Hospitals Share the Details on Charity, Other Care

Politicians and community groups in Missouri want hospitals to prove why they deserved tax-exempt status. On Thursday, according to a story running in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Missouri hospitals finally responded.

The report documents the significant contributions Missouri hospitals make to the communities they are in ? primarily in terms of the uninsured.

The report also deals in costs rather than charges. “Charges are so grossly variable from hospital to hospital, it’s just not a good metric,” said Crystal L. Haynes, chief executive of St. Louis University Hospital and a member of the committee who helped create the report. “We felt that cost would be a much more consistent metric.”

The report can be downloaded from www.focusonhospitals.com.

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