All across the country, nonprofit hospital chains are literally upping their game.

These corporate entities receive special tax exemptions because they provide some free and reduced-cost medical services to poor families. But, as one CEO put it, many chains are now going the extra yard to serve local folks “in new and exciting ways.”

Great! Our whole health system desperately needs better quality, more-affordable care for all!

Uh… no… that’s not what they mean.

Rather, the exciting new thing being pushed by non-profit hospitals is to spend big chunks of their tax-free revenue on their area’s professional and college sports teams. For what? Get this: To buy the naming rights to the teams’ stadiums and ballparks! A children’s hospital in Fresno, California, for example, has put down $10 million to slap its name on Fresno State University’s football stadium. And a Tennessee “safety-net” hospital has committed millions to emblazon its corporate name on the ballpark of Chattanooga’s pro-baseball franchise.

Sweet Jesus, what the hell? One university marketing professor even tried to rationalize these diabolical, high-dollar transactions by comparing them to community-spirited doctors buying jerseys for a town’s Little League team! Excuse me, but this is a big-league perversion of the healthcare mission. Indeed, the Fresno State deal included special perks for the hospital’s top honchos – including a skybox suite at FSU games, food & drink for them, seats on the team’s charter plane, and a bundle of free tickets to home games.

This is Jim Hightower saying… As the Republican mayor of Chattanooga gently noted: “At a time of severe nursing shortages and quality of care concerns, this decision is hard to explain.”

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