NoPINOs
again

July 22, 2024 --

NoPINOs -- a term I coined here -- have become a common financial structure in US healthcare, and stray ever further from their original purpose. What's a NoPINO? It's a non-profit in name only. In Why many nonprofit (wink, wink) hospitals are rolling in money, Elizabeth Rosenthal writes in the Washington Post:

When many U.S. hospitals were founded over the past two centuries, mostly by religious groups, they were accorded nonprofit status for doling out free care during an era in which fewer people had insurance and bills were modest. The institutions operated on razor-thin margins. But as more Americans gained insurance and medical treatments became more effective � and more expensive � there was money to be made.
And make it they do. Without being taxed. The notion of "community benefit" is ill-defined by the IRS and the hospital executives' pay packages are bloated, running into the millions.
They are not channeling Mother Teresa. It's time to end the community benefit charade. Let's have these big businesses pay at least some tax. Communities could then use those dollars to directly benefit residents' health.

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