(All data for this post comes from the Illinois Department of Public Health.)
The graph above looks at the amount of charity care given by teaching hospitals in Chicago during the 2011 Fiscal Year. The charity care expenses are for both inpatient and outpatient care. The hospitals were chosen from looking at a list of teaching hospitals from the Illinois Hospital Association and picking hospitals listed as “major teaching.” Both St. Joseph Hospital and Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago barely show on this graph due to having only gave 0.7 and 0.3 percent of the respective hospitals’ expenses compared to net revenue going to charity care.
One hospital on this graph has raised a bit of controversy due to its lack of higher charity care amounts. University of Chicago Medical Center, located on Chicago’s South Side, had only 1.2 percent of its expenses compared to net revenue going towards charity care. The following graph shows the charity care amounts over a five year period. (Additional data: 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007)
Over this period the amount of charity care given by University of Chicago Medical Center has stayed fairly consistent, only slightly climbing in recent years.
In this figure we see John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Chicago, which had the highest amount of charity care given, receives a majority of its revenue from Medicaid. Stroger Hospital is the main public hospital in Chicago and is operated by the Cook County Health and Hospitals System.
Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, which was still Children’s Memorial Hospital during the 2011 Fiscal Year, received a majority of its revenue from private insurance but also received a third of its revenue from Medicaid. This sizable amount could be the result of Illinois’ program to ensure low-income families have insurance for their children.
Fragments 