CHICAGO — Seven of the 10 most profitable U. The "Top 10" list accompanies a study published Monday in the journal Health Affairs. The analysis is based on federal data from on nearly 3, hospitals.

The authors measured profits using net income from patient care services, disregarding other income such as investments, donations and tuition. Researchers say the measure reflects how hospitals fare from their core work, without income from other activities.

Why Nonprofits are the Most Profitable Hospitals in the US | Arbiter News

The research comes amid a legal inquiry into Lehigh Valley Health Network's charitable giving and as cities in New Jersey, Michigan and Wisconsin wage battles over their hospitals' tax breaks. Officials are scraping for revenue and pressuring hospitals to either pay up or justify their tax-exempt status.

Lehigh Valley Health Network CEO Brian Nester is a doctor with a master's in business administration, equally adept in the emergency room and the boardroom.

But one day this month he found himself struggling with tough questions in a very different setting. He was on the stand in Lehigh County According to the study, delivering patient care was a money-loser for 55 percent of hospitals in the year studied. The highly profitable hospitals were mostly for-profit corporations, such as Medical City Dallas Hospital in Texas and Swedish Medical Center in Englewood, Colo.

But money-making hospitals also include plenty of nonprofits such as the Penn hospital and the Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana, Ill. The Illinois Supreme Court is expected to review the decision, on appeal by Carle Foundation Hospital. Carle Foundation Hospital spokeswoman Jennifer Hendricks-Kaufmann said the research "considers only one year and omits important details" like systemwide expenses and one-time government payments.

Nonprofit Hospitals Earn Substantial Profits - - News Releases - News - Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

ALLENTOWN — Should the man who spurred the legal inquiry into Lehigh Valley Health Network's charitable giving be allowed to weigh in on the case? That was the question during a Lehigh County Orphans' Court hearing Monday.

It concerned the friend of the court brief filed in January by Robert Young, Nonprofits reinvest net income into "the latest technology, newer equipment, modern facilities, highly-trained staff and other programs that ensure access to quality health care services and benefit the health of their community," he said.

Taxation would force hospitals operating on thin margins to reduce services, lay off staff and delay the purchase of equipment or facility upgrades, Chun said. Locally, Lehigh County Orphans' Court has been asked to determine whether LVHN, the Lehigh Valley's biggest nonprofit entity, is charitable enough. Last year, retired Lehigh County judge Robert Young of Upper Milford Township submitted a petition to the Orphans' Court, urging it to fulfill its long-standing obligation to review LVHN's charitable giving.

The petition was successful, triggering a new public "accounting" of LVHN by the Orphans' Court, a division of the Court of Common Pleas that has jurisdiction over nonprofits. Nearly a third of antibiotics prescribed in doctors' offices, emergency rooms and hospital-based clinics in the United States are not needed, according to the most in-depth study yet to examine the use and misuse of these life-saving drugs.

The case could have far-reaching consequences. If a judge were to conclude LVHN is falling short of its charitable obligations, the ruling would undermine the network's argument for nonprofit tax exemption and could spur similar challenges to other nonprofit health care institutions throughout the region and beyond.

Hospital care is nearly a third of all U. That's why it's important to understand which hospitals make money and how public policy affects them, said study co-author Ge Bai of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va. In the study, hospitals affiliated with larger health care systems and those with less competition in their markets fared better on profitability.

Where Do Nonprofits Get Their Income?

Consumers "should be skeptical of hospital consolidation," Bai said. But it almost always means they're going to negotiate higher prices with private insurers. The new study, along with other recent research showing hospital price variation around the country, may put more public pressure on hospitals to help lower the growth of health care spending, said Craig Garthwaite of Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

Hospitals are treating fewer uninsured patients because of the expansion of coverage under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul "but the value of their tax benefit has not changed," Garthwaite said. Introducing The Morning Call's new eNewspaper. Johnson Of The Associated Press Most profitable US hospitals are nonprofits.

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