The union fighting to improve service worker wages at Johns Hopkins Hospital has proposed to a state panel that it require hospitals to disclose whether their workers receive food stamps or other public assistance when reporting what benefit the institutions provide to the community. The 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East labor union, which says some of its members make so little they must turn to government programs, submitted the request to the Health Services Cost Review Commission, the state panel that sets the rates hospitals charge for services and tracks their financial performance. As part of their nonprofit status, hospitals must report to the commission what public health benefit and charity care they provide.
