REGISTER: America’s Most Socially Responsible Hospitals, 2025
Register now for the webinar "America's Most Socially Responsible Hospitals" on June 25, 2025. More
PODCAST: A Philosopher-Physician’s Fight to Reclaim Medicine’s Soul | Dr. Vikas Saini (President of Lown Institute)
Dr Vikas Saini is a Cardiologist and President of the Lown Institute, where he leads a non-partisan think tank advocating bold ideas for a just and caring system for health. With a unique background combining philosophy and medicine, Dr. Saini has spent decades examining the intersection of ethics, evidence, and economics in healthcare. His work on the Social Responsibility Index challenges traditional hospital rankings by measuring what truly matters: equity, value, and patient outcomes rather than reputation and revenue."The enterprise of medicine has both scientific and moral dimensions, and they're inextricably balanced"
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Variable charity care rules risk medical debt for patients
"When hospitals fail to make access to assistance easy and predictable, it drives people away from care and erodes trust in our entire system," Saini explained. "Right now, the burden is on patients to navigate a broken system. That has to change." More
The impact of inconsistent financial assistance at hospitals: 3 notes
“This isn’t a case of red states versus blue states, or rural areas versus cities,” Vikas Saini, MD, president of the Lown Institute, said in a June 2 news release from the organization. “We’re seeing massive disparities in charity care policies between hospitals that are practically around the corner from each other. Unfortunately, low- and middle-income patients are the ones who deal with the consequences.” More
PRESS RELEASE: Inconsistent Hospital Policies Put Patients at Greater Risk of Medical Debt
Analysis of 2,500 charity care policies finds patients with identical income and medical needs could receive free care at one hospital, yet face collections or lawsuits at another. More
Past Due: How medical debt is harming Americans and the solutions we need now
Medical debt impacts tens of millions of Americans, contributing to financial harm and worse health. This report provides an overview of research on prevalence, impact, and drivers of medical debt, finishing with policy recommendations to address both the downstream problem of medical debt and the systemic issues behind the problem. Suggested citation: Past Due: How Medical Debt is Harming Americans and the Solutions We Need Now. Medical debt working group. Needham, MA: The Lown Institute, 2025. More
Tackling medical debt in America: Insights from experts and advocates
“We’re all here because this issue is a moral stain on the fabric of the country… We’re also here because if we want to fix this, we can," Dr. Vikas Saini told the crowd at the 2025 Lown conference on Medical Debt in America. More
California, New York have highest hospital property tax exemptions
Hospitals in 18 states own a total of $170 billion in assessed real property value and benefit from a total of $4.3 billion in real estate tax exemptions. However, this benefit is not spread out equally among states. More
Cleveland Clinic ranks worst in Ohio, fifth-worst across U.S. for not spending enough on community health, report says
The recently released study was conducted by the Boston-based Lown Institute, an independent healthcare think tank. The organization examined 1,800 nonprofit hospitals in 20 states, using average numbers from 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Hospitals benefit from billions in property tax exemptions
These 20 hospitals avoided nearly $1 billion in property taxes. More
How hospitals can invest in their communities: Four real-world examples
What types of initiatives are hospitals investing in to improve access to care and community health? We dug into the tax forms for some of the largest fair share surplus hospitals to find out. More
Think tank report criticizes hospital community benefit spending
Nonprofit hospitals in Colorado face renewed scrutiny over how much they spend locally compared to the tax breaks they receive. More
National list ranks Cleveland Clinic high for failing to spend on fair share of community benefits
Outside the Meijer grocery store in Fairfax, Lachelle Dixon-Harris said the Clinic and other local hospitals need to help residents afford services — especially students and elderly residents. “They should have access to affordable health care that meets their needs — those who live in the community, not those who are coming from outside of the community, not those who fly in from other countries," she said. More
Michigan nonprofit hospitals fall $605M short in community investment, report finds
Nonprofit hospitals across Michigan received far more economic benefit from their tax-exempt status than they spent annually in community support and charity care over a three-year period. More
Study finds most nonprofit Indiana hospitals didn’t reinvest as much as they saved in taxes.
Garber also noted that nonprofit hospitals, specifically, are required to gather information about their communities’ most pressing health needs. Although the IRS Form 990 filed by nonprofit organizations includes Schedule H section requesting community-related spending, the section “includes a lot of information that has nothing to do with health care at all,” she said. “There’s definitely a need for transparency on what are you doing to address the health needs,” she said.
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Hospital community investment vs. tax breaks: 9 things to know
Some Florida nonprofit hospitals aren’t using their tax breaks the way they’re expected
Saini said there isn’t a clear pattern between which hospitals choose to give back and which don’t. In fact, they often coexist. “In any given city, you can often find two hospitals — one of which is in a surplus and one of which is in a deficit,” he clarified. “So it really seems that we have a tale of two hospitals in our health care.” More
New York hospitals’ tax breaks exceed how much they spend on community benefits
New York’s nonprofit hospital sector receives tax breaks worth more than $2 billion each year, with the expectation that they’ll provide free services and invest in their communities. But dozens are falling short on community benefit spending, a new report shows. More
Report says nonprofit hospitals don’t earn their tax breaks. Endeavor pushes back.
The annual calculations by the Lown Institute call into question whether the value a nonprofit community hospital gives to communities lives up to the taxes it doesn't have to pay. More
Des Moines hospitals top Iowa’s “fair share” charity deficit list
Two major Des Moines hospitals fell $70 million short on community support despite tax breaks, according to a report released Wednesday by the nonpartisan Lown Institute. Why it matters: The gap raises questions about whether tax breaks are doing their job — and whether vulnerable Iowans are paying the price. More