Cleveland nonprofit hospitals get millions in property tax breaks. Many are asking, ‘Is it worth it?’

Abstract: In 2019, the Cleveland Clinic along with other Northeast Ohio hospitals, received more in tax breaks than they spent on charity care or community investments, according to a recent report by the Lown Institute, a think tank that studies hospital systems. That year, the Cleveland Clinic had the fourth largest tax-break-to-community-benefit-spending deficit in the country, according to the report. It received $611 million more in tax breaks than it spent on charity care and community investment. “There's a lot of good that comes out of the hospitals,” Saini said. “But this is very much about trying to understand … what can we see that is directly beneficial to the community?"