Nonprofit hospitals are supposed to operate like charities, providing affordable health care to those in need while improving their communities in exchange for massive tax breaks. But the truth is that across the country ― including here in Indiana ― nonprofit hospitals are implementing toxic policies that put profits ahead of patients.
Recently, egregious, profit-seeking behaviors of nonprofit hospitals across the country have been spotlighted in investigations and reports by The New York Times, Axios, the documentary film inHospitable, Innovation for Justice and many others. Indiana health care consumers ― like those across the country ― have felt the impacts of nonprofit hospitals acting like big businesses.
Indiana nonprofit hospitals have a “fair share deficit” of $513 million dollars in aggregate. In other words, nonprofit hospitals in Indiana received a whopping $513 million more in tax breaks than they spent on charity care for low-income patients and community benefits. This isn’t surprising given the fact that nonprofit hospitals spend less on charity care than for-profit hospitals of comparable size.