WASHINGTON, D.C. – Despite being tax-exempt, nonprofit hospitals across the country are making big money at the expense of their patients. The Wisconsin 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 Wisconsin. These practices are at odds with what the public expects from charitable organizations, especially since Wisconsin 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 Wisconsin are overcharging their patients while underspending on charity care. Some even have policies allowing them to take legal action against working-class patients when they can’t afford to pay. That’s not right. These same nonprofit hospitals are raking in hundreds of millions in tax breaks each year. They have a moral obligation – if not a legal one – to put their patients first, before their profits. Wisconsin’s nonprofit hospitals are giving the public the short end of the stick. They must provide greater access to affordable, quality health care, or be held accountable when they don’t.