Should Nonprofit Hospitals Keep Their Tax-Exempt Status?
Nonprofit Hospitals Do Good by:
- offering services, some of which carry financial loss, that for-profit hospitals do not.
- excluding shareholders.
- conducting Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNAs) every three years.
- contributing facilities for the education, training, and residency of rising physicians.
- responding more quickly to emergencies like COVID-19 than for-profit hospitals.
- partnering with community organizations to help those that are hard to reach.
However, Nonprofit Hospitals Are Also Guilty of:
- routinely sending medical bills to patients who would qualify for financial assistance (link to Kaiser article).
- spending only 60% as much money on charity care than for-profits ($2.30 vs. $3.80 per $100 of total spending).
- allowing their CEOs to enjoy a 95% pay increase in the decade 2005--2015.
- awarding their CEOs an average compensation of $3.5m in 2017.
- taking in 15% more revenue (from 2013--2015) while spending 35% less on charity care.
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