Profit Motives: The Shift from Care to Capital in Nonprofit Hospitals

Nonprofit hospitals — which make up around half of hospitals in the United States — were founded to help the poor.

But a Times investigation has revealed that many have deviated from those charitable roots, behaving like for-profit companies, sometimes to the detriment of the health of patients.

Guest: Jessica Silver-Greenberg, an investigative business reporter for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• With the help of a consulting firm, the Providence hospital system trained staff members to wring money out of patients, even those eligible for free care.
• Dozens of doctors have said that this New York nonprofit hospital pressured them to give preferential treatment to donors, trustees and their families.
• Bon Secours Mercy Health, a major nonprofit health system, used a poor neighborhood to tap into a lucrative federal drug program.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

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