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

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

Hospitals in California are charging patients huge markups at a time when patient safety is declining. Meanwhile, nonprofit hospitals in particular are leaving the public with the short end of the stick as they reap billions more in tax breaks than they provide in charity care to needy patients. That’s wrong. Hospitals – especially nonprofit hospitals – should be focused on their patients, not on their bottom lines.