Greenwood Leflore Hospital receives June Medicaid payment on time

Greenwood Leflore Hospital received its full June payment from the Mississippi Division of Medicaid, a cash infusion that kept the 25-bed Delta hospital from running out of money at the end of the month. The payment, part of the Mississippi Hospital Access Program, arrived after a Hinds County chancery judge ordered Medicaid to release it by 5 p.m. June 30.

Former interim chief executive Gary Marchand said the money would allow the hospital to remain open until July 31. That matters in Greenwood and Leflore County because the hospital is the nearest source of emergency care, inpatient treatment, outpatient services and other medical care for many families who cannot easily drive to other hospitals in the Mississippi Delta.

The dispute has been unfolding against a tight financial deadline. Greenwood Leflore Hospital filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection on April 15, 2026, saying it needed time to negotiate a possible transfer to the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Hospital officials warned in June that if the Medicaid payment did not arrive, the hospital could close by June 30. The Division of Medicaid had filed papers in bankruptcy court seeking permission to withhold a scheduled payment of roughly $2.4 million.

That tension has kept the hospital’s future tied to a series of state decisions. Judge Dewayne Thomas ordered the Division of Medicaid to make the June payment, his second intervention in the dispute. Christine Hemphill, a spokeswoman for the hospital, has also been involved publicly as the system tried to keep services stable while the case played out.

The long-term question is still whether Greenwood Leflore can move beyond month-to-month survival. The Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning Board unanimously approved UMMC’s request to take ownership of the hospital property, and the transaction was expected to be completed by Aug. 1. Officials involved in the proposed takeover have said UMMC wants to use the facility to expand health care services and training opportunities in a community hospital setting.

For now, the June payment is a short-term reprieve, not a final fix. Mississippi Division of Medicaid says MHAP is a monthly state-directed payment arrangement for MississippiCAN managed-care beneficiaries, and state projections for fiscal 2026 put the program at $1,510,325,958 statewide. A separate Mississippi Medicaid presentation said proposed Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services changes could cut MHAP by about $150 million a year for 10 years based on fiscal 2026 levels, a reminder that the pressure on Greenwood Leflore Hospital is part of a much larger funding fight.