(The Center Square) – Florida officials are being urged to investigate how taxpayer-subsidized hospitals spend public funds in a new letter targeting the University of Miami Health System.
National nonprofit Save Our States sent a letter last week to Gov. Ron DeSantis, Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, and House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, calling for “an in-depth look at how all subsidized hospitals spend their resources.” The letter focuses on the University of Miami Health System.
Save Our States Executive Director Trent England signed the letter.
The group accuses the health system of prioritizing luxury spending and executive compensation while patient safety problems persist within an affiliated organ recovery agency.
“While you are diligently rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse statewide, the University of Miami Health System has spent critical resources on a luxury lobby rebuild and a fancy expansion in Abu Dhabi,” the letter said. It also said the health system paid its CEO and a department chair over $4 million each in annual compensation.
Save Our States launched a broader campaign alongside the letter, including a six-figure television ad buy titled “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” mobile billboards near the Florida Capitol, a targeted digital advertising campaign, and a website outlining its claims.
The campaign comes as federal regulators move to shut down the Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency, a nonprofit affiliated with the University of Miami Health System.
In September 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced plans to shut down Life Alliance following a federal investigation that uncovered “years of unsafe practices, poor training, chronic underperformance, understaffing, and paperwork errors.”
In one 2024 case cited by HHS, a mistake led a surgeon to decline a donated heart for a patient awaiting transplant surgery.
HHS said patients would maintain access to organ recovery and transplant services during any appeal process. If the decertification is upheld, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services would open a competitive bidding process for the service area.
Save Our States said the situation highlights a bigger issue: oversight failures at nonprofit hospitals that receive taxpayer support.
“The consequences of misguided healthcare priorities go beyond waste,” the group’s letter said. “They can be downright unhealthy and directly harmful for patients.”
The University of Miami has not publicly addressed the letter or campaign.
