Aug 19, 2026 · 23 min · 9 segments
The Oklahoma Hospital Association invited Republican gubernatorial runoff candidate Mike Mazzei to participate in a video interview discussing issues important to Oklahoma healthcare. As part of the…
Mike MazzeiGuestRich RasmussenHostReading is a gateway to success, and particularly higher education, if that's the choice.
You know, when we talk about workforce in our rural communities, it's a challenge.
It is a challenge to be able to recruit physicians, nurse practitioners, and just maintaining the workforce that you need to keep that rural hospital viable.
And one of the things that we've relied upon for that has been the supplemental payment program that Congress created, which now they're cutting, unfortunately.
But Congress created the supplemental payment program in Medicaid that has really shored up the finances for rural hospitals.
In fact, we're going to release a report in the next week that's going to look at before managed care and directed payment programs and after care.
And it's an incredible difference between our operating margins and our total margins.
And so if you're elected governor, you're going to have to help us figure out how do we fix this? Because I don't think we, if Congress doesn't step back, We've got between the hospital cut of $6.7 billion and a billion from the docs.
It's almost $8 billion taken out of our health care economy, and that's going to be painful to folks.
So your thoughts on how we can collaborate on trying to address this issue, even if it's nothing more than, hey, an openness.
I may not have the ideas, but let's work together and see what we can come up with one.
Part of my success in business and particularly at the state capitol was a listening ear, respectful dialogue, and ongoing collaboration with the stakeholders of whatever issue or projects we're dealing with.
It took me seven years, Rich, to fix the pension systems for police officers, teachers, firefighters.
And everyone knew it was a problem, but it was hard to educate everybody on what the solutions and options were.
If we hadn't have done that, these retirees of ours would be receiving 30 to 50% less of their pension payments or our income tax rate would be 10%.
So we need that same type of collaboration with all stakeholders in the healthcare universe.
It found that because of some of the lax verification processes, there was $1.6 billion of questionable expenses every year.
Reading is a gateway to success, and particularly higher education, if that's the choice.
You know, when we talk about workforce in our rural communities, it's a challenge.
It is a challenge to be able to recruit physicians, nurse practitioners, and just maintaining the workforce that you need to keep that rural hospital viable.
And one of the things that we've relied upon for that has been the supplemental payment program that Congress created, which now they're cutting, unfortunately.
But Congress created the supplemental payment program in Medicaid that has really shored up the finances for rural hospitals.
In fact, we're going to release a report in the next week that's going to look at before managed care and directed payment programs and after care.
And it's an incredible difference between our operating margins and our total margins.
And so if you're elected governor, you're going to have to help us figure out how do we fix this? Because I don't think we, if Congress doesn't step back, We've got between the hospital cut of $6.7 billion and a billion from the docs.
It's almost $8 billion taken out of our health care economy, and that's going to be painful to folks.
So your thoughts on how we can collaborate on trying to address this issue, even if it's nothing more than, hey, an openness.
I may not have the ideas, but let's work together and see what we can come up with one.
Part of my success in business and particularly at the state capitol was a listening ear, respectful dialogue, and ongoing collaboration with the stakeholders of whatever issue or projects we're dealing with.
It took me seven years, Rich, to fix the pension systems for police officers, teachers, firefighters.
And everyone knew it was a problem, but it was hard to educate everybody on what the solutions and options were.
If we hadn't have done that, these retirees of ours would be receiving 30 to 50% less of their pension payments or our income tax rate would be 10%.
So we need that same type of collaboration with all stakeholders in the healthcare universe.
It found that because of some of the lax verification processes, there was $1.6 billion of questionable expenses every year.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
