Nonprofit v. for profit Healthcare Organizations
The debate on whether all healthcare institutions should be nonprofit, or for profit brings back many complex issues that need to be solved. What should be examined is whether nonprofit hospitals are better than for profit hospitals, and whether there is enough evidence or data to support as to whether one is better than the other.
When we think of a nonprofit and for profit healthcare organizations what typically will come to mind, is that the big difference between the two is unlike for profits, a nonprofit will have more access to large public tax subsidies, are prohibited from distributing profits to owners or other controlling persons of the organization, and are exempt from taxes on corporate and donations (Pan, 2013, p. 675). Nonprofit hospitals were established by various charities, and they typically accept everyone who comes through their doors regardless of their ability to pay for their services. A nonprofit receives a tax exemption, and usually a nonprofit hospital especially in large urban cities, may be busier at any given time than a for profit hospitals. A nonprofit hospital is governed by the communities they serve.
Hospital leaders say any profits earned support their mission of carrying for all patients, wealthy and poor, and they need to pay competitive salaries to attract and retain talented physicians, and nurses to be competitive. A nonprofit hospital does benefit the community they serve. One of those benefits is the charity care, the free care they provide to the uninsured, or the amount of a bill that is written off because of the patient’s inability to pay their bills (Pan, 2013, p. 681).
A for profit, or investor owned hospital means the fac...
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...employees, and to engage them emotionally to want to be a part if the team. Another way that could improve the financial performance of nonprofit hospitals is to control labor costs, and by developing operational solutions to cut expenses without diminishing the quality of care to patients. Additionally nonprofits can also improve financial performance by working to improve relationships with physicians and reduce the patient’s length of stay by bringing in nurses and physicians to share effective management approaches and techniques (Norwick, 2010, p. 131).
Because of the cuts in Medicare and Medicaid that have resulted in lower reimbursement rates to hospitals and other healthcare organizations. It is essential that nonprofits continue to streamline servicers and provide good quality patient care, while cutting costs to remain a valuable asset in the community.
Worth, M. (2014). Nonprofit management: Principles and Practice. 3rd Ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
The nation has approximately 1 million nonprofit entities of various sorts and hospitals have long been a traditional service provider in the nonprofit sector (Williams & Torrens, page 185). Nonprofit entities are generally exempt from most taxes at the federal, state, and local levels, including income and property taxes (Williams & Torrens, page 185). These facilities are governed by a community-based board that has ultimate authority for running these entities. Sponsorship for a nonprofit can come from various organizations, unlike other hospitals with traditional religious sponsorship (Williams & Torrens, page 185). A small percentage of the nation’s hospitals are operated by for-profit businesses (Williams & Torrens, page 186).
This created a large faith based not-for profit hospital system in Colorado. It has since grown to be the largest system in Colorado and continually expanding to include hospital in western Kansas, provider’s offices, home health care, and Flight for Life. As can be seen this was a successful change to combine two systems and create one large system that can help a large portion of the communities in
A recent phenomenon in the health services is the burgeoning of outpatient healthcare centers. Particularly vigorous growth has been observed in centers that perform diagnostic tests and simple surgeries and procedures like colonoscopies. At the current state, outpatient care centers outnumber hospitals in Pennsylvania. Furthermore, these centers now perform one of every four surgical and diagnostic procedures in the state (Levy 2006). However, the trend applies nationwide, and other states could easily follow suit. Many critics have commented on the negative and positive aspects of this trend. What remains to be determined are the long term effects (on health and the economy) of this paradigm shift, in terms of the wellness of the community as well as economically. Proponents of the movement have pointed to the lower overhead for these clinics trickling down to lower costs for patients. However, critics skeptically question whether the real benefits are for the patients or simply as a mechanism to stuff physicians' wallets. When considered as firms in the marketplace, it is evident that these two groups, both servicing the health needs of the community, have vastly different balance sheets and income statements. This transfers over to a difference in operational functionality, profitability, and cost structure. Furthermore, the disparity of financial motivations that is visible in the varying profit margins is of concern to the community. All of these are important considerations to be made when considering the economic implications of this new phenomenon.
Nonprofits are dealing with many risks that seemed especially significant. For example, Nonprofits might encounter fiscal risk caused by the difficulty of finding enough resources and funds to subsidize their mission and objectives. Throughout history, fiscal distress has been a way of life for the nonprofit sector as many nonprofits are competing to access the needed resources and raising money to fund their activities. Nonprofits also might encounter the risk of losing market shares due to the uneven opportunity in accessing resources required to establish new facilities or new programs and services in response to the rapid surges in demand. Accordingly, nonprofits are required to maintain effectiveness
With the federal sequester that added a 2% cut to Medicare reimbursement and the healthcare reform leading to a decrease in hospital admissions for some organizations, the bottom line has become ever more important. Some organizations have used layoffs as one means of cost-cutting but even more are streamlining by outsourcing those services that can be better done by organizations devoted to that one activity (Punke, 2013) The driver of this is the cut to reimbursement.
First of all, the Nonprofit Sector has proven to be a positive part of the US economy. Nonprofits hire a large number of employees. These nonprofit employees have access to long-term employment, and benefits just like the for-profit employees. By hiring a large number of employees, nonprofits have an active part in being an economic stimulator.
...staff would not be required to put in the overtime to compensate for the lack of workers. Patients would no longer have to suffer the neglect of the staff because he or she was too busy. Making sure the patient gets the best quality care reduces the time spent for recovery. Reducing the time spent for recovery increases the organization’s finances. Providing a safe facility also reduces the expenses on the private hospital’s budget. Ensuring a patient is safe can reduce potential use of ongoing treatment and services. Hiring the appropriate nursing staff needed can save the organization money. Instead of cutting back on staff, more staff needs to be hired to fulfil the needs of the patient. In the economy today, private hospitals need to focus on the overall long term effects of each action opposed to quick reactions resulting in financial strain for the facility.
Nonprofits serve multiple roles in improving the quality of life (The Philadelphia Foundation)They are created and put in certain communities for different reasons pertaining to each situation and enhance the environment in that way. Think about it, when you drive through a community with lots of homeless people, what do you automatically think? It’s poor community, right? Well I do, and you never want someone to think poorly of the place you liv...
Nonprofit and for-profit businesses have multiple similarities and differences. For-profit organizations are very different from non-profit organizations because the driving goal of a for-profit organization is increasing its revenue whereas a non-profit organization will not go out of business if it suffers financial loss or does not have a bottom-line. The marketing process also differs, with the biggest differentiating factor of profit marketing is to encourage customers to buy and while the nonprofit marketing purpose is usually to encourage people to give. This means that the return on investment differs between the two. Although the principles of marketing remain the same, some of the methods must, of necessity, be different. Because of the intense involvement in the community as well as support from government, agencies non-profit firms should not compete in the same markets as for profit companies nor in anyway position their organization in any way to give the impression that their efforts could be commercial based (Nelson, 2002).
According to the Delivering Health Care in America, cost shifting is a method used by insurance companies to balance inadequate payments, mostly to bridge the gap from low government reimbursement (Shi & Singh, 2015). Cost shifting is when private insurance companies charge people more to make up for the money they lose. Hospitals and other health care providers are able to compensated for the services they provide for uninsured patients by increasing payments to private insurance (Coughlin, Holahal, caswell& McGrath, 2014). Government programs such as, Medicare and Medicaid reimburse hospitals at a very low rate, according to Potter (2015) the only way hospitals can be able to keep providing care and make up for their looses
... “The Nonprofit Sector: For What and for Whom?” Working Papers of the Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project, no. 37. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies, 2000
Throughout U.S. history the nonprofit and government sectors have addressed needs that are not being met by the marketplace through the provision of a variety of social goods and services ranging from health and human services to environmental conservation. In response to increased demand for these services, the number of nonprofits has grown by 59% over the past 20 years (Powell and Steinberg, 2006; NCCS, 2010). There are now over 1.5 million nonprofit organizations in the U.S. which account for 5 percent of GDP, 8.1 percent of the economy’s wages, and 9.7 percent of jobs (Wing, 2008). Over the same time period, government social programs also rapidly expanded in number and per capita cost (OCED, 2010) .
The Charity Organization Society was based in the scientific movement of organizations. Workers believed that charity work needed more definition and organization and that charity should be focused more on individual need rather than as a whole population. Focusing on individual need was intended to improve relief operations while making resources more efficient. They also intended to eliminate public outdoor relief. With the promotion of more organization and efficiency the new Charity Organization Societies were born. Trattner states that these new requirements for organization and efficiency spread so “rapidly that within 6 years 25 cities had such organizations and by the turn of the century there were some 138 of them in existence” (Trattner, 1999).
In nonprofit organizations, the monetary support provided is not always directly related to the service provided, as patrons are not directly charged for services. So the success is measured by the quality of economically costed services.