Book excerpt: Do the activities performed by nonprofit hospitals that are exempt from paying taxes because of their nonprofit status, truly qualify as charitable activities that provide a broad public benefit & are consistent with exempt purposes? When taken as a percentage of net patient revenues -- the amounts a hospital receives from patients & third-party payers -- the uncompensated-care costs provided by nonprofit & for-profit hospitals were not significantly different, both including & excluding Medi-Cal costs. Benefits provided to the community, which only nonprofit hospitals are required to report, differentiate nonprofit hospitals from for-profit hospitals, but the categories of services & the assoc. econ. value are not consistently reported among nonprofit hospitals. Illus.