When hospitals send bill collectors to patient bedsides, file suits against the sick, all while erecting sparkling new buildings as they raise prices for their care, observers wonder whether the money is coming before the mission. In Illinois, an apparent lack of charity care by nonprofit hospitals has resulted in some big-name medical centers losing their tax-exemptions, leading state lawmakers in the next month to come up with a definition of charity care to justify tax exemptions before even more nonprofit hospitals lose their tax exemptions and are forced to pay taxes. Some see it as just the beginning of legislation to spread nationwide.
