That finding comes from a new study by researchers at UC San Francisco and Alameda County Medical Center in Oakland, Calif. The study tracked levels of charity care and bad debt at 200 nonprofit and 64 for-profit hospitals in California between 2011 and 2013. California is the only state where for-profit and nonprofit hospitals are required to report charity care expenditures.
Below are four study findings.
1. On average, nonprofit hospitals directed 1.9 percent operating costs to charity care services.
2. On average, for-profit hospitals directed 1.4 percent of operating costs to charity care.
3. For-profit hospitals tended to spend more money on bad debt than nonprofit hospitals, which elevated their uncompensated care levels.
4. When charity care and bad debt were considered together, the study found both for-profit and nonprofit hospitals spent about 4.4 percent of their operating income on uncompensated care.
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