Slams hospital CEOs

Jason Smith slams hospital CEOs for the affordability crisis

At a hearing, the Ways and Means chair threatened to cut health systems’ Medicare payments.

Simon J. Levien

An animated Jason Smith took to task hospital CEOs who appeared before the Ways and Means Committee he chairs, excoriating the executives for their profit margins, compensation packages and mergers on Tuesday.

The Missouri Republican also threatened to cut hospitals’ Medicare fees to the lower levels the program pays for services in doctors’ offices — a policy called “site neutral” that could cost hospitals more than $15 billion a year. Notably, some Democrats on the panel, including Health Subcommittee ranking member Lloyd Doggett of Texas, endorsed the idea.

“Our local hospitals and physicians have been replaced by mega-corporations that put quarterly earnings over quality care,” Smith said at the hearing. “When hospitals have no competition, it’s no wonder that the sky seems to be the limit for prices.”

Smith’s turn on the executives is indicative of how much Republicans are thinking about the high cost of care — and aiming to show voters they feel their pain as the midterm elections loom.

Hospitals have said they deserve higher Medicare rates given the massive overhead of operating a 24/7 intensive clinical setting.

Smith’s remarks were aimed at chief executives from HCA Healthcare, the largest for-profit system in the U.S.; CommonSpirit Health, the largest Catholic hospital chain; ECU Health, a large rural provider in North Carolina; and New York-Presbyterian, among the wealthiest and most prestigious hospital groups.

It was the latest in a series of hearings the GOP has convened to pressure different industry sectors to cut prices. Pharma and insurance executives got dressed down at hearings earlier this year.

For their part, the hospital executives blamed insurers for failing to reimburse providers and inflation in other areas, such as drug prices.

But Smith preempted them to say the circle of blame can’t keep going around.

“When it comes to fixing the system, the only thing you all agree on, really, is that some other people, other issues — that’s the increase,” Smith said.

Democrats on the panel tried to turn the hearing into a referendum on the massive Medicaid cuts Republicans included in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Some hospitals say the cuts will threaten their solvency when they take effect next year.

The GOP’s attack on the CEOs was “more a deflection” from the cuts, said Doggett.

Last week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer gave hospital leaders some hope at an industry conference when he promised to give them “a seat at the table” when Democrats return to power.

“You give us the best advice,” Schumer said.