Believe What The Hospitals Do and Not What They Say
December 22, 2009
Local hospitals have billions of dollars in cash and have seen their revenues increase (some as much as 30% in the past year) all the while they are claiming to be in financial difficulties when come time to discuss health care.
Big hospitals flush with cash despite industry’s dire warnings
If you listen to hospital lobbyists in Washington, the industry teeters on the brink of financial ruin, depending on how health care reform plays out.
But the rhetoric does not match the balance sheets of some of Chicago’s largest hospital operators. Many are spending unprecedented amounts on new buildings and seeing some of their best improvements in cash since the dot-com boom of a decade ago.
Critics say large hospital operators that are amassing cash are doing so at the expense of patients, charging higher prices when that money could be used to lower costs or subsidize hospitals in a hole.
