The for-profit non-profits ('non-profit' hospitals = profit)

[Hannah Bell]

NOT-FOR-PROFIT hospitals are actually for-profit hospitals, according to the new documentary Do No Harm. Rebecca Schanberg, who produced and directed this insightful film, tells the story of the two men who blew the whistle on Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany, Ga.

Charles Rehberg, a certified public accountant, and John Bagnato, a surgeon, are two ethical, humble and honest guys who stumble across financial information showing that Putney Hospital has $2.6 billion in cash and transferred millions to offshore bank accounts in the Cayman Islands...

To call attention to the financial practices of the hospital, Rehberg writes up a one-page fact sheet called "Phoebe Factoids" that is full of damning statistics. He faxes it to various lawyers, businesses, insurance companies and the media. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution picks up the story...

And then, just like in a John Grisham novel, things get legal, ugly and scary. Rehberg walks out to the parking lot after work one night, and a vehicle pulls up and blocks his car. Two men jump out, identify themselves as FBI agents, call out his name and say that they have been investigating him...

DO NO Harm exposes an aspect of the health care crisis that, until recently, few had heard of. Many assumed that non-profit hospitals operated as good Samaritans and delivered lots of free or low-cost care to the uninsured. But 85 percent of hospitals in the U.S. are non-profit...

http://socialistworker.org/2009/06/17/the-for-profit-non-profits

[dogknob]

1. ...and fundraisers...

Cancer (particularly breast cancer) and AIDS are two of the biggest goldmines in the US. The lavish (and I mean LAVISH, I've served 18-year-old scotch at them) fundraising dinners held on behalf of the people actually suffering from these diseases is one big, glittering manifestation of this simple, "SOUND BUSINESS SOLUTION":

Anybody with an MBA knows that it is far more profitable to treat these diseases than it is to cure them.

With the capitalist mindset solidly in control, there will never, EVER be a cure for these diseases, only a big top-shelf fountain of manufactured, focus-group-tested hope. Look at the Herpes Industry; media advertising is as nearly saturated with ads for Valtrex as it is for "natural male enhancement."

It may seem glaringly obvious to offer "follow the money" as an answer to the question "Why can't this country get it together on health care reform?" in the context of DU, but as I quickly learned from my experiences on Facebook, most people are too swamped with their children, their mortgages, and their nowhere jobs to view the Internet as anything but a means of escape. These are the folks who say things like "I don't follow the news... it's depressing." These are the people who need to be mobilized.

[silverweb]

2. I've been wondering about that.

Sharp Healthcare in San Diego says it's nonprofit, yet something about their advertising (which is as slick as any I've ever seen) makes me queasy.

I've been meaning to check them out, but just haven't gotten around to it yet.

[Hannah Bell]

3. The offshore account gives me pause; i've read some things implying (though not stating outright)

the medical industry, or parts of it, = a skim & offshore/money laundering operation.

In 2006, 16% of us gdp = healthcare. This seems very high for not so great results.

[pdxmike]

4. "Not for profit" really only means no shareholders..

No more, no less. Even the most reputable and above board organizations (like Kaiser Permanente and Group Health Co-op)still have to generate income to operate and maintain their facilities. As well as maintain a positive cash flow. The difference is that the positive cash flow has to get put back into operations, not into some investor's pocket.
I guess my point is that the OP should say that SOME (or maybe MANY) not for profit hospitals are actually for profit. But by no means all.

[Hannah Bell]

5. If they're offshoring money, someone's profiting.

[Critters2]

6. Yep. Not really news...

http://www.ahp.org/other/021904-wsj-article.php