Law Commons^™

Nonprofit Hospital Mergers And Section 7 Of The Clayton Act: Closing An Antitrust Loophole, Laura Stephens

Faculty Scholarship

Nonprofit hospitals developed out of the charitable hospital movement, which began in the mid-nineteenth century.' The early voluntary hospitals depended upon local benefactors for financing.² Originally conceived as charitable institutions providing long-term care, these hospitals began to change their focus around the turn of the century.³ A changed mission-providing care to all rather than just poor inpatients with chronic problems-required the latest medical technology.⁴ This in turn demanded increased construction of up-to-date facilities, as well as large operating expenses.

Recent years have seen further pressure on hospital budgets, as the health-care sector of the economy has become …

Health Policy Below The Waterline: Medical Care And The Charitable Exemption, Maxwell Gregg Bloche

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

For almost one hundred years, America's nonprofit hospitals have enjoyed nearly automatic exemption from federal income taxation. During this time, nonprofit hospitals transformed themselves from resting places of last resort for the sick poor into centers of high-technology intervention for all income groups. The financing of their services evolved in parallel, from primary dependence on the generosity of religious orders and charitable donors, to almost exclusive reliance on payments for services rendered. Meanwhile, the exemption's doctrinal underpinnings were repeatedly reinvented to accommodate change in the hospital industry's financial structure and social role. When Congress first enacted a charitable exemption to …