Dr. Bill Hennessey on Trump's plan for affordable healthcare

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Doctor Bill Hennessy joins US now. He's the billing Integrity
Officer with care Guide, which is a company that fiercely
negotiates the outrageous medical bills on behalf of patients. Doctor Bill,
welcome back in Thanks for being here, sure.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Thing, glad to be here and help you. Everybody needs
to pay less for their hospital bills.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
One hundred percent. And I got to tell you, as
Donald Trump's coming in, he's got big plans and shaking
up the health care industry. But I got to tell
you one way to get the attention is have a
story like what's gone down with the United Healthcare CEO
being assassinated in New York. And the indications are, at
least from some of the evidence that the person that
did this had a problem leaving that monopoly money behind.

(00:39):
And also, you know the three words from the book
that talked about how to deny people claims and not
pay for things. So this is a monster problem in
our country, the cost of health care. So when Trump
takes office, what can he do to make health care
more affordable.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Well, he's kind of start enforcing laws that are on
the books, not just at our border, but in healthcare.
So federal price transparency mandates exist for United Healthcare and
others as well as hospitals. They're not following the law.
That's causing us an awful lot of harm, anger, and frustration.

(01:17):
So the fines are going to be coming. We're going
to be able to deregulate. And that's another President Trump theme.
Let's turn business and capitalism loose. In other words, let's
get our drugs from overseas where they can be as
little as ten cents on the dollar. What we're being
charged and ripped off here in the country.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Well, when you talk about the CAUs, I mean, that's
one thing. But the job of that CEO or any
CEO is to bring the bottom line to the stockholders
and the board and show them at the meetings that
we're doing great. We're making gobs of money here. And
if he doesn't and it starts to decline and go
the other way, the board's going to replace them. So
they're looking at after their own skin. Is there anything

(02:01):
that can be done to regulate You talk about deregulations,
but you know, regulate the amount of cost that's thrown
out there.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Well, you know, you have solutions that are at the
government level at the employer level and at the patient
level to try to fix health care. All those three
up to this time, I'm least impressed with the government.
There's so much labbying money twenty million dollars by the
American Hostel Association per year, over one hundred million by

(02:32):
insurance companies per year that they buy off both sides
of the aisle. But the nice thing about a Trump
is or an RFK or elon musk at this point,
these gentlemen didn't have to do this. They're not trying
to get re elected. I think we're actually going to
see some business component to enforcing laws and deregulating in

(02:54):
a way that's a favorite to help us pay less
for health care and time.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
All of us minions down here on the other side
of the coin that have to pay these astronomical hospital
bills take it and like it. There are things that
we can do, and we've talked about it before. Challenge
it right.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
One hundred percent. First of all, if you just need
routine care, don't go to the hospital. Use the hospital
for this thing called hospitalization. Hospitals are the most expensive
place to get routine care. But yes, beforehand, it is
your federal legal right to know the cash price, and
if you have United Healthcare, the United price and you

(03:31):
decide if you use your insurance or not, you're allowed
to know both prices. I admit it's a ten minute
to twenty minute homework assignment, but you cannot afford to
not do this unpleasant task right now because of the
cost of healthcare.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
All right, Let's say I'm going to have an appendectomy
and the whole thing, with anesthesias, stay in the hospital, doctors,
blah blah blah, comes down to thirty thousand dollars. All right,
I got the price, Now what do I do with it?

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Well, that's probably not the best example. There are electives appendectomies,
but by the way, that's a ten thousand and twelve
thousand dollars care item all in. But we could call
and or email the price estimation team at the hospital
and say, what's my appendct to be going to cost?
A better example is ninety nine out of one hundred

(04:18):
of us just need groutine care. So okay, ask for
what your blood work, your mammogram, or your upper giscope costs,
and you can get that put in writing and emailed
to you and hold them accountable. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
My question is that once you have that data as
a patient, how do I get the cost down? Just
call them and say, hey, look this is too high
for me. Will you take one hundred bucks instead of
two hundred?

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah, there is that negotiat That's what my Company Care
Guide does. We do negotiate those bills. Listen on the
front end those agreements they have you sign that say
you agree to pay anything we say, but we're not
going to tell you and we're just going to give
you a surprise. That's not legally binding. It's only legally
binding if both parties provide informed consent. So if they

(05:02):
don't tell you the price, which is on purpose, you
can't agree to the price you didn't tell So we
start right then and there and saying we're only going
to pay for what the care is worth because we
don't have a specific fee for service agreement with you.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
All Right, Very good, doctor Bill Hennessy, thank you for
the insight, buddy. Once again, the Company Care Guide negotiating
for patients on these astronomical expenses.