A couple of recent articles highlight some legislative efforts to bring the state’s corrupt hospital systems in line.
The first targets the notorious “facility fees” that patients and insurers face when patients are seen in offices owned by hospital systems but not in the hospital itself. Many have had the experience of seeing a doctor in an outpatient facility owned by a hospital system and then getting “dinged” hundreds of dollars for the facility fee.
The second targets the property tax exemption enjoyed by hospital systems since they are putatively “not-for-profit”. Legislators want to make 50% of the value of hospital system properties taxable. This is eminently justified because the hospitals behave like for-profit entities with lavish salaries showered on executives and administrators; and the rest of us are left with the cost of funding local governments to which the hospital systems are not contributing.
We have learned during recent years that the hospital systems hire lobbyists and buy off legislators. Passing these bills therefore might be a challenge. But I hope the Raleigh Republicans give the hospital systems a well-deserved comeuppance.
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