Nothing in federal law says that hospitals with tax breaks for providing a community benefit must spend money to provide free medical care or subsidize other healthcare services. The standards by which hospitals earn tax breaks are lax, and have been so for more than four decades.
Nonetheless, tax-exempt hospitals must now publicly disclose the amount they spend on such subsidies. The Internal Revenue Service required the disclosure after Congressional scrutiny of the not-for-profit hospital sector, and the first data become available last year. This week, Modern Healthcare reported the latest figures with data provided by GuideStar, a not-for-profit watchdog.
As we reported, hospital margins do not appear to determine what hospitals spend on free medical care for low-income patients (known as charity care) or the subsidized services that federal officials have deemed community benefits, according to an analysis of 2010 reporting to the Internal Revenue Service.
Read more »
Permalink | Post a Comment
