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:

California’s nonprofit hospitals receive billions of dollars in tax breaks each year, but they operate less like charitable organizations and more like big businesses hungry for profit. They’re charging huge mark-ups to their patients and simultaneously not devoting nearly enough resources to providing charity care for those who can’t afford these sky-high bills. That’s not acceptable. As nonprofits, these hospitals have an obligation to put their patients first – before their profits – and they should be held to account when they fail to do so.