Louisiana

#HospitalFails

While nonprofit hospitals are organized as charities to deliver affordable health care to those in their communities who need it most, many of America’s largest nonprofits are making big money. Nonprofit hospitals around the country are paying executives exorbitant salaries and adopting policies that put profits over patients, like pursuing predatory collection practices, closing hospitals that serve underserved areas but aren’t performing financially and failing to provide free or reduced-cost care for qualifying low-income patients. Too often, these policies are combined with poor health care outcomes for patients.

Last updated: June 25, 2025 at 3:42am

Charity Care Spending

Louisiana nonprofit hospitals averaged a “fair share deficit” of $315 million dollars from 2020 to 2022, according to the Lown Institute Hospitals Index. In other words, Louisiana’s nonprofit hospitals pocketed a whopping $315 million more in tax breaks than they spent on community benefits and charity care for low-income patients. In fact, the Lown Institute found that 68% of Louisiana’s nonprofit hospitals averaged a fair share deficit for that period.¹

Medical Debt and Consumer Protections

Louisiana’s consumer protection policies for medical debt are rated as “weak.” For example, Louisiana:

Does not prohibit medical providers from seizing patients’ bank accounts to collect a medical debt.
Does not prohibit hospitals from selling a patient’s medical debt.
Does not require hospitals to offer a reasonable payment before sending a patient’s bill to collections, harming their credit.
Does not require hospitals to screen patients for insurance eligibility and eligibility for other programs or discounts.²

Additionally, according to analysis by the Urban Institute of credit data from February 2022, 18% of Louisianans are carrying medical debt, more than the national average of 13%.³

Price Transparency

A survey of 2,000 hospitals nationwide from July to November 2024 found that only 6 of the 39 Louisiana hospitals reviewed – or just 15% – had complied with federal regulations requiring all hospitals to post their prices online and make them easily accessible and searchable.⁴

The Burden of Medical Debt in Louisiana

In Louisiana, an average of 11.1% of adults in a given year (or 380,000 people) reported having medical debt, according to a Peterson-KFF analysis of data from 2019 to 2021. That’s more than the national average of 8.6%.⁵

Medical Debt in Collections

Based on credit bureau data from August 2023, Urban Institute found that 8% of Louisianans have medical debt in collections, more than the national average of 5%. In Louisiana’s communities of color, roughly 9% of people have medical debt in collections, exceeding the 6% national average.⁶

Hospital Overcharging

On average, from 2020 to 2022, hospitals in Louisiana charged patients with private insurance an average of 231% of what they charged Medicare patients for the same services.⁷

Grade: #HospitalFail

Lown Institute, “Making the hospital tax exemption work for communities, An analysis of nonprofit hospitals in twenty states,” April 2025, https://lownhospitalsindex.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/fair-share-2025-national-report-20250409.pdf, pg. 15
Innovation for Justice, University of Arizona and the University of Utah, “Medical Debt Policy Scorecard,” October 2021, https://www.medicaldebtpolicyscorecard.org/state/LA
Urban Institute, “Debt in America: An Interactive Map,” June 2022, https://apps.urban.org/features/debt-interactive-map/?type=medical&variable=medcoll&state=22
PatientRightsAdvocate.org, “Seventh Semi-Annual Hospital Price Transparency Compliance Report,” November 2024, https://www.patientrightsadvocate.org/seventh-semi-annual-hospital-price-transparency-report-november-2024, pg. 28
Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, “Access & Affordability: The Burden of Medical Debt in the United States,” February 2024, https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/the-burden-of-medical-debt-in-the-united-states/
Urban Institute, “Debt in America: An Interactive Map,” September 2024, https://apps.urban.org/features/debt-interactive-map/?type=medical&variable=medcoll&state=22
Rand Corporation, “Prices Paid to Hospitals by Private Health Plans: Findings from Round 5.1 of an Employer-Led Transparency Initiative,” December 2024, https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1144-2-v2.htm

Consumers for Quality Care (CQC) is a coalition of advocates and former policymakers working to provide a voice for patients in the health care debate as they demand better care. CQC is led by a board of directors that includes the Honorable Donna Christensen, physician and former Member of Congress; Jim Manley, former senior advisor to Senators Edward Kennedy and Harry Reid; Jason Resendez, community advocate and health care strategist; and Mary L. Smith, former CEO of the Indian Health Service.