WASHINGTON, D.C. – Despite being tax-exempt, nonprofit hospitals across the country are making big money at the expense of their patients. The Virginia Hospital Scorecard was created based on recent findings from the Lown Institute, Kaiser Health News, and other organizations and publications about troubling practices at hospitals in Virginia. These practices are at odds with what the public expects from charitable organizations, especially since Virginia 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:

Nonprofit hospitals in Virginia are failing to uphold their end of the bargain. As charitable organizations, these nonprofit hospitals are tax-exempt and are raking in hundreds of millions in tax breaks each year. At the same time, however, these same nonprofit hospitals are overcharging their patients while underspending on charity care. Some have even stooped so low as to sue working-class patients when they can’t afford to pay. That’s wrong. Virginia’s nonprofit hospitals should put their patients before their profits. Rather than being part of the problem, they should be part of the solution to health care challenges in the Commonwealth. We should be able to expect that they will keep true to their own, stated charitable missions. When they don’t, they should be held accountable on behalf of all Virginians.