NATCHEZ — Effective today, Merit Health Natchez will end infusion services for two drugs, one used to treat Crohn’s disease and the other used to treat life-threatening autoimmune diseases.

Due to losing money on buying the drugs, Merit Health Natchez CEO Eric Robinson said Remicade and Intravenous Immunoglobulin (IVIG) would no longer be offered.

Robinson said in the past, when the hospital was county owned, Natchez Regional Medical Center qualified for a federal drug pricing program 340B. When Merit Health’s parent company purchased the facility, the hospital became  a taxpaying organization, which did not meet the qualifications.

“We went two years trying to hold that up and be able to continue to provide that service,” Robinson said. “Financially, it is just a difficult program on the outpatient infusion side, which we could not maintain long term.”

Robinson said before the hospital made the decision to discontinue the services, the staff worked with Riverland Medical Center to see if RMC qualified for the federal program and could offer the treatment.

“At Riverland they do qualify and participate, we were able to confirm that and make sure our patients will be able to be helped there,” Robinson said.

Robinson said no other services at the hospital would be impacted.

“It was something we had been watching and monitoring, and we made the decision it was not something we could continue to do,” Robinson said.

Robinson said he did not have ready access to how much money the hospital was losing paying for the drugs, but he said a significant gap existed between cost and reimbursement.

One patient, Trish Jeansonne, said she was not notified of the cancellation of the service until the day before her last November treatment. She did not hear it from the hospital, but another patient, she said.

Jeansonne has common variable immune deficiency, and without treatment, she is at increased risk for sickness and does not have the immune system to fight it off.

“It is life or death,” she said. “But with the medication, I can live a fairly normal life.”

Every 28 days, Jeansonne requires a 6 to 7 hour infusion of the medication, IVIG. Being on Medicare, it takes 8-12 days to get a treatment center approved.

“If I had not found out from another patient and had just gone to my next infusion, on Dec. 5, and learned they don’t do this treatment anymore, it could have been trouble,” she said. “It would have been several weeks without treatment, which would have been life threatening, especially during flu season.”

Jim Jeansonne, Trish’s husband, said when he called Riverland, he was transferred to the pharmacy and was told RMC did not carry the drug, though subsequently he said he learned at least one other local patient is receiving treatment at Riverland.

The Jeansonnes did work out a solution, driving to Baton Rouge every 28 days for treatment.

“This is our life,” Jim said. “Every 28 days, we have to be where we can get her infusion for the rest of our life.”

Jim said he was told the hospital loses $6,000 per treatment, but he had trouble with that figure because he knows Trish’s Medicare reimburses $4,000 per treatment.

Jim, who is a former CEO of a for-profit hospital, including having once served as acting CEO of Natchez Community Hospital, said he did not think Merit Health handled this well.

“Both of us have been disappointed in how this has been handled,” Trish said. “It shows no regard for the patient.”

Due to the volume of patients currently in the care of Merit, Robinson said one position has been furloughed effective the end of the year. Robinson said the one position is non-clinical, but would not provide a specific position.

Merit’s parent company, Community Health Systems, has in the past few months decided to sell three rural hospitals in northern Mississippi in a debt-reduction effort.

Robinson said this would have no impact on Natchez.

“It is not affecting us at all,” Robinson said. “We are in good shape here locally.”