Patient, Can You Spare a Dime?

Fund-raising that crosses ethical lines is unacceptable, he added, and not so different. Even Hippocrates worried about these issues, advising doctors not to give special treatment to the wealthy and to provide care without compensation to patients who had little money.

But current practices at many medical centers are hard to justify, he added.

“Absent evidence that soliciting patients with financial means makes much difference to an institution’s financial viability, and in an era of rampant mistrust, it’s best to forgo such practices,” Dr. Moreno said.

But donations are important to medical centers, said Dr. Marschall Runge, dean of the University of Michigan Medical School and chief executive of its health system. Donations to the university medical center, for example, help defray costs for patients without insurance who are transported by helicopter for urgent care.

Yet Dr. Runge recognized the potential for conflicts between the medical system’s need for money and its obligations to treat patients in the most ethical and honest way.

Dr. Jagsi has helped Dr. Runge and others in the hospital’s administration formulate policies that prohibit doctors from directly asking patients to donate.

“If a patient says, ‘Gee, I’d like to help. Is there anything I can do?,’ the doctor would approach the development office,” Dr. Runge said. “But development will never approach a patient without the physician’s consent.”

The medical center also does not give big donors special privileges, although that is a common practice elsewhere, Dr. Runge said.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/health/hospitals-donations-patients.html