A recent investigation found that Allina Health System has been rejecting patients with unpaid medical bills. Why is this allowed, and are other hospitals doing it? More
What can we learn about hospital carbon emissions from the EPA's "Energy Star" program? More
However, a health-care think tank, Lown Institute, found that more than three quarters of the 1,773 nonprofit hospitals in the US it examined shortchanged communities by providing less charity care and investments than the value of their tax breaks. Its most recent Fair Share Spending report shows a total “fair share” deficit of $14.2 billion for those hospitals in 2020. More
Should Medicare pay more for the same service delivered in an outpatient facility when it's owned by a hospital? That's the key question behind the push for site-neutral payments, a policy change that federal and state policymakers are considering. More
Hospitals still have a long way to go. A recent analysis by the Lown Institute, a health care think tank, found that more than three-quarters of nonprofit hospitals spent less on charity care and community investment than they reaped in tax breaks. More
What is the hospital community benefit standard and why is it getting so much attention? If you want to get up to date fast on this key health policy issue, we've got you covered... More
An April report from the Lown Institute, a think tank on health-care equity, said nonprofit hospitals are spending less on charity care than they receive in benefits from their tax-exempt status. More
“I think what's interesting to me about Saint Vincent Charity Medical Center is that they do really very well on our measures of clinical outcomes and of value, which is to say avoiding unnecessary treatments and, you know, being cost efficient in what they do,” Dr. Vikas Saini said. More
A detailed recap of our Fair Share launch event, featuring health policymakers and experts from California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and Oregon. More
"It’s an open secret that not all spending hospitals can claim as community benefits are actually meaningful for community health," the nonprofit's president, Vikas Saini, and policy analyst, Judith Garber, wrote. "The broad definition of community benefit — one of many loopholes in the U.S. tax code — allows hospitals to include spending on items that don’t directly address community health needs. That’s why we focused on the spending that matters most for local communities, some of which are losing tens of millions of dollars in property tax revenue to support nonprofit hospitals." More
“In the last 30 years, there’s been a huge increase in the amount of administrators in hospitals and the money that’s flowing through the health care system,” said Dr. Vikas Saini, a physician and president of the Lown Institute, a health care think tank.
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"Hospitals that serve working people tend to have lower margins, lower profits, and less of a cushion in the event of a crisis," said Dr. Vikas Saini, a physician and the president of the Lown Institute, a health care think tank. More
According to a new report by the Lown Institute, close to 80% of more than 1,700 nonprofit hospitals studied “spent less on charity care and community investment than the estimated value of their tax breaks.” The report also found that this so-called “fair share” deficit, which was $14.2 billion in 2020, was “enough to erase the medical debts of 18 million Americans or rescue the finances of more than 600 rural hospitals at risk of closure.” More
Are New York hospitals spending enough on charity care and community investments to justify receiving tax exemptions? The answer is no, says nonpartisan health policy think tank Lown Institute, for a total of 26 hospitals spread across the state.
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How are hospital finances doing? The short answer is, it depends on the type of hospital... More
Every major hospital in central Ohio is expanding, as some are building bigger facilities and some are including more in-patient beds. That’s also true for the rest of the state and across the U.S. What’s driving this construction boom and who will fill all the beds and pick up the tab?
Guests:
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"We already knew UPMC was ripping us off, exploiting our hospital workers to the point of a staffing crisis that puts our loved ones’ lives at risk, and leaving our most marginalized communities behind without access to care," Lee, a Pittsburgh Democrat, said in a statement. "But the fact that we now know that UPMC is cheating our community out of $246 million on the backs of taxpayers is shameful beyond reprieve." More
“There needs to be a paradigm shift,” Saini said. “What we need from hospitals in the 21st century is different from how we used to do things. Our goal with this is to ask a series of questions, ask everybody … to examine the question: how we should be doing this? Because the way we’re doing it, is not really meeting the needs of communities.” More
“We’re starting to see policymakers and communities hold hospitals accountable for their social responsibility,” said Dr. Vikas Saini, president of the Lown Institute, said during a webinar Tuesday about the report. “For example, state and local officials in Atlanta and the Georgia NAACP recently filed a federal complaint against Wellstar Health System for closing two hospitals known for serving the Black community while planning to open a new hospital in a whiter and wealthier area.” More
"Americans desperately need hospitals to use their billions in tax breaks as intended: to promote health while relieving the problems of medical debt and access to care," said Dr. Vikas Saini, president of the Lown Institute. "These are charitable organizations and they should do a better job at prioritizing social responsibility over profitability." More