Assessing Outcomes: Analyzing the Public Impacts of Conversions

The terms of conversion transactions receive the lion’s share of public attention. In comparison, there is relatively little information available about how conversions affect communities in the long run. Now that so many conversions among health care institutions have been completed, attention should be directed toward assessing the public impacts of these transactions. The challenge for advocates and policymakers is to ensure that communities actually realize the benefits they are owed when valuable nonprofit institutions convert to for-profit status.