Former Comptroller General Walker to Address U.S. Healthcare Spending at ANI
David Walker, former U.S. Comptroller General and author of three books on fiscal policies, will discuss efforts to control healthcare costs and expand coverage at ANI: The HFMA National Institute, scheduled for June 24-27 in Las Vegas, Nev.
Walker is the founder, president, and CEO of the Comeback America Initiative where he promotes fiscal responsibility and sustainability by assisting policymakers on a non-partisan basis to help achieve solutions to federal, state, and local fiscal imbalances.
Walker, who served as Comptroller General and head of the Government Accountability Office from 1998 to 2008, has authored three books. His latest one, Comeback America: Turning the Country Around and Restoring Fiscal Responsibility, reached the national best-seller list. Walker also was featured in the acclaimed documentary film on the American financial crisis, I.O.U.S.A.
In the October 2009 edition of hfm, Walker discussed cost drivers, the approach to healthcare reform, and concerns about reform proposals with HFMA President and CEO Richard L. Clarke.
“Providers in hospitals and the professionals associated with the hospital industry need to recognize the reality that we need dramatic and fundamental changes in connection with our overall healthcare system in order for it to be successful and sustainable over time,” Walker said.
“We can’t just pay for expanded healthcare coverage,” Walker continued. “We also need to achieve a significant reduction in the tens of trillions of dollars of unfunded healthcare promises that the federal government has already made. We also need to bend the total healthcare cost curve down rather than up.”