In the article Making Profits and Providing Care, researchers studied the relation of providing large profit services and which hospitals employed them more often. For profit, nonprofit, and government hospitals were included in the study. They took into account the size of the hospital, the area it was in, and teaching status. The study found that for profit hospitals were more likely to offer highly profitable services. They were followed by nonprofit hospitals and then government hospitals were more likely to offer unprofitable services. The services that were offered was found to differ based on ownership, but it is possible that it could be due to each type of hospital prioritizing different goals. “the evidence here suggests that for-profits are more likely to respond to profitability than the other types are when making supply decisions. Since government hospitals are most likely to supply the unprofitable services that are disproportionately needed by poor and underinsured patients, the evidence also suggests that such hospitals are caregivers of last resort. Nonprofit hospitals are often the intermediate type in terms of balancing profit seeking and serving the poor through service choices(Horwitz)”. Depending on where the patient goes will reflect the services they receive, and whether the patient truly needs them or if the hospital is looking to make money off of the hospitalization.
https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.24.3.790
Julissa's Sociology Adventure 