That's a complex question with no clear answer. It varies between hospitals and by medical specialty. In my previous comment I oversimplified things a bit because whether a particular program operates at a profit or loss depends largely on cost accounting. How do the accountants allocate overhead and other indirect costs besides resident wages? There are some general accounting guidelines on cost allocation but ultimately it's open to interpretation.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5051990/

What is going on? You post a comment that is completely irrelevant to your link.

I wonder how many people think your comment is a source for your claims.

>That's a complex question with no clear answer.

Yes, this is corruption. Lack of transparency is a benefit to the stronger powers.

> How do the accountants allocate overhead and other indirect costs besides resident wages?

They get to write off indirect expenses in taxes AND get tax dollars. Its even worse than it appears.

You seem confused about how medical education works. The link I posted above is relevant in that it has some good general information about the costs of residency programs. You might want to read it as a starting point for correcting your misunderstandings.

Most teaching hospitals are non-profits, often owned by educational institutions or state/local governments. They don't "write off" expenses from an income tax perspective because they aren't subject to income tax in the first place. Cost accounting as a discipline is only loosely related to financial accounting or tax accounting.

As for corruption, there are probably ways the current system could be improved. But you haven't presented any evidence of widespread illegal activity.

I genuinely can't tell if you are malicious, or easy to convince. The line about the non profit was mindboggling. You know that is just a business structure? It has nothing to do with profits weirdly enough.

>But you haven't presented any evidence of widespread illegal activity.

Its an immoral activity to corner a market, take tax dollars, lower quality for consumers, and raise prices. Its not illegal.

Residents complain about the pay, but they still make like 80k+/yr.

Its the hourly rate they whine about and if you ever met a resident, they count their sleeping/napping hours for some reason.

> residencies famously overwork newly minted doctors - they’re allowed to work up to 80 works

Wait til you learn about EMTs and paramedics. EMTs can be making as low as $11/hr. And at the last ambulance service I worked at there was no upper cap on hours. The only restriction was you had to be off-duty for 8 hours after every SIXTY on-duty.