Even in the impressive context of the “annual medical care costs” of the Americans, the hospitals represented more than 1. 5 billion dollars, or 31%, only in 2023. And when this first astronomical factor positions in a more digestible context, as the Milliman Medical Index has done, it will have bad health when learning that affects an annual expense of more than $ 32,000 for the US circle ” of relatives of 4 people.
One might think that the quality of this attention will have to be of the first order, absolutely effective and totally proportional to expenses, adapting to the technologically richer and more technologically complex country in the world. As soon as, according to the knowledge of knowledge . . . and the anecdotal evidence of Almaximum, any friend or a circle of relatives who recently submitted to a hospital stop, as well as the Wonder Cascade that follow.
As their call suggests, the hospitals “not for profit” (and “charitable”) are intended to function outside the doors the exceptional criteria of the capitalist business and, therefore, are exempt from federal taxes, as well as many states and premises, taking into account the alleged “advantage” that communities offer in which they work.
They do it, in theory, by providing affordable care to their patients, along other “advantages” to the surrounding region, all this has been subsidized through the taxpayer. To justify this, hospitals that are not profitable are obliged to comply with the safe criteria indexed in the “Community Service Standard” and will have to document their compliance with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to guarantee deep reports and transparency. However, in the beloved detriment of taxpayers and patients, they did not.
It did not go completely unnoticed. The Lown Institute, an independent Fitness Image Organization reflected in Boston, has faithful to a team of researchers to immerse yourself deeply in the knowledge of the IRS of 2,425 non -profit hospitals throughout the country. The effects have been irritating, which shows that more than 1,900 non -profit hospitals, 80% of them, had reached “deficits through the sides”, which means that they have given less, even less in many cases, their communities they had won in fiscal alternatives. In total, the surprising amount, a shocking $ 25. 7 billion with fair equity deficit, would have been sufficient to “pay everyone’s medical debt in California, Texas, New York and Pennsylvania, combined. “
The non -profit hospitals, consisting of perhaps taking into account their deceptive classification largely as “charity entities”, especially escaped from a public examination of the public in the debate on the prices of physical care of physical conditioning higher in the highest United States in the United States in the United States, however, the Americans begin to realize that the salaries of the “non -profit organization” have reached the “non -profit organization” delicious of fortune 500 and continue to increase. Between 2012 and 2019, the remuneration of the CEOs greater than 30%, achieving an average average of more than $ 600,000 consisting of the year, which, frankly, is a bit “profitable”.
The hospitals now, more than ever, will have to enter the center of attention, especially given one of the dominant and harmful trends of the last decade, which indicates that industry research will continue, perhaps even accelerate: the consolidation of hospital systems and the acquisition of doctors’ groups, resulting in the deepest monopolization of physical care markets and driving high prices.
Waste, fraud and abuse, especially when they are tacitly sanctioned through government agencies, is a fraudulent and abusive waste.
During this consultation of the Congress, fortunately, the members intensified a wide variety of legislative proposals to combat the costs of hospital costs. Some of these invoices would make cost transparency in the hospitals, align the payment rates with the physical conditioning facilities presented that the position in which they are presented (called “neutrality of the site”) and maintain guilty non -profit hospitals to meet the criteria of the facilities of coded networks through the federal government, to call only a few. It is an intelligent sign that Congress is about to act because the challenge is getting worse and every year, because physical care expenses are expanding at a rate that exceeds US GDP.
In fact, Americans aspire to transparency on the subject: in a newly published survey, more than 91% of the electorate argue that hospitals publicly demonstrate their costs for joint procedures so that patients can buy maximum affordable care. Do you think they would not ask for the same special, and successful hospitals, presented through “beneficial” hospitals?
Ken Blackwell, is the former Ohio Treasurer and a member of the 5th / 3rd Bank Board. He is an advisor to the Family Research Council in Washington, DC.