WATCH: Do tax-exempt hospitals adapt charity care to community needs?

By Judith Garber| July 20, 2026

To solve the healthcare affordability crisis, we need to understand what drives healthcare costs and how people access care. That’s why we’re highlighting new research related to healthcare affordability in our Lunchtime Paper Presentation series.

At this edition of Lunchtime Paper Presentations from the Lown Institute, Dr. Cory Cronin, associate professor at Ohio University’s Department of Social and Public Health was the featured speaker. Dr. Cronin shared the findings from his recent paper in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, “Do Tax-Exempt Hospitals Adapt Charity Care Policies Based on Community Health Needs Assessments?” and what the results mean for healthcare affordability.

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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.