Consumers for Quality Care’s (CQC) Nonprofit Hospital Scorecards call out alarming trends that highlight how nonprofit hospitals use aggressive and predatory collection practices and exploit their tax-exempt status while falling short on their charitable obligations. Nonprofit hospitals in all 50 states and the District of Columbia reap millions, and sometimes billions, of dollars in tax breaks, often while failing to provide transparent pricing information and devoting too few resources to charity care and other community benefits.
These predatory nonprofit hospital practices leave many patients mired in debt, stuck with medical bills they can’t afford to pay.
Explore the interactive map below to see how nonprofit hospitals in every state across the country are earning a #HospitalFail by prioritizing profits over patients.
“By tightening their grip over healthcare, corporate tycoons place profits over patients. Big bucks over the Hippocratic oath.”
– Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ)
“The level of community benefit, which includes charity care provided by tax-exempt hospitals has been inadequate compared to the value of their tax exemption.”
– Rep. Adrian Smith (R-NE)
“In recent years… tax-exempt hospitals have pursued aggressive debt collection, denied charity care to those who qualify, & have engaged in anti-competitive practices at the expense of patients & taxpayers.”
– Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA)
“Nonprofit hospitals derive substantial benefits from their tax-exempt status, but in some cases aren’t providing the charity care that their nonprofit status requires. Nonprofit hospitals have an obligation to serve indigent patients and not try to push them off on other hospitals, but the numbers show they aren’t doing this.”
– Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL)
“We are increasingly hearing about how some nonprofit hospitals are making it difficult for eligible patients to get financial assistance, are delaying checking patients’ eligibility for financial assistance, and are sometimes engaging in aggressive billing and debt collection practices.”
– Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL)
“[Nonprofit] hospitals often don’t help needy patients, even those who qualify.”
– Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL)
“We don’t have the transparency necessary to fully understand what community benefits are being provided [from nonprofit hospitals].”
– Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL)
“How challenging it can be for the IRS to determine whether a nonprofit hospital is providing sufficient community benefits because the requirements are so ambiguous.”
– Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA)
“Despite the benefits, we know that there needs to be increased oversight [of nonprofit hospitals] … How can the federal government increase oversight of tax-exempt hospitals to ensure that their practices are consistent with the law?”
– Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA)
“Clearly we need to have oversight so we can see if folks aren’t receiving the benefits [from nonprofit hospitals] they deserve.”
– Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA)
“It looks like a patient with financial insecurity needs to fill out more paperwork to receive financial aid than it does for a hospital to obtain nonprofit status.”
– Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX)
“This is absurd. Absolutely absurd. We have charity care going on in this country where CEOs and executives are paid millions of dollars, getting taxpayer money, to run these [nonprofit] hospitals.”
– Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC)
“This needs to be a reckoning with board rooms across the country, especially in nonprofits. Nonprofits. Charity care. That we need to re-examine CEO pay. Because it’s just not right.”
Meet Robbing Hood. Evolving from his origins as an aide to those in need to the exact opposite – someone who takes from the poor and gives to the rich – Robbing Hood embodies the progression of America’s nonprofit hospitals.
Over the years, hospitals have changed from charitable, essential pillars of the communities in which they operate to big businesses whose interests are at odds with the health and financial security of our nation’s families.
Predatory Hospital Tactics Hurt Consumers
Even before the coronavirus pandemic, Americans were struggling with major barriers to accessing quality health care. Now, with a ravaged economy and record job loss, high health care costs are even more devastating. Nowhere is this more true than with hospital care, the single largest component of national health care spending. With new examples of predatory and financially toxic hospital practices against consumers coming to light across the country – like lawsuits, wage garnishment and other heavy-handed collection efforts – Consumers for Quality Care is highlighting this growing trend through its #HospitalFail campaign.
Watch the video below to learn more about toxic hospital billing practices.
Find resources here to help consumers who fall victim to these predatory practices.
