CQC Nonprofit Hospital Scorecard: Arkansas Nonprofit Hospitals Earn a #HospitalFail

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Despite being tax-exempt, nonprofit hospitals across the country are making big money at the expense of their patients. The Arkansas Hospital Scorecard was created based on recent findings from the Lown Institute, the Urban Institute, and other organizations and publications about troubling practices at hospitals in Arkansas. These practices are at odds with what the public expects from charitable organizations, especially since Arkansas nonprofit hospitals collectively receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks each year.

In response to these troubling findings, Consumers for Quality Care (CQC) released the following statement:

“In Arkansas, nonprofit hospitals operate less like charitable organizations and more like big businesses hungry for profit. They charge huge mark-ups for care, too often driving working-class patients into debt and sometimes suing these same patients when they can’t afford to pay. Their priorities are misplaced. They’re putting profits before the well-being of their patients, and this must stop. As charitable organizations, Arkansas’s nonprofit hospitals are pocketing millions of dollars in tax breaks each year. They have an obligation to put patients first, and should be held accountable when they fail to do so.”

Visit CQC’s Nonprofit Hospital Scorecards here.