why are Non Profit hospitals abandoning cities?

[oramar]

Yesterday there was the most damning article I have ever seen about non profits hospitals and how they are abusing their status. It was in the Wall Street Journal. It is mostly about Ascension in Detriot, however the article admits it is going on with a lot of non profits. Could someone please post it?

[HonestRN]

I don't know if this is what you are looking for but there have been several very negative articles on so called not for profit hospitals;

http://www.wsbt.com/news/consumer/17296354.html

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/08/28/the-lucrative-life-of-a-nonprofit-hospital/

http://www.corp-research.org/archives/sep-oct06.htm

[HonestRN]

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/10/14/nonprofit-hospitals-flee-cities-for-suburbs-leaving-poor-behind/

[leosasha]

It's about money honey. There is no money to be made serving the poor. I work inner city hospitals. You can'nt even break even anymore.

[ChristineN, BSN, RN]

Here in Pittsburgh our "non profit" hospital Mercy (run by the Catholic church) was losing money, and faced the choice of shutting down or being bought out by a health care giant. They opted to get bought out.

[oramar]

It is time for congress to look at the non profit status of these institutions. It is reasonable for them to have non profit status under certain criteria but the are abusing the rules.

[eltrip]

We have a not-for-profit hospital in my city. They are known as the "faith-based" hospital. They also have a reputation for not treating patients on public insurance or those without insurance. They're known to start treating patients for cancer but when that patient loses their insurance, they're sent down the road to my hospital, which is the public hospital & regional trauma center.

[birdgardner]

Because they're going where the money is? In my state, hospitals are operating on a less than 1% margin, and uncompensated care is increasing and the governor is cutting compensation. One of my job targets closed because 15% of its patients had no insurance either public or private or ability to pay and many were not eligible for charity care funds. Another job target is moving out of the city to the suburbs where land is cheaper and they can attract more patients with private insurance. Building will be expensive, but they would have had to do some modernizing and rebuilding if they had stayed in place.