Mississippi

#HospitalFails

While nonprofit hospitals are organized as charities to deliver affordable health care to those in their communities who need it most, many of America’s largest nonprofits are making big money from questionable practices. Nonprofit hospitals around the country are paying executives exorbitant salaries and adopting policies that put profits over patients, like pursuing predatory collection practices and failing to provide free care for qualifying low-income patients. Too often, these policies are combined with poor health care outcomes for patients.

Last updated: January 25, 2026 at 7:51am

Charity Care Spending

Mississippi hospitals had a “fair share deficit” of $62 million dollars for the fiscal year ending in 2021, according to the Lown Institute Hospitals Index. In other words, Mississippi’s nonprofit hospitals pocketed tax breaks that were $62 million more than they spent on community benefits and charity care for low-income patients. In Mississippi, more than half of all nonprofit hospitals – 59 percent – had a fair share deficit.¹

Hospital Collection Policies

Most hospitals (59%) allow at least one extraordinary collection action, like wage garnishments, selling debt to a third party or denying non-emergency care. Of the 38 Mississippi hospitals investigated by the Lown Institute from June 2024 to April 2025, 34% had written policies allowing them to take legal actions against patients for unpaid medical debt. Six Mississippi hospitals’ policies even allowed them to deny nonemergency care to patients who owe the hospital money.

Medical Debt and Consumer Protections

Medical debt adversely affects many Americans. Given vague and rarely enforced federal medical debt protections, states are on the frontlines of patient medical debt protections. Unfortunately Mississippi:

• Does not cap interest charged on medical debt.
• Does not have standards for monthly payment plans or cap the payment amounts for these plans.
• Does not ban health care providers from reporting medical debt to credit-scoring agencies.
• Does not stop health care providers from placing liens on a person’s home or foreclosing on their home to collect a medical debt.

Price Transparency

A survey of 2,000 hospitals nationwide from July to November 2024 found that just two of the 31 Mississipi hospitals reviewed – a mere 6% – had complied with federal regulations requiring all hospitals to post their prices online and make them easily accessible and searchable.

The Burden of Medical Debt in Mississippi

In Mississippi, an average of 15.2% of adults in a given year (or 330,000 people) reported having medical debt, according to a Peterson-KFF analysis of data from 2019 to 2021. That’s higher than the national average of 8.6% for the same period.⁴

Medical Debt in Collections

Based on credit bureau data from August 2023, Urban Institute found that 6% of Mississippians have medical debt in collections, more than the national average of 5%. In Mississippi’s communities of color, roughly 7% of people have medical debt in collections, exceeding the 6% national average.⁵

Hospital Overcharging

On average, from 2020 to 2022, Mississippi hospitals charged privately insured patients more than 184% of what they charged Medicare patients for the same services.⁷

Hospital Safety

Mississippi ranks 34th in the country for hospital safety, with barely 24% of its hospitals earning an ‘A’ grade for patient safety.⁸

Hospital Consolidation

Hospital consolidation is widely understood as a major contributor to health care cost increases.

Mississippi has seen major shifts in hospital ownership, including the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s acquisition of Merit Health Madison (now operating as UMMC Madison) and Memorial Health System’s completed acquisition of Merit Health Biloxi. These transactions further concentrate hospital operations within large systems.

Grade: #HospitalFail

Lown Institute, “Making Hospital Tax Breaks Work For Communities: An analysis of 20 states,” April 2025, https://lownhospitalsindex.org/hospital-fair-share-spending-2024/
Lown Institute, “Lown Institute Hospitals Index: 2024 Results Fair Share Spending,” April 2024, https://lownhospitalsindex.org/hospital-fair-share-spending-2024/
Lown Institute, “Hospital Financial Assistance and Debt Collection Policies,” June 2025, https://lownhospitalsindex.org/report-hospital-financial-assistance-and-debt-collection-policies/
Commonwealth Fund, “State Protections Against Medical Debt: A Look at Policies Across the U.S. in 2025,” July 2025, https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2025/jul/state-protections-against-medical-debt-look-policies-across-us
PatientRightsAdvocate.org, “Seventh Semi-Annual Hospital Price Transparency Compliance Report,” November 2024, https://www.patientrightsadvocate.org/seventh-semi-annual-hospital-price-transparency-report-november-2024, pg. 28
PatientRightsAdvocate.org, “The Interim Semi-Annual Hospital Price Transparency Report,” September 2025, https://www.patientrightsadvocate.org/interim-semi-annual-hospital-price-transparency-report, Appendix D, pg. 60
PatientRightsAdvocate.org, “The Interim Semi-Annual Hospital Price Transparency Report,” September 2025, https://www.patientrightsadvocate.org/interim-semi-annual-hospital-price-transparency-report, Appendix B, pg. 29
Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, “Access & Affordability: The Burden of Medical Debt in the United States,” September 2024, https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/the-burden-of-medical-debt-in-the-united-states/#Share%20of%20adults%20who%20have%20medical%20debt,%20by%20state,%202019-2021
Urban Institute, “Debt in America: An Interactive Map,” November 2025, https://apps.urban.org/features/debt-interactive-map/?type=medical&variable=medcoll&state=28
Rand Corporation, “Prices Paid to Hospitals by Private Health Plans: Findings from Round 5.1 of an Employer-Led Transparency Initiative,” December 2024, https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1144-2-v2.html
Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, State Rankings, Fall 2025, https://www.hospitalsafetygrade.org/your-hospitals-safety-grade/state-rankings
WLBT (UMMC/Merit Health Madison) and Mississippi Hospital Association (Memorial’s acquisition of Merit Health Biloxihttps://www.wlbt.com/2025/06/10/ummc-expanding-with-canton-based-hospital/?

Consumers for Quality Care (CQC) is a coalition of advocates and former policymakers working to provide a voice for patients in the health care debate as they demand better care. CQC is led by a board of directors that includes the Honorable Donna Christensen, physician and former Member of Congress; Jim Manley, former senior advisor to Senators Edward Kennedy and Harry Reid; Jason Resendez, community advocate and health care strategist; and Mary L. Smith, former CEO of the Indian Health Service.