University Hospital executive says region’s low health care costs not touted enough
But the region might be missing an opportunity to promote the relative affordability of that care, the chief executive of the area's largest health system told business leaders Wednesday.
"I think that is a ticket we have not pushed enough when we're recruiting businesses to
Davis referenced a Medicare metric that rewarded low-cost markets prior to passage of the Affordable Care Act.
"All of our hospitals got bonuses for that," Davis said. "I think that (low-cost care) continues today. Even though health care spending is high, I think in
But Davis, a health care executive for more than three decades, acknowledged the industry needs to do a better job of cost-cutting through economies of scale, better use of information technology and reduced administrative costs.
"The big issue for us is as an industry is we just cost too darn much. We do. And you won't hear many guys say that in my position," said Davis, whose system includes
Though rising pharmaceutical prices and health care wages are a major expense, Davis said roughly a quarter of hospital expenses don't involve the actual care, such as haggling with health insurers.
"For every one of their folks trying to deny care, I've got one or two trying to get that approved and overturned," he said. "It's a crazy system. You couldn't imagine a more ineffective way of delivering care and paying for it."
Davis said he believes post-Obamacare reductions in Medicare reimbursements -- University estimates its ACA-related Medicare loss will be
"What you're seeing today is a lot of red states that kind of resisted going into Obamacare ... those hospitals have been kind of penalized," he said. "Whereas the blue states they are doing better."
Davis said Obamacare has essentially been "gutted."
"It isn't quite panning out the way it was supposed to. But the one thing that keeps going are Medicare cuts," he said. "Not one politician has said, 'Hey, we messed up Obamacare, why don't we give the hospital back their
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