Since 2001, half the hospitals divested by CommonSpirit Health, a large Catholic system based in Chicago, were in communities where the poverty rate was above the medians for state hospital markets, compared with 30% of those it added. At Bon Secours Mercy Health, formed by the 2018 merger of two growing regional nonprofits, about 42% of hospitals it divested were in areas with higher poverty, compared with 27% of hospitals it added. Of hospitals divested or closed by St. Louis-based Ascension, about half were located in higher-poverty areas, compared with 40% of the Catholic system’s acquisitions.
At the same time, many top nonprofits were moving more aggressively to add hospitals in more affluent areas. At Mercy, a St. Louis-based hospital nonprofit, 56% of new hospitals were in places with lower poverty rates, compared with 25% of those it shed. About two-thirds of the hospitals it added were in markets where the share of households with incomes of at least $200,000 was above the state median. That compared with 25% of those the system shed. Of hospitals acquired by Florida-based AdventHealth, nearly two-thirds were in low-poverty areas, compared with 40% of those they divested. And 59% had a larger share of higher-income households, compared with 40% of those they exited.
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