The nation’s largest for-profit hospital system, HCA Healthcare, has been slammed for not living up to its promises to improve the 11 not-for-profit hospitals it purchased in 2003. The judge also ordered a court-appointed accountant to scrutinize HCA’s charity care at the hospitals it purchased in the Kansas City region.
HCA bought the hospitals from Health Midwest in 2003 for $1.13 billion. As part of the deal, the Healthcare Foundation of Greater Kansas City was established to receive 80 percent of the proceeds, which would fund organizations that serve the underinsured in the Kansas City area. The foundation sued HCA in 2009, claiming the company had not lived up to its commitments to make improvements in the purchased hospitals, but rather had built two new ones. HCA was unable to show that it had discussed this decision with the institutions’ community boards. The suit was also brought because of the foundation’s concerns about HCA’s inability to provide consistent reporting on charity care.
Charity-Care Gap
