Not-for-profit hospitals get three times more than they give: study

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-charity30.html

Chicago area not-for-profit hospitals get three times as much money in tax breaks compared with what they dole out in free health care to poor and uninsured people, an analysis to be unveiled today shows.

As a nationwide debate rages over whether nonprofit hospitals do enough to justify their tax-exempt status, the study by the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability quantifies for the first time what most Cook County hospitals would pay if they were on the tax rolls.

Their finding -- an estimated $326 million in tax breaks -- is too out of whack with the $105 million in free or deeply discounted "charity care" provided by the 21 hospital networks studied, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said.

[bryant69]

1. Hmmmmm

Well of course hospitals should be rewarded for providing care to poor and uninsured - they need to stay in business after all - but this might be too much?

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[silverlib]

2. This is very dangerous IMO

"Hospitals don't publicly report their specific Medicaid shortfall figures, so they weren't included in the analysis." This plays a large part of health care services.

I totally do not support private hospitals and, in fact, have told my family to never take me to one. As long as I have insurance, I will support the hospitals that take indigents and Medicaid.

It's all in how they count. I want our best hospitals to be our non-profit ones. I am also a union supporter and will really be upset if a union organization is "out to get" not for profit health care providers.

Until we have nationalized single payer health care, the non-profits are our only hope. The private hospitals are under no obligation to serve indigent or take Medicaid and they route this potential customers to the not-for-profit hospitals.

Sorry, rant is over.

[lakeguy]

7. i would suspect that medicaid patients put a very large dent in

that supposed surplus of money these types of hospitals have.

[PublicWrath]

3. Wasn't it a Chicago area hospital that would not send emergency

staff to collect a dying boy less than a block away? And his friends were pleading with them and finally had to carry his bleeding body to the hospital by themselves?

[NNN0LHI]

5. I believe it was a private hospital if my memory is correct n/t

[PublicWrath]

6. Thanks. n/t

[papau]

4. For-Profits attack non profits via partial truth lies in media ?

How much do the for-profits do in the area of money losing services?

Do they have for-profit numbers of dollars relative to population served for money-losing trauma centers and burn units. Do for-profits do money losing research?

Heck, buried deep in the article is the fact that this is just a complaint over accounting in the not for profits. If the half of the unpaid patient bills that should instead be in a "charity account" were included in "charity account" the because they are unpaid because the person can not afford the cost of care, I wonder what the comparison would look like. Indeed would these folks get care in a for-profit hospital?

As I recall recent laws have made clear that a hospital has the right to turn away folks it feels can not pay - folks need a high credit score for a home loan and medical care in a for-profit.

I love our media.

[ProfessorGAC]

8. I'm Automatically Suspicious

I no longer trust Lisa Madigan. She has been too pliable and too willing to bend to what she sees as political winds. She has been a great disappointment.

If she thinks there's a problem, i will need MUCH stronger corroboration.
The Professor