Call me radical if you wish to--I really am not terribly worried about that title. I put my professional standing on the line for this issue at a time when it wasn't "the thing" to do, and knowing what I do a few years later, I'd do it all over again.
Non-profit hospitals ned to be accountable for what they do. We all support those hospitals with tax exemptions, and I do not consider it to be unreasonable to ask WHAT, exactly, we get in return for it.
It seems to me that if you are claiming to be a "charity" you should have to demonstrate it with some numbers that can be verified by the local community. I'm not asking them to singlehandedly provide charity to anyone and everyone. I'm asking that they be held fiscally responsible to the ones that support them.
When we, as local taxing officials, ASKED for an accounting--an actual breakout of what "charity" the local hospitals provided--we got lied to, blown off, and attacked for it. They asked US to grant them tax exemption and then refused to even tell us why they deserved that special treatment.
Seems pretty straightforward to me that the local hospital execs have very little concern about trying to be anything except a profit center when they refuse to even honor their own stated charity policies.
Most hospitals have "charity care policies" in place. I'll grant you--the presence of those policies is a "benefit" to the communities, at least on paper. What makes this all SO very maddening is the fact that many of the hospitals won't even live up to their stated policies, let alone do outreach to let people KNOW those policies exist.
I'm talking about POOR people who are being victimized on a regular basis--and that is DEAD WRONG.
Let me be specific here: We are discussing the fact that poor people are in a situation where they have to make a decision about seeking medical care and then being financially raped and harassed by the system that our communities have supported with tax exemptions.
People are dying without medical care because they can't afford insurance or even treatment--let alone the over inflated billing that the uninsured face at the hands of those same "non-profit" hospitals.
Meanwhile, those SAME hospitals provide salaries and deferred compensation packages to the Execs that are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The actual CARE providers don't make the big salaries--the EXECUTIVES do. We are not talking about what the docs and nurses make. We are talking about what the policy guys--the ones in the boardrooms make.
This has been an issue for the progressives and the folks who actually DEAL with the health care system for a while now. The GOP involvement comes, now, at a time when the public disgust at the abuse has reached a point that it can't be ignored.
Bernie Sanders' website has a copy of the WSJ article by Lucette Lagnado about hospital collection practices. You can read it here:
http://bernie.house.gov/documents/articles/20031031155424.aspTHIS is what opened this entire discussion about what hospitals do to poor people who dare to seek care.
If you want to get a further education on the subject you can go here:
http://www.healthbusinessandpolicy.com/TaxChallenge.htmIf you are curious, that website is run by a man who is a risk analyst and financial adviser for hospitals. If you actually take time to READ what he's written, he explains exactly why this is not only terribly unfair, but also terrible business sense for the hospitals.
I am confused how this is supposed to be such a "GOP" issue. Is this a "GOP" thing only because the current Ways and Means Committee is looking at it? Is it a "GOP " issue only because the current administration is ready to start putting pricing information out on the internet so consumers can make informed decisions about health care and its pricing?
I sure as hell am not a Republican and I was there to help open this particular can of worms a few years ago in Champaign County Illinois.
Laura