Brookhaven Daily Leader
KDMC one of 10 hospitals to receive federal grant funding
By Daily Leader Staff
Twenty rural hospitals and health providers in Mississippi will receive federal grant funding through a program created to help them sustain their workforces and continue to provide care. King’s Daughters Medical Center in Brookhaven is one of those hospitals.
Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, of Brookhaven, announced the grants Sept. 15. As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, the senator helped secure the $24.7 million in FY2026 for the Rural Hospital Provider Assistance Program. The grant program is administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration, which recently approved grants to 132 hospitals nationwide.
“I encouraged providers in Mississippi to apply for these funds because I know that every little bit helps in the struggle to maintain services and keep the doors open. This effort is more difficult because of structural payment disadvantages linked to Mississippi’s low average wage index, which is a problem Congress must address,” Hyde-Smith said. “I’m pleased these eligible hospitals availed themselves of these federal resources.”
The Rural Hospital Provider Assistance Program award is formula-based and calculated by dividing the total available funding ($24,750,000 in FY2026) equally among eligible rural hospitals that apply. As such, Mississippi facilities will receive $3.75 million in total or just over $187,500 per facility:
• Kings Daughters Medical Center, Brookhaven
• Anderson Regional Medical Center-South Campus, Meridian
• Baptist Memorial Hospital, Booneville
• Clay County Medical Corporation, West Point
• George County Hospital, Lucedale