Ohio’s Attorney General, Marc Dann, is beginning an investigation into whether the state’s 174 nonprofit hospitals can justify their tax-exempt status, reports The Columbus Dispatch. While a previous effort failed due to criticism from hospital leaders and other nonprofit organizations, Mr. Dann believes that a more collaborative approach this time will help assure his success.

“Anytime you start to hold people accountable who have not had that for decades, if not centuries, people are going to start to be nervous,” Mr. Dann said. He took the first steps toward working with relevant nonprofit groups last week by discussing his ideas with the board of the Ohio Hospital Association, which represents the nonprofit hospitals.

A hospital-association spokeswoman, Tiffany Himmelreich, said that the group would “work hard with the attorney general’s staff to explain what community benefits the hospitals provide” but noted that the Internal Revenue Service was undertaking a similar effort to require more detailed financial accounting beginning in 2009. Ms. Himmelreich said the association hopes Mr. Dann’s efforts won’t duplicate the IRS’s work.

Among Mr. Dann’s goals are to investigate how much nonprofit hospitals pay their executives, how they collect unpaid medical bills, how much charity care they provide, and how much financial information they disclose to the public.