Nearly half of U.S. hospitals are tax-exempt nonprofits, tasked with providing medical care to their communities. But despite their community-focused missions, the CEOs in charge of these nonprofits command annual paychecks that now top $1 million on average. Researchers found that the CEOs with the largest paychecks work at hospital systems with the biggest financial returns. The question this raises is whether the nonprofit medical systems achieving these profit margins are doing so at the expense of their mission, subverting the intended purpose of their tax-exempt status. 🏥 CEO compensation is set by the hospital’s board members. Many of the members work in for-profit sectors, meaning their professional experiences and perspectives are separate from the mission of nonprofit medicine. 🏥 Positive profit operating margins are what allows nonprofits to keep up with inflation, retain the best medical talent and balance treating insured patients with those who are underinsured or uninsured. 🏥 Tax breaks afforded to these nonprofits have allowed them to become hyper-competitive and this has led to a wave of mergers and acquisitions in the health care sector, said Ge Bai, a professor of health policy and management at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 🏥 Bai predicts that unless policymakers intervene, the consolidation will continue, driving down competition and leaving patients with fewer options and higher prices. |
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Welcome to my geopolitics blog site. This is a Hawaii Island news site focusing on geopolitical news, analysis, information, and commentary. I will cite a variety of sources, ranging from all sides of the political spectrum.