hospital community benefit

Oregon Establishes Community Benefit Levels for Hospitals

Individual hospitals will need to meet specific community benefit requirements to retain their non-profit status under a new program in the state of Oregon. As described in a news release from the Oregon Health Authority and Department of Human Services, Each tax-exempt hospital or hospital system in the state will receive a floor for community benefit spending based on their revenues, prior expenditures, financial health, and the needs of the population served. As part of the program, The bill created new standards for financial assistance to patients including increasing the income thresholds for charity care, limited medical debt collection and [...]

admin2021-02-11T06:00:11+00:00February 11, 2021|hospitals|

GAO Calls for More Work Scrutinizing Hospitals’ Tax-Exempt Status

The question of whether non-profit hospitals are doing enough to justify their tax-exempt status is the focus of a new Government Accountability Office study on the manner in which the Internal Revenue Service evaluates hospitals’ tax exemption. According to the study, the IRS struggles with one of the three primary criteria for non-profit hospitals’ tax-exempt status outlined in the Affordable Care Act (PPACA): whether the community benefit such hospitals provide justifies their tax exemption. The GAO review observed that While PPACA established requirements to better ensure hospitals are serving their communities, the law is unclear about what community benefit activities [...]

admin2020-10-23T06:00:31+00:00October 23, 2020|hospitals|

Grassley, Senate Finance to Resume Probe of Non-Profit Hospitals

The Senate Finance Committee will launch a review of non-profit hospitals and whether they are meeting the formal community benefit standards required to justify their tax-free status. This subject has long been of interest to committee chairman Chuck Grassley, who has returned as committee chair. He pursued the same question of the hospitals’ non-profit status and community benefit provide while leading the Senate Finance Committee from 2003 to 2007 and also as a member of the committee, although not its chair, in recent years. In a letter to the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, which is responsible for reviewing [...]

admin2019-03-01T06:00:44+00:00March 1, 2019|hospitals|

A New Community Benefit: Free Medical School

A health system has decided on a new approach to the community benefit spending that is required to enable it to retain its non-profit status: free medical school. Kaiser Permanente, the non-profit California-based health system that will launch a new medical school in 2020, has announced that it will waive tuition for students in its first five graduating classes and include the lost revenue associated with free tuition in its community benefit spending. Company officials also hope the freedom from the debt associated with medical school loans will encourage students to pursue careers in family medicine and lower-paying specialties. Learn [...]

admin2019-02-22T06:00:25+00:00February 22, 2019|hospitals|

Helping Safety-Net Hospitals Help Their Patients

A new report published on the Health Affairs Blog describes the continuing challenges safety-net hospitals face and offers suggestions for helping them meet those challenges. The challenges, according to the report, are the virtual elimination of the Affordable Care Act’s individual health insurance mandate; the continued decline in the amount of Medicare disproportionate share hospital money (Medicare DSH) provided to safety-net hospitals; and hospital closures that shift more of the burden for caring for uninsured patients onto a smaller pool of safety-net hospitals. The result is under-served patients and new financial risks for the hospitals that remain after some safety-net [...]

admin2018-05-15T06:00:29+00:00May 15, 2018|Affordable Care Act, hospitals, Medicare disproportionate share, Medicare DSH|

Non-Profit Hospitals Tout Community Benefit

Non-profit hospitals invest $11 for every one dollar they do not pay in taxes because of their tax-exempt status. Or so says a study prepared for the American Hospital Association. According to the study, in 2013 non-profit hospitals provided $67.4 billion worth of benefits to their communities compared to the $6 billion they would have paid in taxes had they been for-profit hospitals. Those community benefits came in four forms: financial assistance and means-tested government programs (such as unreimbursed Medicaid costs) community-building activities Medicare shortfalls bad debt attributable to charity care Learn more about what the study found and how [...]

admin2017-10-13T06:00:32+00:00October 13, 2017|Uncategorized|