JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – Three more major healthcare systems notified the Mississippi Hospital Association (MHA) that they will be ending their memberships.

Oschner Health, the North Mississippi Medical Center and Merit Health are the latest to leave the association. They joined the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) and hospitals on the coast in leaving the group.

The departures come less than a month after the MHA dontated $250,000 to Brandon Presley’s gubernatorial campaign. Presley is running as a Democrat.

According to the MHA’s president, the donation was not a political decision, but it was a policy one.

“You have a candidate coming forward that has vowed as a key part of his platform to improve health care in the state of Mississippi and to expand Medicaid. How can anybody blame the hospital association for supporting that candidate? This is not a Republican or Democrat issue at all. This is a policy issue,” said Tim Moore, president & CEO of the MHA.

Presley vowed to open up Mississippi to billions in federal funding through expanding Medicaid, a cause the MHA has lobbied for before.

Gov. Tate Reeves (R-Miss.) has long opposed expanding Medicaid and is skeptical of how much it would help.

“That’s not going to fix it all. We’ve gone too far down the road. Medicaid expansion is a significant piece of the puzzle. There has to be a solution to the revenue problem that we have in the state and that’s not just Medicaid,” said Moore.

Acting as a lobbying and advocacy group for the Mississippi healthcare industry, the MHA relies on a unified front to best serve the state’s hospitals. Amidst the departures, the focus remains the same.

“Our hospitals are in desperation. I’m not going to not do the right thing because somebody has fallen out of this position. It’s still the patient is the end result of who we are working for, and we need to make sure we focus on that,” stated Moore.