The federal government requires hospitals to tell a Medicare patient

The post has so many typo's -

Here is the original question -

The federal government requires hospitals to tell a Medicare patient of their legal right to challenge their discharge if they feel they are being sent home prematurely.

(A) hospitals to tell a Medicare patient of their
(B) hospitals to tell Medicare patients that they have a
(C) hospitals to tell Medicare patients that there is a
(D) that hospitals tell a Medicare patient of their
(E) that hospitals tell a Medicare patient that they have a

Now B is correct

(A) hospitals to tell a Medicare patient of their
(B) hospitals to tell Medicare patients that they have a
(C) hospitals to tell Medicare patients that there is a
(D) that hospitals tell a Medicare patient of their
(E) that hospitals tell a Medicare patient that they have a

why C is incorrect ! i am confuse

There is a typo in the question.

legal right of challenge their discharge

should be

legal right to challenge their discharge

Edited. Thank you.

Why can't (A) be the answer? Their clearly refers to hospitals since that is the only plural noun present. Also doesn't (B) become a bit wordy (that they have)?

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generis How do we know that the sentence doesn’t need a subjunctive? And if it does require should be followed by a “that” as in the case of subjunctive category where a necessity is shown

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Sorry,
Could you please elaborate more? Its still not clear

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Thanks alot for the reply.
Could you please elaborate more? Its still not very clear.

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How do we know that the sentence doesn’t need a subjunctive? And if it does require should be followed by a “that” as in the case of subjunctive category where a necessity is shown

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Chinmay1998 , belated welcome to GMAT Club.
(A) cannot be the answer.
You wrote

No, their cannot logically refer to hospitals.
Hospitals do not get discharged from hospitals.
What about they?
Hospitals do not get sent home from hospitals prematurely.

I am very glad that you are flexible about pronoun ambiguity.
Many people are not.
The antecedent for a pronoun, though, must match and must be logical.

• Option A contains fatal pronoun/antecedent error

(A) hospitals to tell a Medicare patient of their

The pronouns their and they never refer to a singular subject such as "a patient."
Both pronouns must be paired with patients, plural.

In informal speech you will hear people say, "Someone left their keys." Wrong.
Correct: Someone left her or his keys.
Correct: Someone left his or her keys.


The question is official. Official answers are always correct.

• Option B is better than the other options.
It contains none of the grammar errors evident in A, D, and E.
It avoids the unnecessary insertion of "there is" as is evident in (C).
Finally, as a matter of convention, tell often takes an indirect object [the person to whom something is told] + that.

Correct: Please tell her that she has an option to exercise XYZ in her contract.

"Wordy" is a last resort, in my book.
Concision is important. But concision is a matter of style. Find grammar errors first.
Then find serious bloopers such as the unnecessary insertion of "there is." (GMAC very rarely uses this "expletive" construction.)

I hope that answer helps.

rohitchayal , initially, we do not know whether the sentence needs to be in command subjunctive form.
Other errors in the options will determine what form "require" takes.

Require can be followed by that or by an infinitive. These constructs are both correct:
Require X to do Y
Require that X do Y

In fact, if both constructions above are present, we do not worry about which one to use. They are equivalent.
Especially with the flexible verb require, if you see both the infinitive and the command subjunctive constructions in the answer choices, do not make the use of subjunctive a decision point.

Find other errors in the options and eliminate the options one by one.
GMAC cannot ask you to choose between two valid constructions. (require that v. require to do)
Question writers use both forms to distract you from the real errors.

• Eliminate A, D, and E because of pronoun error.
Their and they can never refer to a singular subject such as patient.

Your question, slightly reframed: will this sentence be written in the subjunctive? No, not this time.
That is, options D and E could be correct. Errors that have nothing to do with the subjunctive prevent them from being correct.
Requires that hospitals tell is not a decision point.

• The options have locked us into require + infinitive
Both B and C use require + infinitive.
(C) unnecessarily inserts "there is."
B is the answer.

Because require that and require to verb are grammatically equivalent, we don't worry about the subjunctive.
We choose the answer with no grammar errors. We find that answer using the traditional method: elimination.


I am not sure I understand your question.
I think you are asking about whether the word "that" in the command subjunctive construction is optional.

No, "that" is not optional in this command subjunctive construction. The word THAT must be present:
bossy verb + THAT + subject/noun + bare infinitive (command subjunctive)

Let's say that you face two remaining options. Both options use require. Both options are in the 'bossy verb" (not the infinitive) version.
#1 says: I require that the wingnuts be removed from my lecture hall!
#2 says: I require the wingnuts be removed from my lecture hall!

#2 is wrong. When require is used in command subjunctive form, require is always followed by that.

I hope that answer helps.

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