The Big Health Industry Playahs (BHIP, umbrella organization including AHIP) is indeed telling its members it didn't say everything Obama says it said....

The NYTimes article caseyOR links to above is full of WORM after WORM, which have begotten WBHIPRMs (What BHIP Really Meant).

...Mr. Obama hailed their cost-cutting promise as historic.

“These groups are voluntarily coming together to make an unprecedented commitment,” Mr. Obama said. “Over the next 10 years, from 2010 to 2019, they are pledging to cut the rate of growth of national health care spending by 1.5 percentage points each year — an amount that’s equal to over $2 trillion.”

Health care leaders who attended the meeting have a different interpretation. They say they agreed to slow health spending in a more gradual way and did not pledge specific year-by-year cuts.

“There’s been a lot of misunderstanding that has caused a lot of consternation among our members,” said Richard J. Umbdenstock, the president of the American Hospital Association. “I’ve spent the better part of the last three days trying to deal with it.” (My emphasis)

"Consternation among" BHIP's members, like being told they would cut their earnings voluntarily? Like that'll happen?

And then, DeParle gets in on the WORMing:

Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform, said “the president misspoke” on Monday and again on Wednesday when he described the industry’s commitment in similar terms. After providing that account, Ms. DeParle called back about an hour later on Thursday and said: “I don’t think the president misspoke. His remarks correctly and accurately described the industry’s commitment.”

From a BHIPer's mouth:

The Washington office of the American Hospital Association sent a bulletin to its state and local affiliates to “clarify several points” about the White House meeting.

In the bulletin, Richard J. Pollack, the executive vice president of the hospital association, said: “The A.H.A. did not commit to support the ‘Obama health plan’ or budget. No such reform plan exists at this time.”

Moreover, Mr. Pollack wrote, “The groups did not support reducing the rate of health spending by 1.5 percentage points annually.”

He and other health care executives said they had agreed to squeeze health spending so the annual rate of growth would eventually be 1.5 percentage points lower.

How will Obama handle this? How did he understand it so differently from what BHIP now states it told him? Who was told? Who told Obama? What level of multi-dimensional chess is this?

Let the games begin!

*BHIPpers, alternate form BHIPers. Which is the best spelling for members of BHIP? Hhhmmm...neologisms can be fun. Then again, is an acronym an actual neologism?