A recent article in The Wall Street Journal missed a "critical opportunity" to fully discuss the financial plight of the nation's hospitals and the care they provide, American Hospital Association President Rick Pollack wrote in a letter to the newspaper's opinion pages Jan 2.
The original Dec. 26 report concluded nonprofit healthcare systems were more likely to shed hospitals in low-income communities than add them and, at the same time, expand aggressively into more affluent areas.
Such a conclusion failed to take account of the legacies of low government reimbursement, population shifts and aging infrastructure, Mr. Pollack wrote. On top of that, hospitals have provided almost $745 billion in uncompensated care since 2000, he added.
"The conversation on how to provide the best care to everyone, especially those most in need, is too important not to be done right," Mr. Pollack wrote. "We owe that to our hospitals and the millions of caregivers who sustain them."
The full letter can be read here.