Charity care shrinking at central OH's nonprofit hospitals

Central Ohio's nonprofit hospitals receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks each year. But the traditional justification for those exemptions is fading rapidly. For decades, caring for the poor without expectation of payment served as the primary basis for tax breaks provided to hospitals. But Ohio's Medicaid expansion has shaken that foundation, reducing the charity-care burden by nearly half in just two years, a "Dispatch" analysis found. The amount of charity care provided at central Ohio's four hospital systems dropped to $107 million in their most recent fiscal year from $194 million two years earlier. Net community benefit stayed virtually unchanged at $651 million.