Congress Is Urging Hospitals To Earn Their Tax-Exempt Status. But How?

Congress is deeply interested in ensuring that nonprofit hospitals do the right thing for their communities. These hospitals have an implicit contract with taxpayers: they advance charitable missions for the community, and in return, taxpayers exempt them from income, property, sales, and other taxes. My coauthored study, published in JAMA, shows that total tax savings reached $37.4 billion in 2021, with more than half…