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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said Tuesday that he intends to go to the Gulf Coast to sign a bill designed to bring more transparency to the way publicly owned hospitals are run.
The bill was filed in response to pension losses at Singing River Hospital in Jackson County. Financial problems existed for months before coming to light, largely because the board of the county-owned hospital routinely met in private.
"It breaks my heart to know that you find yourself in this situation," Bryant, a Republican, told more than three dozen of the hospital's retirees and their relatives who traveled to the state Capitol to push for Senate Bill 2407.
The House and Senate on Tuesday both passed the final version of the transparency bill, which would require boards of publicly run hospitals to keep most of their meetings open to the public. Boards could close meetings to discuss employment contracts for physicians or other hospital workers. They could also close meetings to discuss competitive business matters and patient information.
"No one should ever have to go (through) what you're going through," Bryant told the retirees. "Whatever we have to do to make sure it never happens again is what we should do. There are thousands of others that are working in public hospitals and in areas where we need transparency. We need to know the very first day somebody thinks something is wrong."
He won a standing ovation from the group in a crowded committee room. Many wore buttons or T-shirts with the slogan: "Do the right thing."
Sen. Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, told the retirees that their support for the bill pushed it through the House and Senate.
"It put a face to the issue," Wiggins said.
Sabrina Smith of Lucedale said her mother, Jean Manning, retired after 32 years as a pediatric nurse at Singing River Hospital and was thrown into financial uncertainty because of the pension situation.
"She can't go on any of the trips she planned. She didn't buy any Christmas presents," Smith said in an interview. "She's very upset. She can't sleep. She has anxiety. She has heart problems."
Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, who also spoke to the retirees, said Wiggins persistently pushed for the transparency bill.
"We think that the taxpayers ought to know what's going to happen to their money, and that it shouldn't be confined to cities or counties," Reeves said. "It should be all public money."
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Online: Senate Bill 2407, http://bit.ly/1zyitld .
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Follow Emily Wagster Pettus on Twitter: http://twitter.com/EWagsterPettus .
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