The current revolution in health care organization and financing, increased competition, and a retrenching of industry from its commitments to expansion of health care benefits challenge the nonprofit hospital's existence as a viable entity. Hospital governing boards and administrators have turned to corporate reorganization in order to maintain their financial position and to continue to serve their communities.

This Article examines the not-for-profit concept and the problems facing nonprofit hospitals. It reviews the pros and cons of reorganization and the for-profit/nonprofit controversy. It questions whether the hybridization of the hospital results in a stronger or weaker species and discusses the possible effects of the newly structured entity on the quality and delivery of health care. Finally, the Article suggests that the nonprofit hospital may survive only by a continued commitment to societal and communal values, to service rather than to profit; that this commitment is adequate justificaton for the preservation of the nonprofit system, and its preservation will reinforce and strengthen the concept.

Alarm about the adverse effects of transferring emergency patients for economic reasons has resulted in federal legislation aimed at curbing the practice. We review the history of common law hospital liability for denial of emergency care and analyze the federal legislation designed to restrict the transfer of medically indigent patients with emergency problems. We conclude that the currently proposed solutions to patient dumping will have limited effectiveness without more specific incentives for the provision of health care to the medically indigent.