Tell Massachusetts Lawmakers to Put Patients Over Profits
- by: The Committee to Ensure Safe Patient Care
- recipient: Massachusetts Legislature
Hospitals are putting profits before protecting patients! Hospitals are stashing tens of millions of dollars in off-shore accounts and CEO’s are making millions while patients and communities serviced by those hospitals are being put at risk. Wall Street interests have purchased many of our hospitals with an interest in only one thing — making money.
While most hospitals in Massachusetts receive more than half their revenues from US, the TAXPAYERS, there is no way for the public and policy makers to accurately understand how those taxpayer dollars are being allocated and spent strictly on health care as mandated. Bottom line, there is virtually no transparency.
These taxpayer subsidies are intended to provide health care services to our communities, but too many of these hospital corporations have been cutting services and staff while posting enormous profits and/or stashing those profits in off-shore accounts — undisclosed to the public.
We now have a hospital system of "have and have nots" that has resulted in the loss of essential services for some communities, particularly those servicing the poor and most vulnerable.
Meanwhile, these same corporations are paying their CEOs enormous salaries and compensation packages when research shows there is absolutely no correlation between CEO compensation and the quality and safety of care these hospitals provide.
Tell Beacon Hill to pass the Hospital Profit Transparency and Fairness Act, which will require hospitals to be transparent about their financial holdings and to limit excessive profits to ensure taxpayer dollars are dedicated exclusively to patient safety and necessary services.
While most hospitals in Massachusetts receive more than half their revenues from US, the TAXPAYERS, there is no way for the public and policy makers to accurately understand how those taxpayer dollars are being allocated and spent strictly on health care as mandated. Bottom line, there is virtually no transparency.
These taxpayer subsidies are intended to provide health care services to our communities, but too many of these hospital corporations have been cutting services and staff while posting enormous profits and/or stashing those profits in off-shore accounts — undisclosed to the public.
We now have a hospital system of "have and have nots" that has resulted in the loss of essential services for some communities, particularly those servicing the poor and most vulnerable.
Meanwhile, these same corporations are paying their CEOs enormous salaries and compensation packages when research shows there is absolutely no correlation between CEO compensation and the quality and safety of care these hospitals provide.
Tell Beacon Hill to pass the Hospital Profit Transparency and Fairness Act, which will require hospitals to be transparent about their financial holdings and to limit excessive profits to ensure taxpayer dollars are dedicated exclusively to patient safety and necessary services.
To whom it may concern:
I am writing today to urge your support in passing the Hospital Profit Transparency and Fairness Act. We deserve to know where our taxpayer dollars are being spent in Massachusetts hospitals, and this law will give us the transparency we need.
The Hospital Profit Transparency and Fairness Act will require hospitals to be transparent about their financial holdings and to limit and claw back excessive profits to ensure taxpayer dollars are dedicated exclusively to safe patient care and necessary services for all communities in the Commonwealth. Specifically:
It requires any hospital receiving taxpayer dollars to disclose all financial assets including those held in offshore accounts.
It assesses a clawback penalty on any hospital that provides its CEO with an annual compensation package more than 100 times the compensation of the hospital’s lowest paid, full time employee.
It assesses a claw back penalty for any hospital that has a profit margin beyond 8 percent.
It directs any funds realized from the claw back penalties to a new fund that will be used to preserve and ensure access to essential health care services.
It establishes a new fund called the Medicaid Reimbursement Enhancement Fund that will be administered by the MA Health Policy Commission and funded by the claw backs mentioned above.
[Your comment here]
For these reasons, I am urging your support of this bill.
Sincerely,
[Your name here]
Sign PetitionSign PetitionI am writing today to urge your support in passing the Hospital Profit Transparency and Fairness Act. We deserve to know where our taxpayer dollars are being spent in Massachusetts hospitals, and this law will give us the transparency we need.
The Hospital Profit Transparency and Fairness Act will require hospitals to be transparent about their financial holdings and to limit and claw back excessive profits to ensure taxpayer dollars are dedicated exclusively to safe patient care and necessary services for all communities in the Commonwealth. Specifically:
It requires any hospital receiving taxpayer dollars to disclose all financial assets including those held in offshore accounts.
It assesses a clawback penalty on any hospital that provides its CEO with an annual compensation package more than 100 times the compensation of the hospital’s lowest paid, full time employee.
It assesses a claw back penalty for any hospital that has a profit margin beyond 8 percent.
It directs any funds realized from the claw back penalties to a new fund that will be used to preserve and ensure access to essential health care services.
It establishes a new fund called the Medicaid Reimbursement Enhancement Fund that will be administered by the MA Health Policy Commission and funded by the claw backs mentioned above.
[Your comment here]
For these reasons, I am urging your support of this bill.
Sincerely,
[Your name here]
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