How Brigham Health helped create a Chinese hospital for elites — and almost nobody came

Abstract:

Brigham is among the worst of more than 3,000 US hospitals in providing community benefits like health education and clinics, according to the Lown Institute, a Needham-based health care think tank.

Nonprofit hospitals like the Brigham, with tax-exempt status, should not be trying to “suck up wealth in other countries to subsidize unaffordable health care here,” said Dr. Vikas Saini, Lown’s president.

Brigham’s Evergrande project, he said, “would probably be the most egregious example of what we have been talking about.”

“This is catering to elites, and the elites didn’t show up,” he said.