A new report from the Lown Institute shows that two major hospitals, UnityPoint Health’s Iowa Methodist Medical Center and MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center, fell $70 million short on charity care.

The report also notes which hospitals received more tax breaks than they returned back to the community, aka the “fair share” deficit.

Additional Lown Institute report findings:

• Of the 56 Iowa nonprofit hospitals the tax records analyzed, 70% had deficits, totalling a charitable shortfall of $162 million a year– $162 million that could be going to the community
• UnityPoint and MercyOne alone own a combined $860 million worth of real estate in the metro area.

And it’s not just in Iowa, the report found an overall annual charitable deficit of $11.5 billion between the more than 1,800 nonprofit hospitals across 20 states reviewed. In California, the fair share deficit totaled more than $1.5 billion, in Ohio and Illinois, around $1.3 billion each, and in Pennsylvania, the fair share deficit is $1.1 billion.

It’s time for hospitals like UnityPoint and MercyOne to prioritize patients over profits and start delivering on their promises to the community. Better Solutions is committed to shining a light on hospitals’ bad actions and negligence to their community.