within timeframes that vary by how far in advance the appointment is scheduled.
Patient-provider dispute resolution under NSA typically defaults to the patient when the practice cannot produce a timely good-faith estimate. The penalty is the full disputed amount being struck.
Across most payors, the top-five denial reasons account for over 80% of prior-auth rejections: missing clinical documentation, wrong CPT/HCPCS code, service not in benefit plan, step-therapy not completed, and ordering provider not on the patient's plan. The same five repeat across plans because they are the easiest to deny on automation.
Practices that build a five-line pre-submission checklist around these reasons typically cut prior-auth denials by 40-60% within a quarter. The fix is process, not appeals capacity.
A vendor is a business associate if they create, receive, maintain, or transmit PHI on behalf of the covered entity. They are NOT a business associate just because they happen to be in a building with PHI or could conceivably access it. The functional test matters, not the proximity test.
Forcing BAA execution on vendors who do not meet the functional test creates contractual bloat and weakens the negotiating position with vendors who actually do. Failing to execute BAAs with true business associates exposes the covered entity to OCR enforcement.
Get Mississippi healthcare intelligence delivered to your inbox every morning.
Subscribe FreeView all past issues
Feature your brand across the U.S., Canada, and select international markets and 10 industry verticals.
Become a National Partner