The Lucrative Life of a Nonprofit Hospital

Posted by Jacob Goldstein in the WSJ Health Blog Nonprofit medical centers are big business these days. Carilion Health System, in Virginia’s Roanoke Valley, had profits of more than $100 million last year, this morning’s WSJ reports. Critics say big medical centers like Carilion use near-monopoly power to charge high prices; Carilion says it needs to charge more for some procedures to subsidize other parts of its business, such as care for the uninsured. And the hospital says an HCA-owned hospital in a nearby town offers competition.