EDITORIAL: Lifespan is the Billionaire that Can’t Tip the Waitress

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

EDITORIAL

Lifespan’s claim that it can’t make any payment to the City of Providence is a little like the billionaire who claims he can’t tip the waitress because his stocks did not perform well.

A GoLocal report unveiled that Lifespan, the multi-billion dollar healthcare giant that is the only significant non-profit that is not making a contribution to the City of Providence, claimed tens of millions in savings under Obamacare -- but said that it could no longer afford to pay the city.

“Lifespan touted a more than $30 million reduction in charity care costs under Obamacare in 2015, due to the number of charity cases moving to Medicaid -- but says it cannot afford to pay the City of Providence, despite paying $800,000 a year when it had twice the charity costs," reported GoLocal's Kate Nagle.

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Lifespan’s claims seem shallow and short sighted. The nonprofit's attitude is that it is an island to itself rather than part of a bigger community.

Taking Care of Their Own

Well, the island pays its own very well. Not counting physicians, just management, Lifespan pays ten of its top managers more than $500,000. CEO Tim Babineau tops the list at nearly $2 million annually, according to the most recent federal tax documents. This does not count the top salaried staffers at RI Hospital, Miriam, or the other facilities. Top talent costs real money.

Obviously, Providence wants to be home to top level healthcare talents and wants the Lifespan network to grow and flourish, but first class healthcare systems are partners with their host cities.

In Boston, hospitals paid more than $16 million to the city in 2015. As an example, Dana Farber, which is roughly half the size of Lifespan, paid Boston $743,000 last fiscal year. Tiny Faulkner Hospital paid Boston more than $450,000. Mega-hospital Mass General paid Boston more than $6 million. And so on, and so on.

In Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University, which is both a college and a hospital system, pays Baltimore in excess of $10 million annually.

Lifespan's claims of poverty, while owning more than $5 billion in collective assets, were severely undermined when they further expanded their footprint less than a year ago and purchased the Victory Place parcel for $7.5 million. The land was one of the sites considered for building the $100 million sports stadium on Providence.

Lifespan is a critical part of Providence and Providence is a critical partner to the healthcare giant.

Lifespan enjoys billions in assets, billions in revenue, and now needs only to be vaguely responsible and make an annual payment to the City of Providence. This is fiscally irresponsible and just plain embarrassing.

Related Slideshow: The 100 Largest Non-Profits in Rhode Island

The following are the Rhode Island non-profits with the most assets, according to their last reported 990 filing.

The data was researched through ProPublica's 'Nonprofit Explorer" -- the entities that were ranked included colleges, universities, private schools, foundations, hospitals, healthcare, arts, and charitable community organizations.

The list does not include assets reported by credit unions, retiree healthcare funds, and certain trusts that pertain to out of state interests.

EDITORIAL: Lifespan is the Billionaire that Can’t Tip the Waitress

Related Slideshow: The 100 Largest Non-Profits in Rhode Island

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