Nonprofit Hospitals’ Charity Care Is Limited Despite Tax Status

Nonprofit and government hospitals are providing relatively low levels of charity care for financially disadvantaged patients in comparison to for-profit hospitals, which have no legal obligation to do so, new research suggests.

The findings, published Monday in Health Affairs journal, raise questions about whether nonprofit and government hospitals are meeting the spirit of their mission to provide care for the indigent in exchange for their preferred tax status.

To boost charity care levels, the study recommends publicly ranking all hospitals by the amount of charity care provided, requiring nonprofit and government hospitals to meet threshold levels of charity care, and ...