Finances Better and Care Same When Hospitals Go For-Profit, Study Finds

New Harvard University research found that nonprofit hospitals substantially improve their bottom lines by converting into for-profit institutions, while the level of patient care remains about the same, writes U.S. News & World Report. The study reviewed Medicare and Medicaid records to assess fiscal and treatment outcomes at 237 struggling nonprofit medical centers that went commercial.

Researchers said earnings increased substantially at hospitals that went commercial, while patient volumes and outcomes generally did not change. “We did not see that there were higher mortality rates, even for vulnerable populations like the disabled,” said Karen Joynt, an instructor at the Harvard School of Public Health and the study’s lead author. “Nor did we find that quality suffered in the ways that we could measure quality.”