Greenwood Leflore Hospital weighing possible takeover bid by UMMC, letter of intent shows ...Middle East

Greenwood Leflore Hospital signed a letter of intent to discuss the possibility of the University of Mississippi Medical Center taking over its services, according to state and local officials and an excerpted document obtained by Mississippi Today. 

The public hospital in Greenwood has faced financial struggles for years and warned as recently as December that it was on the brink of closure because of debt owed to the Mississippi Division of Medicaid.

In a Friday filing in Hinds Chancery Court, Gary Marchand, the hospital’s former interim CEO who now serves as a consultant for the Greenwood Leflore Hospital’s board, said the hospital’s financial condition has not improved since December. He said if the Division of Medicaid resumes collecting the debt — which is scheduled this month — the hospital will likely be forced to close. 

“GLH is also exploring options to lease, sell or otherwise transfer the hospital to a larger healthcare system, which would allow GLH to continue to provide services to the people in its service area,” Marchand wrote. 

To allow for a possible transition, state lawmakers hurried Senate Bill 3230 through the legislative process this week to allow the public hospital to file for bankruptcy. The bill cleared both chambers Friday and will go to the governor’s desk in coming days. 

Sen. Rita Parks, a Republican from Corinth and chair of the Local and Private Committee, said Wednesday that lawmakers were rapidly moving the bill through the statehouse because it is necessary for Greenwood Leflore Hospital to file for bankruptcy so another entity can take it over. 

“We do have another hospital that is waiting at the door to come in,” said Parks, who did not name the hospital during the committee meeting or an interview with Mississippi Today. 

Christine Hemphill, a spokesperson for Greenwood Leflore Hospital, declined to comment. UMMC spokesperson Patrice Guilfoyle declined to answer questions about how a potential acquisition of Greenwood Leflore Hospital might affect services or its financial outlook.

An excerpted version of the Feb. 11 letter of intent, which is on UMMC stationery, outlines the terms for discussing a possible transaction in which Greenwood Leflore Hospital would contribute all land, facilities, assets and operations to UMMC, the state’s only academic medical center, or its affiliate. The donation would include clinics, ancillary facilities and physician practices, and it would give UMMC full authority and control over the hospital.

Representatives for the City of Greenwood and Leflore County, the joint owners of the hospital, and the hospital’s board signed the letter between Feb. 17 and Feb. 23, agreeing to the terms for negotiating the transaction.

“The purpose of this arrangement is to ensure financially viable healthcare services are available to the community served by GLH,” said the letter, signed by Dr. Alan Jones, UMMC’s associate vice chancellor for health affairs.

The letter of intent does not commit the Greenwood hospital to any agreement, but merely opens discussions into the matter with UMMC, said Leflore County Supervisor Anjuan Brown. He added that he is open to any arrangement — a sale, lease or continued county ownership — that would ensure medical care remains available in Leflore County. 

“My ultimate goal is to sustain, and have some type of medical care for our people in our city and our county,” Brown said. “I think UMMC is a great institution that could help our community.”

Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee Chair Hob Bryan, a Democrat from Amory, said he has been involved in discussions with UMMC about the future of Greenwood Leflore Hospital. He emphasized that he does not wish to impose a solution for the hospital upon the Greenwood area, but keeping the hospital in Greenwood open is a matter of “statewide interest.”

He said in discussions with UMMC he felt optimistic the medical center taking over the hospital could lead to more services available to the Greenwood area, though it may not return to its previous size. 

The hospital suspended the use of 173 beds in 2023 to control costs, according to a federal audit. 

Leflore County Board of Supervisors President Eric Mitchell confirmed that the board signed the letter of intent, but declined to comment further. 

Greenwood Mayor Kenderick Cox and City Council President Ronnie Stevenson declined to comment to Mississippi Today.

It is not the first time the hospital has discussed a potential agreement with the state’s largest public hospital system. UMMC and Greenwood Leflore Hospital entered into discussions about a possible partnership in the summer of 2022, but negotiations fell apart without a deal. 

The failed agreement with UMMC was one of many efforts the hospital made in recent years to shore up its bottom line. Before the COVID-19 pandemic began, the hospital was losing up to $9 million a year, Marchand previously told Mississippi Today. To keep its doors open, the hospital shut down departments and clinics, went up for lease multiple times, drew down millions of dollars in credit, applied for grants from the state Legislature and pursued a more lucrative hospital designation.

The hospital faced yet another challenge in 2025 when it was forced to begin repaying funds to the Division of Medicaid that were disbursed as a part of a state program designed to support struggling hospitals. The program makes payments to hospitals based on previous years’ data and routinely reconciles payments to hospitals’ actual patient volumes. The high payments to Greenwood Leflore Hospital did not account for reduced patient volumes after the hospital closed its labor and delivery and intensive care units in 2022.

The repayments were paused until March to give the hospital time to secure a bond, an agreement reached at a December court hearing.

On Friday, Greenwood Leflore filed a supplemental affidavit to the hospital’s motion to stay recoupments. In the filing, Marchand wrote that Greenwood Leflore Hospital has in good faith exhausted all reasonable efforts to obtain a bond, including working with 10 surety companies through two agents and negotiating directly with the Division of Medicaid. Surety companies are specialized financial institutions that issue bonds to guarantee that a business will fulfill contractual obligations to another party.

The hospital needs four to six months to complete negotiations pertaining to the lease, sale or transfer of the hospital, and for the repayments to be stayed, Marchand said.

If the recoupments resume as scheduled for March, “the likelihood of successfully completing these negotiations will be irreparably harmed,” he said, pointing to the value of staff remaining at the facility and the ongoing maintenance of property and equipment. 

State lawmakers have crafted legislation to help the struggling hospital during this year’s legislative session, but many of the measures proposed to help Greenwood Leflore Hospital have died. 

On March 3, a bill died that would have required the Division of Medicaid to give providers 12 months to return funds if immediate repayment would cause financial hardship. The Senate Medicaid and Accountability, Efficiency, Transparency committees opted not to bring the measure up for consideration. A Senate bill with similar provisions was passed out of committee but died on the calendar Feb. 12. 

Lawmakers also advanced a separate proposal that would have allocated funds to parties seeking to buy or lease the hospital, but it died Feb. 12 without being taken up on the floor. The bill, authored by House Public Health and Human Services Chairman Sam Creekmore, would have authorized the city of Greenwood and Leflore County to sell or lease the hospital within the next year. It also would have appropriated $10 million to a potential new owner, provided they continue to operate the emergency room and swing-bed program.

Creekmore, a Republican from New Albany, said during a Feb. 3 House Public Health and Human Services committee meeting that he and Bryan met with the hospital board twice in recent months.

“It was evident they did not want to be in the hospital business anymore,” Creekmore said. “They want to sell or lease it.” 

According to the letter of intent signed by UMMC and Greenwood Leflore Hospital, the parties will not engage in other proposals of sale, transfer or merger of Greenwood Leflore Hospital for 180 days after the execution of the letter of intent. The hospitals can terminate their agreement to negotiate if they both agree or with 30 days prior written notice. 

Hence then, the article about greenwood leflore hospital weighing possible takeover bid by ummc letter of intent shows was published today ( Saturday 07/03/2026 - 02:27 AM ) and is available on Mississippi Today ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.

Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Greenwood Leflore Hospital weighing possible takeover bid by UMMC, letter of intent shows )

Also on site :

• Warning Issued as Thousands Told to Stay Inside for 37 Hours
• Watch the N.H. Liquor & Wine Outlet video that’s lowkey going viral
• Coalition Of Public Interest Groups Call For State Attorneys General To Challenge Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery Merger