For-Profit or Not-for-Profit Health Care in Today’s Environment: Does It Matter?

Abstract

EDITOR’S NOTE: Historically, health care delivery systems have been primarily not-for-profit. In return for the charity care and community service they provide, they have been granted tax-exempt status. With increasing frequency, for-profit health care delivery systems have been supplanting not-for-profit systems. For-profit providers have a primary fiduciary responsibility to their board of directors and are highly sensitive to market forces. Some would argue that the distinctions between for-profit and not-for-profit systems are becoming increasingly blurred, with not-for-profit entities increasingly behaving like for-profit providers.

For the next several ethics columns, we have invited Mr. Robert Sigmond, senior advisor to the Dean at the School of Public Health, Drexel University School of Public Health, to address these issues. The first column (presented here) focuses on not-for-profit and for-profit health care in rehabilitation. Subsequent columns will address the role of the government, concepts of community benefit and how it is measured, and definitions for community. Please feel free to write in and let us know your thoughts in response to this column.