Thread regarding Ascension Health layoffs

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/opinion/nonprofit-hospitals.html

https://lowninstitute.org/nonprofit-and-for-profit-hospitals-provide-similar-levels-of-charity-care-study-finds/

“Nonprofit and for-profit hospitals provide similar levels of charity care.”

But at least the for-profits pay taxes.

You are expected to subsidize the so-called not-for-profit.

And, for that, the CEO and the CFO say “thank you!” (As one could argue they are the actual recipients of the so-called charity care.)

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/unjust-pay-dishonors-catholic-identity-health-care-outfits

“Eliminating layers of management. One thing that distinguishes the typical nonprofit from a comparably-sized investor-owned hospital is the number of layers of management. Investor-owned hospitals rarely have more than three or four layers of supervision between the nurse that touches patients and the CEO. In some larger nonprofit hospitals, there may be six. The middle layers spend their entire days in meetings or on conference calls, traveling to meetings outside the hospital, or negotiating contracts with vendors.

In large nonprofit multi-hospital systems, there is an additional problem: Which decisions should be made at the hospital, multi-facility regional, and corporate levels are poorly defined, and as a consequence, there is costly functional overlap. This results in “title bloat” (e.g., “CFOs” that don’t manage investments and negotiate payer or supply contracts but merely supervise revenue cycle activities, do budgeting, etc.). One large nonprofit system that has been struggling with its costs had a “president of strategy,” prima facie evidence of a serious culture problem!“

— Jeff Goldsmith, Harvard Business Review
hbr.org/2018/11/health-systems-need-to-completely-reassess-how-they-manage-costs

Hospital CFO to CEO: “How can we further erode morale? How can we keep existing employees shivering in their boots, obedient, and compliant? How can we create a work environment so negative they won’t dare ask for a raise?”
CEO: “By jove, I’ve got it! Let’s publicly adopt a business strategy that asserts we’re retreating from the hospital business altogether and that we aren’t going to prioritize hospital operations, which means the workforce will become accustomed to lousy hospital building maintenance, woefully inefficient logistics, non-existent budgeting for modern communications infrastructure, and a work environment that whispers to the employee that the wheels are falling off of the organization. That’ll keep them humble and obedient. Wall Street will love us. Meanwhile, we rake in the dough at the expense of taxpayers and patients. Heh-heh-heh.”

modernhealthcare.com/article/20180331/NEWS/180339971/ascension-revamps-to-enter-new-era

Hospital CEO to hospital CFO: “Ain’t it great being a so-called charity?”
CFO: “Righto! Ordinary working Americans pay the taxes. We rake in the dough.”
CEO: “Let’s cut more staff!”

https://theintercept.com/2020/12/20/covid-hospital-ceos-nurses/