WASHINGTON – Despite being tax-exempt, nonprofit hospitals across the country are making big money at the expense of their patients. The Illinois Hospital Scorecard was created based on recent findings from PatientsRightsAdvocate.org, the Lown Institute and others about troubling practices and declining patient safety at some hospitals in Illinois. These practices are at odds with what the public expects from charitable organizations, especially since Illinois nonprofit hospitals receive more than a billion dollars in tax breaks each year.In response to these troubling findings, Consumers for Quality Care (CQC) released the following statement:

Nonprofit hospitals in Illinois are benefitting from huge tax breaks all while patient safety is declining and patients are being charged big markups well above the cost of care. That doesn’t sound like charity – it sounds more like good, old-fashioned profit-seeking. Illinoisans deserve better: nonprofit hospitals should be accountable to the patients and the communities they serve.