Making an Impact
INHOSPITABLE has been privately screened for members of Congress, the US Dept of Health and Human Services, the Federal Trade Commision and staffers at the PA Attorney General’s office, among others. The film was recently cited as inspiration by Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington for her nonpartisan bill to hold nonprofit hospitals accountable.
We are excited to announce that INHOSPITABLE will now be available to the public and streaming on multiple platforms so please check it out! To learn more about the big business of hospitals and how it impacts all of us, click on the About tab.
ABOUT INHOSPITABLE
INHOSPITABLE follows the story of patients and activists as they band together in an effort to fight UPMC, a multi-billion dollar nonprofit hospital behemoth in western Pennsylvania. In its quest for market domination, UPMC was planning to make vital care unaffordable for hundreds of thousands of vulnerable patients. These patients were taxpayers who had been subsidizing this supposedly nonprofit institution whose main mission as a charity was to serve the community. This illuminating documentary tells the inspiring story of these brave patients and activists who, faced with life-or-death consequences, fight to win the battle for their health — and their community.
RESOURCES
LEARN MORE ABOUT HOSPITAL CONSOLIDATION
What We Know About Provider Consolidation Kaiser Family Foundation’s summary of the current state of provider consolidation
Health Care Cost Institute’s Hospital Consolidation Index Want to see how your area stacks up? HCCI’s website provides a user-friendly resource on hospital consolidation around the country
WHAT THE AMERICAN HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION SAYS
When Hospitals Merge to Save Money, Patients Often Pay More : New York Times article by Reed Abelson. She writes: “The nation’s hospitals have been merging at a rapid pace for a decade, forming powerful organizations that influence nearly every health care decision consumers make.”
Provider Consolidation Drives Up Health Care Costs Healthcare Economists Emily Gee (InHospitable interviewee) and Ethan Gurwitz at the Center for American Progress provide a roundup all of the available research and provide policy recommendations.
Affordable Hospital Care Through Competition and Price Transparency Avik Roy, President of The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FreOpp) lays out the research on hospital consolidation and provides policy recommendations.
What We Know About Provider Consolidation Kaiser Family Foundation’s summary of the current state of provider consolidation
Health Care Cost Institute’s Hospital Consolidation Index Want to see how your area stacks up? HCCI’s website provides a user-friendly resource on hospital consolidation around the country
POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS
Antitrust and Health Care Providers: Policies to Promote Competition and Protect Patients FTC Commissioner Slaughter (InHospitable interviewee) lays out the barriers at the FTC when it comes to hospital antitrust enforcement and solutions.
State Strategies to Address Rising Prices Caused by Healthcare Consolidations Director of the Center for Law, Health & Society at Georgia State College of Law, Erin Fuse Brown (InHospitable interviewee) provides practical policy recommendations for states.
RESEARCH PAPERS ON HOSPITAL CONSOLIDATION
Changes in Quality of Care after Hospital Mergers and Acquisitions 2020: Nancy D. Beaulieu, Ph.D., Leemore S. Dafny, Ph.D., Bruce E. Landon, M.D., M.B.A., Jesse B. Dalton, M.A., Ifedayo Kuye, M.D., M.B.A., and J. Michael McWilliams, M.D., Ph.D.
Impacts of Health Care Industry Consolidation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: A Qualitative Study 2020: Claire E. O’Hanlon.
The price effects of cross-market mergers: theory and evidence from the hospitaL industry 2019: Leemore Dafny, Kate Ho,Robin S. Lee.
The Price Ain’t Right? Hospital Prices and Health Spending on the privately Insured 2018: Zack Cooper, Stuart V. Craig, Martin Gaynor, John Van Reenen.
The Risks to Patient Safety From Health System Expansions 2018: Susan Haas, Atul Gawande, Mark E Reynolds.
LEARN ABOUT THE IMPACT OF NONPROFIT HOSPITALS
Tax exemptions for nonprofit hospitals: It’s time taxpayers get their money’s worth Article in Stat News by Ge Bai about her study that found that nonprofit hospitals spent $2.3 of every $100 in total expenses incurred on charity care, which was less than government ($4.1) or for-profit ($3.8) hospitals
Why Are Nonprofit Hospitals So Highly Profitable? Op-Ed by Danielle Ofri, physician at Bellevue Hospital and a clinical professor of medicine at New York University Grossman School of Medicine.
Top Not-For-Profit Hospitals Offer Disproportionately Less Charity Care, Study Finds Modern Healthcare article citing the research of Johns Hopkins Healthcare Economists Darrell Gaskin (InHospitable interviewee), Bradley Herring, Hossein Zare, and Gerard Anderson.
How Nonprofit Hospitals Get Away With The Biggest Rip Off In America Medical Economics Op-Ed by Marni Jameson Carey, Executive Director of the Association of Independent Doctors.
Top U.S. “Non-Profit” Hospitals & CEOs Are Racking Up Huge Profits Forbes’ contributor Adam Andrzejewski from Openthebooks.com.
HOW DOES YOUR HOSPITAL STACK UP?
Washington Monthly’s 2020- Hospital Guide and Rankings Washington Monthly teamed up with the Lown Institute to not only measure how well hospitals care for their patients but also to gauge the contributions hospitals make to the country and their communities. Their rankings use three main criteria. First, patient outcomes: a hospital’s patient mortality, safety, and satisfaction record. Second, civic leadership: the degree to which a hospital treats patients with the same income and other demographics as its surrounding community; how much it contributes in community benefit, from providing charity care to building and operating free clinics; and how much it pays its senior executive compared to its frontline workers. Third, value of care: how much a hospital overuses low-value tests and procedures.
RESOURCES FOR STATES
States Use a Sharper Lens to Scrutinize Nonprofit Hospitals’ Community Benefit Spending Resources for states from the National Academy for State Health Policy.
University of Kansas- Community Toolbox Resource guide including models, practical skill-building, trouble-shooting, evaluation and best practices for community health development in diverse cultures and contexts. Provides a five point model for community improvement: Assess, Plan, Act, Evaluate, and Sustain.
Community Benefit Insight The interactive Community Benefit Insight tool, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) in partnership with RTI International and the Public Health Institute, draws on IRS and other data to show how hospitals spend their community benefits dollars.