The Greediest 'Non-Profit' Hospital in America 

"The Amazon of healthcare" sounds like one of the most dystopian sentences I've ever heard.

"Non-profit" hospitals have adopted the "For-profit" model and they are able to do it because of how the laws were written by the lobbyists.

UPMC is so evil. They move into small areas, aggressively expand, and ruin local care.

It’s wild how many people STILL think that not everyone deserves healthcare.

Not having a public healthcare system in our country is already insane, but "company towning" it too is absurdly evil

I'm embarrassed that UPMC is even remotely connected to the University of Pittsburgh. Shame on them!

A family member needed a surgery, and it didn't go great, but the hospital had the gall to constantly solicit us to make donations to the hospital despite us paying our bills

America's health system is SICK! Insurance and hospital executives profiting off humans health should be illegal. There should be limit, and any excess profit should be reinvested to the health system. It's despicable that the benefits from all the effort put into medical advancement is blocked behind an unnecessary paywall for most US citizens.

*_When Charity becomes a Business, then there is no such thing as Charity anymore_*

The salaries of those CEO's are absurd. This whole thing is a shame.

The whole system is a giant con, and the working man is the mark.

As someone who's worked in multiple parts of healthcare, it truly sickens me how much of your healthcare has caved to greed and sociopathy instead of care and healing.

Healthcare is devolving into monopolies that squeeze employees at one end because they are the only place you can work, so no competition you could go to for better pay. They squeeze patients for higher fees because there is no place else for them to go for a better price either. And all the money goes to multimillion executive pay. Which is why we need to nationalise healthcare. Retrain the army of clerks who fill out insurance forms and give them skills that help people.

No executive at a charity should earn more than 10 times the lowest paid worker. That UPMC CEO is a parasite, pure and simple

Proposal: any hospital whose patients are in medical debt (even one) for over three months loses its nonprofit status for five years.

So this tax change in 1969 has had some really bad side effects. Why is it so hard to say...this isn't working so lets change it back? We need to hold officials accountable.

My mother has worked for UPMC for many, many years. Over the last few years her health has deteriorated and, due to a rare condition, she's experiencing a myriad of neurological issues with a high fall risk. She's fallen several times in the last few months and I am terrified and doing everything I can to futureproof her home. UPMC pressured her to go back to work before her diagnoses and essentially dropped her after. They refused to move her to a WFH position (the woman still wanted to help people, even in her struggles), they fought any doctor-recommended work accommodation (their own specialist's opinions!) and she was forced out of her job. She's recently had to take out of her retirement just to pay bills until her painfully slow disability process completes. They wiped their hands clean of her with no care whatsoever. She was such an asset and still could be if they'd even been the least bit accommodating for someone they've already criminally unpaid and squeezed the life out of for years

That CEO showed he didnt care about the wirkers or patients. He got his 😡 way past time ALL CEOs are forced to live paycheck to paycheck, as we do. Not their exorbitant ones, but the janitors paycheck for a year, with no credit cards and nothing to fall back on. They do no work but get all the glory 😡😡

The entire board of UPMC should be in jail.

Living in PA my whole life, I've always known about the corruption of hospitals with UPMC. I didn't realize how big of an issue it was nation wide

I love it when the CEO says his pay is determined by the board. Just wish the interviewer had asked him how many other CEOs from other companies sit on that board.

JUST LIKE OUR AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES - so-called non-profit. That simply means its primary mission statement is some type of service: higher education, medical care, etc. In reality, the status allows it to pick up subsidies, while still saddling customers with major debt.

This information and this channel needs to reach more people! Solidarity is how we can make this country better for the working class.

In the USA you can be insured, have access and STILL not get healthcare because the medical community is geared toward profit and sales FIRST & LAST. As a retired (very early) provider myself, I am continually amazed at just how bad our system is and it’s getting worse every year as the malfeasance builds upon itself like a snowball rolling at record speeds! New grads haven’t even been taught to think at all. They’re just taught to follow profit protocols and have ZERO ETHICS. The truth is pretty scary.

the sad thing is they profit from HUMAN SUFFERING...

I am an RN and l have worked in various hospitals throughout the country over the past 30 years. These so called non profit hospitals are all about their profits. Staffing shortages are detrimental to the workers and the patients. Our health care system is very broken. We need nationalized healthcare for all Americans.

Not only this, but UPMC also buys up small town hospitals, depletes their capabilities, and sends the patients to the mothership hospital to extract more profit from them.

This is what happens in a country where health care is an exorbitant luxury and whether you live, die or live healthily Is based on your zipcode, race & income.

My son recently had to have emergency surgery. The thing he was most worried about was the bills he would be incurring. That's a helluva way to run a "healthcare" system.

My wife was having uterus issues. She got a vaginal ultrasound as part of the investigation of this issue. This was (we thought) pre-approved. We got a letter a few days ago stating that our insurance company was not paying for the scan as they claimed it was a "work-related injury/disease" and should be covered by workman's comp. She's a house wife. Reading that letter was a complete "what in the fuck?" moment. She's fine, as we figured out what was going on, but still...

Dude, I live in Brazil we got public universal healthcare here, it's just mindblowing to me that the US doesn't have the basics

People should realize that there was a direct and distinct correlation to the amount of Administrators added to the entire Insurance Healthcare System and the increase in denial claims for healthcare procedures.

We need nationalized healthcare. And much more

Maybe this is an perfect example of why? We as a country need? Nationalized/ Socialized = Medical Free Care for ALL!

Kaiser is probably the worst of the lot of them. Never have I seen a more dirty, poorly run, and exploitative institution. And they're both the hospital AND the insurance, so they screw you over on both sides. Edit: z->s

At least somebody is protesting. Instead of going to church on a Sunday, the people of PA should be out protesting against this injustice. It should also be investigated by the Justice Department. Somebody is bilking the taxpayers and Getting Away With it.

When your insurance company decides your trip to the ER was due to a pre-existing condition and you will be paying for all of it 🙂 🙃 👍🤷‍♂️ If you can't pay they garnish your wages and tax returns.

Hey! I work there! It’s actually even worse in person somehow. I’m IN a strong union and we’re still underpaid and understaffed. UPMC is too large for even a powerful union to properly push back on.

What do we expect when shareholders are the same people literally writing the laws and tax code?

How do you get to the point where you earn an eight-digit salary while others, at the same company you're running, are suffering and falling into debt as you continue to charge them (and pay them less) ? Wow.

Why does America screw over it's citizens? Time and time again we get the short end of the stick and have to pay for it. It makes my blood boil! Nobody cares enough to help those who need it and deserve it and i'm chronically ill my self it's hard. I have to worry about possibly paying for some thing i know i could never ever afford

The hospital I worked for 30 years recently merged with another and now operate as a greedy corporate business. Disgusting and alarming, this new method of business in healthcare needs to be stopped now!!!

How is this any different from the coal mine towns of the old days? It’s workers have to use UPMC doctors and 1/3 of them are in medical debt to their employer. So, instead of owing their soul to the company store, they owe their soul to the company healthcare

So in Mexico there's a clinic where you can get an ultrasound for under 20 dollars, maybe more now, blood test for about the same, and you get the results the same day. There's not a lot of specialized care, but still beats paying for an ultrasound in the USA.

Capitalism isn't working for the average person.

I worked for a dystopian AF for-profit (I think) massive hospital chain, and I always heard that they would write off unpaid bills* as "charity care" while simultaneously using *aggressive* collections tactics (they literally sued me, their employee, over an $80 unpaid ED bill lol) before eventually selling the debt to a collection agency. Sure, it's technically "charity care" in the sense that the patient didn't pay for all or part of their care. But it's not at all like good faith charity care, because the patient faces the consequences of decreased credit score, harassment by debt collectors, and *LITERALLY BEING SUED* by a massive powerful conglomerate. True charity care is done intentionally and it does not harm the patient. They write off the full amount, rather than subtracting the amount that they were paid for the debt via a debt collection agency (typically a very small percentage of the total debt) then they report the income from the sale of the debt. This should theoretically balance out the tax benefit with tax liability to some degree. But it allows them to inflate their reported "charity care" amounts. 5% of $25,000USD isn't insignificant, particularly when thousands of these small percentages are occurring each quarter. *As in, a patient is admitted/seen without upfront payment via the emergency department (shout out to EMTALA btw), then they can't afford to or unwilling to pay their bill ranging from several hundred US dollars to 7 figures, so they just don't. *AND/OR* the patient's insurance refuses to cover the total cost, so the patient is billed the remainder. As in, insurance was billed $5000USD but refused to pay more than $2500, so the patient is billed by the hospital for the other $2500 despite having surpassed their deductible/out of pocket maximum. Meaning that the patient is essentially billed that other $2500 as an uninsured patient. It's standard practice for these types of hospitals to set prices much higher in order to be able to negotiate with insurance companies and to "help" patients who can't afford to pay by decreasing the price. This hospital chain was notorious for making up prices 8-10x the typical Medicare price. When insurance companies negotiate down to a more fair price, that's supposed to be the end of it. It's not supposed to involve the patient at all. But this company realized that they could simply bill the patient for the remainder of the original price. Thereby negating the cost-protective practice of allowing insurance companies to negotiate. Technically, patients can negotiate their bills too, but they don't make a point of really letting anyone know that. These are just two of countless ways that US corposhit healthcare inflicts unlimited moral injury hospital and private ambulance staff at the local level. We experience burnout just like basically everyone else. But the moral injury from being a low level patient-facing (this includes doctors) in the business of human suffering is devastating.

If anyone should be profiting off the Healthcare system it should be the doctors, nurses and the support staff

This reminds me a lot of Carle Foundation Hospital in Champaign-Urbana, IL. (A town-sized subsidiary of Chicago Real Estate developers who fled down here after they made Chicago an unaffordable fucking nightmare.) They push out every other healthcare gig in town, buy it up, and then, "fuck you, pay me, what are you gonna do, die from cancer?"

Non profit organizations are the most profitable businesses since they do not have to pay taxes.

UPMC killed my 83 year old grandmother back in 2005. She had a successful pig valve replacement in her heart that was done in 1993 or 1994 when she was 73. Fast forward to 10 years later- I don't know the whole story since I had to move away from Pittsburgh area and my family to pursue 'my American dream', but it was due for replacement because of its age since it apparently deteriorates. Rather than looking at the whole big picture of her age and health, the UPMC 'Doctors' went ahead with recommending replacement of the heart valve again with her at the age of 83. Needless to say, they didn't do a good job with the surgery and she experienced complications. I think the Doctor said that because of her age the glue just didn't work or set too well, and that he was sorry before promptly leaving the room. I got to see my #1 caregiver on life support and then passed away a few minutes later - all because the hospital had to use my grandmother for leverage to make/take it's money from her insurance source.

Healthcare should NEVER be run for profit.

We shouldn’t have to fight for what we pay for. End the non-profit status of every hospital that has a fair share deficit. That ought to do it.

"why should I have to pay for someone else's healthcare?" If you've ever asked that question it means you're blessed with good health but have no ability to think ahead... Unless you die a quick death when you're young, you will eventually get sick or injured, you will grow old, and you will need healthcare when you're unable to work and pay for it on your own.

we cannot just keep on making and watching documentaries at this point. we're all going to suffer further down the road if nothing changes.

Healthcare is a right, not a commodity

there needs to be a law for % profits machine lowest compensation. Its crazy the amount of money the top 1% has.

The number 1 thing that could easily correct this, would be removing the ability for medical debt to affect credit score. If they cannot hold ruining your life over you, i think they would start charging a lot more reasonable prices, because they know a lot of people would not pay 10k for an aspirin.

As an employee of a for profit hospital system it is just as bad there too. Executives make all the money always. C-19 made everything worse then it already was.

Surely they are breaking the hippocratic oath (do no harm) by causing a person/family to go into debt?

Proud to be a Kiwi where I have access to free doctors and free medication. A healthy nation is a happy nation. ✌️❤️🇳🇿

The amount of money being given to guys who sit on their ass all day and count money is baffling, especially when nurses and doctors are having to do out of the profession like flies because they can't afford to live and save other people. We're going to sorely miss the people who have actual medical training when they leave for greener pastures.

It really feels like bad things need to happen to people who run organizations like this. Preferably in the legal arena, because we need to reform any system that fails to hold monstrous, exploitative sociopaths in check, but if the law is failing us in that regard, I feel like it's wrong to simply allow them to continue harming vulnerable people.

NO medical facility should be like some huge multimillion conglomerate. Each city should have its own, independent hospital/medical offices free from privatized money making systems.

Nonprofits should have a maximum income ratio between the highest and lowest paid person.

We need CEO paycaps of some sort for "Charity" hospitals. It should also be mandatory that their executive pay should be less than their level of community care.

As long as lobbying is legal, nothing will ever change. Only the appearance of change but nothing will ever truly improve.

I tell my friends all the time that we are not doing too badly in the Caribbean when it comes to healthcare in terms of the cost. We are not the best, but we are doing ok, it's affordable for most people.

I am so grateful for your reporting!!! Keep speaking up!

Our OWN government is supposed to be helping all Americans by providing *access* to "affordable" healthcare and yet the USA is the one and *only* wealthy and fully developed democracy on the face of the *Earth* to still cling to a For-Profit "health"care system. The government of the *wealthiest* nation in the world cannot or *will not* cover 100% of American Citizens. Average American citizens pay state tax to provide Medicaid - a state run "health"care system for the poor but that still doesn't cover everyone. How about taxing everybody fairly, (including the rich - really, they won't miss it - back in Eisenhower's era the rich were taxed to the tune of 91% and they were STILL rich.). We could then remove the profit factor and design a Universal Healthcare Program that could become "Medicare for all" and *cover 100% of American Citizens* and allow us to negotiate exorbitant pharmaceutical prices. It can't be "rocket science" if every other wealthy and fully developed democracy has already accomplished it. Some nations even include Universal Pre-K childcare. Imagine that.

Being the Amazon of health care brings to mind overwhelming doubt in the quality of their services.

Most of the time I worked as RN in TX couldn't get health insurance,was told to do overtime take back,be on unpaid call for low census,had one 'manager' withhold differentials to tune of $8k, deriding me for questions,then laughing when she was caught. I was at least 3rd person she did that to. Now can't go to md and have rash in 2 spots looked at in one visit. Level of care I receive after 39 yrs of nursing is mind boggling, heartbreaking

the shame of not paying random bills is hilarious to me. like how hard we have been conditioned that we're really in a position to feel pain when a number shows up in our inbox. We should be just as proud as these rich people are about not paying things.

I had surgery last year at a UPMC hospital and am now recovering from my second surgery (at a different hospital system) to repair what was botched at UPMC. Not to mention all the bills I’m getting from UPMC! I’m having trouble finding a lawyer willing to go up against UPMC for malpractice. They are evil and no one will stop them!

If you want a deep dive into the history of the evolution of the American medical system, I recommend reading/listening to "The Social Transformation of American Medicine" by Paul Starr. At 70 years old I have watched and lived the changes from my time as a clinical pharmacist, nuclear pharmacist, osteopathic physician, and radiation oncologist. The disparities of personal health care and salaries of health care workers saddens and angers me.

Thank you for talking about this. UPMC controls way too much of western Pa health care. They keep building Hospitals to prove they are not for profit rather than paying their workers or providing cheaper health care. If they are going to act like a for profit then they should be taxed like one

❤wait until you guys hear about the hospital that refuses to bill medicare so they can go after your car insurance settlement after you had a car accident.

It does not need to, and must not be this way for people south of the US border, or anywhere for that matter! Solidarity and victory to workers and patients fighting UPMC's nonchalant greed from Canada.

Imagine chasing someone for money they can't pay because their baby was born sick.

Greed destroys everything.

I like how non-profit means the owners gets to keep the money instead of the company.

There's no way you shouldn't be covered 100% for healthcare when you literally work there!!

I graduated and started working in healthcare in 1983. This was immediately obvious to me. There was no discernible difference between non-profit and for-profit. That CEOs and other leadership with no healthcare background ran things and well-educated (Ph.D, MD, MS/BS) medical-related staff drove nothing. We were a necessary evil. The goal was to staff as "lean" as possible with no concern about patient care or good outcomes. If you layer on the huge expense that insurance brings (which I feel adds zero to providing patient care and only adds another layer of expense to pay off more exorbitantly paid executives) and the system is broken. VERY expensive and with limited accessibility for a majority with greatly reduced quality. Very little of the massive premiums people pay go toward their care, most of it props up executives and the entire insurance industry.

Regarding the statement that the ceo made about the hospitals board deciding what was appropriate compensation... If we are going to give favored (tax or other) status to an institution for it to serve a community, THAT COMMUNITY should elect the entire board from within it's ranks.

I work at a hospital that recently announced it will be merging with a major healthcare system in Wisconsin called Aspirus health. I have yet to see any reporting on them, but I hope they are better than this. We already have a for-profit non-profit healthcare corporation in town and we really don't need another one.

Cooperatives are the most stable business-type and provide lower costs. And the workers are happier.

Live from Pittsburgh, THANK YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH for shining a light on UPMC and the workers rights struggles here! S/O to my people!

I work for one of the largest healthcare systems on the west coast. We have been unionized since the 90’s and for the most part had a pretty good partnership with management. Somewhere between 2015 and 2020 the attitude started to shift. Contract bargaining became more confrontational and management wasn’t bargaining in good faith like they had been before. Quick fact… any nonprofit company has to report the profits of the senior management publicly. About the same time management started to get more stingy we noticed the CEO’s pay and bonuses increased dramatically… like from a few hundred thousand to over a million a year. And they still complain that labor costs too much and that they already pay us plenty. Yes labor is going to be your biggest cost when you’re providing a service vs a product. That’s a given. If they wanted to cut costs they could do away with half of the management positions that are redundant. Our standby pay has remained stagnant since 2001 and the differential pay for evenings and nights are far below what other hospitals pay in this area. Just because we have historically been on the higher end of the pay scale doesn’t mean that is still true. If you want the best healthcare professionals you have to give them an incentive to work for you vs other facilities in the area. Low pay generally leads to lower quality of work. But it’s not always just the hourly rate. Nobody should be in medical debt to the company they provide services for. It’s ridiculous. Patients don’t care who the CEO is in a hospital. They care about who their nurse and doctor and all the other people they come into contact with are. Our contract is up this October and so far negotiations aren’t that promising so we are all preparing to strike if we must but nobody wants to do that. Best case scenario is that an agreement can be made quickly.

Romoff should be thrown out of the hospital for even allowing the word “Amazon” to cross his lips in the same sentence as “healthcare.”

Extreme profit at extreme cruelty and loss. And the gain of money at the cost of priceless humanity.

I worked in this company through a 3rd party, and can tell you that UPMC talks a big game and says things to get the business. They had a hospital just 20 minutes from me they did a bunch of renovations too the building and made promises too the community that they would have specialists working so they didnt have to drive almost an hour to the other big hospital, and then they tried to get out of paying taxes and be exempt for property taxes...they were denied by the city since the hospital was the largest business revenue for the school district. Once they got denied for the tax exemption they decided to close the hospital as a tantrum.

Ok so I’m the choir you are preaching to. And I’ve said this to other content creators. You MUST stop using questions as click bait when it comes to basic truths that invested interests are doing everything they can to hide. How is this legal? asks a question WHERE NO REAL QUESTION EXISTS. The REALITY is generations of PERVERSE INCENTIVES and NO OVERSIGHT. There is no valid question here. Have the courage of your convictions and failing that of common sense. This is an industry that considers the predictable patient deaths occasioned by understaffing as ADVERSE OUTCOMES. This industry has been telling us who they are for 50+ years. NO MORE QUESTIONS.

that is heartbreaking. can't capitalism keep it's grubby little hands off of ANYTHING?

Their status should be changed from non-profit to for-profit. I'm guessing they pay little or no taxes.

The greed these days is mind blowing.

Stanford Hospital in California is a perfect example of how profitable a 'non profit' hospital can be.

Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland, OH) is the same way. As a multi-billion non-profit, they opened a hospital in Dubai. Let me say that again.. a hospital system in CLEVELAND opened a hospital in DUBAI.

I wonder if "ST. JUDE'S HOSPITAL" is following this same model...?🤔

Essentially, UPMC is running the equivalent of a medical services company store, the same as the coal companies operated that kept the miners and their families in what was effectively indentured service.

The only reason these a-holes should be striving for more profits should be for hiring security to protect them from our constant physical attacks.. Make them petrified of stepping outside or sitting next to a window.

Commenting for the algorithm! This needs to be seen