Though they strictly complied with mask and vaccine mandates, America’s largest nonprofit hospitals that raked in billions in profit from the pandemic have been largely noncompliant with federal transparency laws.
A report this month from government watchdog Open the Books found that for every taxpayer dollar paid to nonprofit hospitals in COVID-19 bailouts, the hospitals’ assets jumped $5.
Between 2018 and 2021, the combined net assets of the country’s 20 largest nonprofit hospital systems jumped 62%, or $124 billion.
Mayo Clinic, for example, whose net assets totaled $9.2 billion in 2018, jumped 92% to $17.7 billion in 2021.
Cleveland Clinic Health System jumped 62% to $15.6 billion.
Intermountain Healthcare jumped 63% to $11.6 billion.
In the meantime, the executives at the helm of these hospital systems collected enormous salaries. Ascension Healthcare’s CEO Joseph Impicciche was paid over $13 million in 2021. Retiring executive Herbert Vallier was paid more than $7.6 million, and two other executives earned more than $3 million.
Ascension, which operates around 142 hospitals, collected $2.7 billion in COVID-19 aid. Its net assets, which totaled $23.5 billion in 2018, jumped to $29.3 billion in 2021.
But many of these hospital systems were found to be grossly noncompliant with the federal Hospital Price Transparency Law, which requires nonprofit hospitals to post their prices clearly, transparently, and in an easily searchable format, according to set guidelines.
Out of Ascension’s 142 hospitals, 105 were reviewed for compliance by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a federal hospital regulator. Only four hospitals were found compliant.
Bon Secours Mercy Health runs 48 hospitals. The hospital system collected $1.1 billion in COVID-19 relief funds, and its net assets jumped from $1.8 billion in 2018 to $9.8 billion in 2021. Its top executive collected $15.7 million in compensation. CMS reviewed 39 of Bon Secours Mercy’s hospitals, none of which complied with the transparency law.
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Group (UPMC) runs 40 hospitals. It collected $1.4 billion in aid and saw its net assets jump over $5 billion between 2018 and 2021. Its top executive was paid $9.5 million. Out of 33 hospitals reviewed by CMS, none were found compliant.
Trinity Health runs 88 hospitals and collected $2.3 billion in COVID-19 relief funds. Its net assets jumped over $5 billion between 2018 and 2021. Trinity’s top executive salary was $2.9 million. Out of 61 hospitals reviewed, two were found compliant.
“Our healthcare costs continue to rise as the average American family pays over $22,000 worth of health insurance premium costs each year and the prices of health care now are supposed to be transparent,” Open The Books CEO Adam Andrzejewski said in a statement. “The Trump administration put forth the health care price transparency rule and to their credit, the Biden administration finalized that rule in 2021 but we found that 19 out of the top 20 US nonprofit hospitals racked up these big profits and they were not following federal health care price transparency rules.
“This is like playing baseball with one side. The patient that's us, we're blindfolded, and the other side is the hospitals and their rank there.”
