MedCity morning read, Monday, April 6

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Major Cleveland hospitals use about 2 percent of their revenue to provide free patient care and about 8 percent on total “community benefit” items such as grant-giving and research, according to an analysis in today’s Plain Dealer.

Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals and Sisters of Charity spent $157.9 million on $7.2 billion in operating revenues for free patient care in 2007, which The Plain Dealer culled from the most recent federal filings and other data. The paper was helped in part because for the first time hospitals listed charity care numbers that showed how much it cost to provide the care and not simply how much they charged.

The story comes in the midst of a debate over a proposed fee on Ohio hospital systems, increases in unemployment and the uninsured, the threat of layoffs, as well as a larger debate on charity care. Some experts told the paper the economic downturn could be used to cut charity care – though the hospitals have said they will not do so.

In the end, these charity-care figures could help create a national standard of how much care hospitals should provide.