CQC Calls on U.S. Governors to Hold Nonprofit Hospitals Accountable to Patients and Taxpayers
By Consumers for Quality Care, on February 9, 2023
For Immediate Release
February 9, 2023
Contact:
press@consumers4qualitycare.org
CQC Calls on U.S. Governors to Hold Nonprofit Hospitals Accountable to Patients and Taxpayers
Ahead of the National Governors Association Winter Meeting, Consumers for Quality Care urges the country’s governors to ensure nonprofit hospital systems put patients ahead of profits
WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the nation’s governors prepare to convene for NGA’s Winter Meeting in Washington, D.C., Consumers for Quality Care (CQC) issued an open letter to U.S. governors calling for elected officials to hold nonprofit hospital systems accountable to patients and taxpayers.
CQC, a coalition of advocates, former policymakers, and health advocacy organizations, has launched the #HospitalFail Nonprofit Hospital Scorecard campaign, calling out disturbing and predatory trends among nonprofit hospitals that are not upholding their responsibility to serve vulnerable patients in their communities in exchange for massive tax breaks.
“Nonprofit hospitals receive billions of dollars in tax breaks each year. In return, they are expected to deliver affordable and quality health care to those in their communities who need it most, particularly low-income and vulnerable patients,” wrote CQC Board members in the letter. “As CQC’s #HospitalFail Nonprofit Hospital Scorecard campaign shows, too often nonprofit hospitals are not holding up their end of the bargain.”
In the letter, CQC called on governors to implement statewide changes to help ensure nonprofit hospitals are acting like charitable institutions devoted to providing high-quality care.
Below is the full text of the open letter.
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February 9, 2023
Dear Governors:
Recent investigations by The New York Times and Axios, the documentary film inHospitable, and reports from organizations including Patient Rights Advocate, the Lown Institute, Leapfrog, and others have found that nonprofit hospitals across the country are putting profits before the well-being of their patients.
Examples include nonprofit hospitals billing low-income patients even when they are entitled to free or discounted care, saddling them with medical debt, using predatory collection practices, spending less on charity care and community benefits than they receive in tax breaks, and overcharging consumers – all while paying their executives multi-million-dollar salaries. These practices may be run-of-the-mill for big businesses, but they are at odds with what the public expects of charitable organizations.
On behalf of Consumers for Quality Care (CQC) – a coalition of advocates, former policymakers, and 31 patient and consumer advocacy organizations committed to providing a voice for patients in the health care debate – we strongly urge you to take bold action to hold nonprofit hospitals accountable for these harmful practices.
Statewide changes that could help ensure nonprofit hospitals are acting like charitable institutions devoted to providing high-quality care to those in need include:
- Enacting laws that protect your state’s most vulnerable from abusive hospital practices, such as pursuing lawsuits against patients, garnishing wages and placing liens on homes;
- Setting standards for charity care eligibility and obligations; and
- Enacting statewide standards and ceilings for common abusive practices like high interest rates on medical bills and reporting on medical debts prior to insurance determinations.
Nonprofit hospitals receive billions of dollars in tax breaks each year. In return, they are expected to deliver affordable and quality health care to those in their communities who need it most, particularly low-income and vulnerable patients. As CQC’s #HospitalFail Nonprofit Hospital Scorecard campaign shows, too often nonprofit hospitals are not holding up their end of the bargain.
Throughout your winter meeting, and when you return to your home states, we ask that you keep these issues top of mind. As a governor leading one of America’s laboratories of democracy, you have an opportunity to hold nonprofit hospitals accountable and champion patients and their needs.
Sincerely,
Hon. Donna M. Christensen, M.D., Board Member, Consumers for Quality Care
Jason Resendez, Board Member, Consumers for Quality Care
Jim Manley, Board Member, Consumers for Quality Care
Mary Smith, Board Member, Consumers for Quality Care