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Hospitals Flee Poor Areas

Posted by: Judy Chang

15 October 2008 - 6:00am

Unable to bear the financial burden of serving the community's poor, inner-city nonprofit hospitals have been shutting down while investing in suburban hospitals, where patients are more likely to be insured.

"Ascension's approach to the Detroit market is an increasingly common strategy among nonprofit hospital systems: Close money-losing facilities in poor areas where a large share of patients are uninsured, and build or refurbish hospitals in affluent places where people have private insurance coverage.

Nonprofit hospital systems have shuttered facilities from Los Angeles to Chicago to Newark, N.J., while spending billions on suburban expansions. This all comes as large nonprofit chains have been enjoying some of their most prosperous times ever."

Full Story: Nonprofit Hospitals Leave The City for Greener Pastures
Source: The Wall Street Journal, October 14, 2008
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