Trump's health chief warns hospital execs about health care costs: 'Change is coming'

[DonViejo]

Source: The Hill




BY JESSIE HELLMANN - 03/05/18 01:27 PM EST

President Trump’s new health secretary issued a warning Monday to a room of hospital executives about soaring health care costs: change is coming, whether you like it or not.

Speaking at the Federation of American Hospitals convention in D.C., Health and Human Services Department Secretary Alex Azar laid out a series of actions the administration will take that are aimed at lowering health care costs, and warned that it wouldn’t be deterred by powerful special interests.

“Today is an opportunity to let everyone know that we take these shifts seriously, and they’re going to happen — one way or another,” Azar said.

“The administration and this president are not interested in incremental steps. We are unafraid of disrupting existing arrangements simply because they’re backed by powerful special interests.”

Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/376789-trumps-health-chief-warns-hospital-execs-about-health-care-costs-change-is

[dhol82]

1. Wonder what mischief they are up to now?

Whatever it is, it will be bad for the average person.

[LeftInTX]

2. Yeah, right......

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. My guess is cuts in payments for Medacare and Medicaid

It has to be the most sour and shitty thing you can imagine and then make it even worse.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. There is waste and fraud

but it's rarely uncovered. There are companies that feed off the overordering of big health care providers, but to reduce the juice in the system is to reduce the profits and no one is happy with that, it would cut department budgets, profits to shareholders, etc.
It's like the old Pentagon and their $500 hammers and $1,200 toilet seats.

Trump won't attack any of that. He'll take from the poor, make people pay with more deductibles or with their lives from having outpatient brainsurgery.

Whatever Trump does here you can bet it will be the dumbest thing that anyone could every conjure up.

[Cold War Spook]

5. Is it that hard for civilians to get their health records?

VA health records are all online, healthevet, you can also download all reports and all pictures like MRIs. Even my non-VA doctors have my records online.

[LeftInTX]

7. No

Around 2007, some doctors started charging for office visit records, (processing fee for the chart) but labs and MRI's etc are almost always free.

[displacedtexan]

9. Kaiser Permanente is like the VA. All of my records are online.

If I email any or all of my Drs, I hear back either the same day or the next; all of my prescription info and ordering refills are also online. Drs private message me and email me when i need to make appointments, and I can make appts online and get confirmations and reminders. My test results and even wellness suggestions and events are there, too. Everything is in one place.

[crazylikafox]

6. Soylent Green

[subterranean]

8. Sounds like they want to give Trump credit for things Obama did.

The ideas mentioned in the article -- encouraging hospitals to be more transparent with prices, experimenting with different payment models in Medicare -- were already being done under the Affordable Care Act. But Azar is trying to paint these as bold moves initiated by Trump (who he praises as a "man of courage and vision" ). There's certainly much more that can be done to bring down costs, but these are not new ideas.

[Skittles]

10. LOL

"We are unafraid of disrupting existing arrangements simply because they’re backed by powerful special interests.”

would they ever say that to the fucking NRA?

[joshdawg]

11. "powerful special interests"

I take that to mean the American public.

Azar is a liar just like his boss.

[area51]

12. "disrupting existing arrangements"

Then let's switch to enhanced Medicare for All.