Mississippi Medicaid director Drew Snyder resigns

Mississippi Division of Medicaid Executive Director Drew Snyder is resigning after nearly seven years serving in the position. He will serve until the end of the month.

Gov. Tate Reeves appointed Cindy Bradshaw, the division’s deputy executive director for eligibility, to replace Snyder.

The Magnolia Tribune first reported the news.

Snyder declined to say where he would go next. He would only confirm it was a job in the private sector.

Snyder has led the division since Dec. 2017, when he was appointed by then-governor Phil Bryant. He previously served as Bryant’s policy director and counsel. 

The Division of Medicaid provides health insurance to over 700,000 low-income Mississippians, including children, pregnant women and disabled adults. 

Bradshaw served as Mississippi’s State Insurance Administrator before joining the Division of Medicaid. 

“Drew Snyder has done a great job as executive director of Division of Medicaid, and I wish him all the best in his future endeavors,” said House Medicaid Chair Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg.

The Division of Medicaid and Gov. Tate Reeves’ office did not respond to Mississippi Today’s request for comment by press time. 

“Mississippi Medicaid is in the best fiscal shape in its history,” said Snyder at the Joint Legislative Budget Committee Hearing Sep. 26, less than two weeks before announcing his resignation. 

He said today, the agency’s budget represents 9.2% of the state’s total state support appropriation, down from 16% in fiscal year 2016, two years before he was appointed. 

Synder acknowledged that the state’s appropriation would increase in coming years due to reduced public health emergency federal spending and dwindling surplus funds.

Snyder took the helm at the division during a time of conflict between the division and the governor’s office. Prior Medicaid director David Dzielak was asked to resign just weeks before the 2018 legislative session after he requested an additional $47.3 million to close the gap in the agency’s budget and failed to voice agreement with Bryant’s plan for the Mississippi Department of Human Services to take over insurance eligibility determinations.

Snyder joined Mississippi Medicaid as controversy bloomed over the decision to award the division’s lucrative managed care contracts to three for-profit companies over nonprofit Mississippi True, which is managed by Mississippi hospital leaders. Though legislators made efforts to allow Mississippi True to re-bid for the contract, Magnolia Health, United Healthcare and Molina Healthcare ultimately kept the contract. 

He also oversaw the agency through the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw enrollment numbers soar to over 900,000 Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program enrollees in May 2023 and drop to 705,000 by July 2024. During the pandemic, states were not allowed to remove beneficiaries from their rolls. In April 2023, the division was again required to review beneficiaries’ eligibility, beginning the “unwinding” process.

Snyder oversaw the rollout of extended postpartum coverage for Mississippi mothers and the beginnings of a new law allowing pregnant women to access prenatal care that went into effect in July. 

The program is currently on hold as the division works with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which requested to review additional information from the state.

Before joining Bryant’s team, Synder served as an assistant secretary of state for policy and research under Delbert Hosemann.

The director of the division serves at the pleasure of the governor and is required to meet one of three criteria: be a physician with health administration experience, hold a degree in medical administration or have three years’ experience developing policy for Medicaid programs.