The report, “Connected to the Community,” was commissioned by Mount Carmel Health System, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, OhioHealth and The Ohio State University Medical Center.
The report also found that demand for charity care in Central Ohio increased 163 percent from 2004 to 2008. The report states that non-profit hospitals that provide this care are increasingly threatened by for-profit hospitals that “siphon away” profitable services that non-profit hospitals use to fund essential but sometimes unprofitable services such as ER and trauma services.
Community benefit expenses include charity care, Medicaid shortfall, community outreach, subsidized health services, health professions education, research and in-kind donations.
Read the COHC’s release on the Columbus hospitals’ community benefit (pdf).
