RT Journal
A1 Turner J
T1 FInancing hospital care
JF Journal of the American Medical Association
JO Journal of the American Medical Association
YR 1949
FD October 15
VO 141
IS 7
SP 477
OP 477
DO 10.1001/jama.1949.02910070049020
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1949.02910070049020
AB To the Editor:— 
    The editorial of September 10 headed "Financing Of Hospital Care" refers to a nonprofit general hospital which reported an operating loss of almost a million dollars. If by "operating loss" is meant the difference between what it costs to render service to patients and what the patients pay for that service (including insurance payments on their behalf), one can find several hospitals in the country with losses exceeding one million dollars. The Mount Sinai Hospital, in fact, had an operating loss of $1,831,573 in 1947 and $1,679,679 in 1948. These losses are described by the hospital euphemistically as the "total philanthropic expenses for the year." Of course, this "philanthropic expense" was not entirely a drain on the hospital's own resources; it was reduced in large part by grants and subsidies from local welfare chests and the government, and by income from the hospital's own endowment fund. Neither