The amount of charity care reported by Northwestern Memorial Hospital is grossly overstated, and here is why. A practice of Northwestern Memorial Hospital is to overcharge for its services. For example, the hospital bills approximately $57,000, excluding doctors' charges, for inserting a stent in the main artery. The actual amount they receive from Medicare and Medicare supplement insurance is approximately $9,500, and the hosital adjusts the bill by the difference, namely $47,500. Thus, the hospital shows net revenue to be $9,500. Yet if the patient was uninsured, that patient would be asked to pay the full $57,000. If the patient was unable to pay the full $57,000, the hospital would deem it to be a charity case and claim that it was providing $57,000 of charity, less any amount that was actually paid by the patient.

My undertanding is that Illinois hospitals not only do not pay property taxes but they are also exempt from sales taxes on all items they purchase. If this is true, hospitals should give back the equivalent of their property and sales tax savings to the community. I suspect this does not happen and should be investigated. How can hospitals be considered 'not-for profits'when CEOs make millions and doctors receive bonuses based on their billings (by the way, nurses do not get bonuses for their added value!) I have no problem with hospitals being 'for profit' if they pay their fair share of taxes--tax revenue which could help the community where and when they fail to.

On its face Mr. Deaton's assertion that hospitals represented by IHA have an intake of only 5% whom need charity care beggars belief. Proximately 40% of Americans are uninsured or underinsured. While one can well image that most uninsured and underinsured are going to Stroeger, one has only to spend a few hours in a hospital emergency room to see what the true distribution of those that need charity care is.

Further, is Mr. Deaton's claim that the vaunted 5% intake of patients whom need charity care are somehow getting cheaper procedures then the at large population intake of a hospital? One would expect that the cost of those that need charity care vs. the those who can fully pay would be approximately the same therefore, and the % cost of charity would reflect that (i.e. 5%). At 1.85% (as measured by charity care cost/total revenue) for Northwestern those charity care patients must be coming into NW for very minor procedures indeed.

Does anyone believe for a moment that uninsured people from moderate to low income communities throughout Cook County have any idea where Prentice hospital is located or are ever recruited or referred to this hospital for emergency, primary or follow up care? I work with the Doctors at Stroger hospital and know that everyday hospitals throughout the County do the very least than can for the uninsured patients that show up at their doors. They patch them up and get them out and over to Stroger as quickly as possible. The discrepancies in access to quality health care in this city, county and nation is appalling. People are dying painful and preventable deaths everyday in our communities. The communities that Mr. Deaton and his clients have never stepped foot into, nor ever will.