Profitable hospitals should pay taxes, professor says

The majority of hospitals in America do not pay taxes, and it’s time for Congress to do something about that, said Marty Makary, MD, MPH, a professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Carey Business School.

The Internal Revenue Service liberally grants tax-exempt status by applying a “community benefit” standard. However, the hospitals aren’t showing much of a community benefit when they sue or garnish wages for low-income patients who can’t pay medical bills, Makary wrote.

While some tax-exempt hospitals claims that they provide millions in free healthcare, most of it is required by the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act that says hospitals must care for anyone who arrives with an emergency health condition. Makary nots a 2021 study that found that for-profit hospitals provided nearly two-thirds the amount of charity care than nonprofit hospitals.

“Billing tricks are fleecing everyday Americans,” Markary claims. “Congress could make them disappear overnight if it passed a law disqualifying hospitals that use them from getting the coveted tax-exempt benefit.”