ICYMI: Chairman Smith on Squawk Box: Not-for-profit hospitals “look like hedge funds with hospital beds.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) joined CNBC's Squawk Box ahead of a full Committee hearing with hospital system CEOs, highlighting the Committee's ongoing, aggressive push to hold health care empires accountable for the rising cost of and lack of access to health care in America.

Click here to watch the full interview.

Interview Excerpts

On the Ways and Means Committee's work to make health care more affordable and accessible…

"This is all part of a series of looking into various aspects of health care - of how it's broken, how it needs to become more affordable and accessible. We had the five largest health insurance CEOs before our Committee just a few months back - they pointed blame to the hospital CEOs as why individuals' health care costs are going up."

On the 14,000% increase in urban hospitals exploiting loopholes to get benefits meant for rural communities…

"Not too far from you, Andrew, in Manhattan, New York-Presbyterian, who's testifying today, they have their flagship hospital designated as a rural hospital. I don't think Manhattan's rural, but they're using it as a loophole to get billions of dollars from what should be going to rural independent hospitals. And this is a loophole over the last 6 years that we've discovered has went from three hospitals doing it to 425 different hospitals. That's a 14,000% increase!"

On hospitals charging outrageously more for the same service…

"We had a gentleman in Florida who had an emergency CT scan. It cost him $13,000, but then he did a follow-up in a medical practice - it was $79. These kinds of outrageous discrepancies are just unacceptable and we have to address them."

On not-for-profit hospitals acting more like hedge funds…

"I would say that not-for-profit hospitals… look like hedge funds with hospital beds because of how they're acting."

On consolidation and health care empires…

"I think the vertical integration within the health care system… is a complete disaster. For example, the health insurers testified before our Committee just a few months ago that they not only are health insurers, but they're PBMs, they're pharmacies, they own medical practices. Even one of them owns a bank, but they're 'health insurers?' No, they're health care empires."