Nonprofit Hospitals Object to Senate Proposal to Add New 'Charity Care' Requirements

June 03, 2009

Nonprofit Hospitals Object to Senate Proposal to Add New 'Charity Care' Requirements

The Association for Healthcare Philanthropy, which represents nearly 5,000 nonprofit hospitals, is objecting to a plan floated by two key Senators to establish a minimum level of free care that nonprofit hospitals would be required to provide to the poor.

The policy option was included in a discussion on ways to change the health-care system.

It would place new requirements on nonprofit hospitals and punish groups that fail to meet them. Organizations that flagrantly fail to provide the minimum level of care could lose their tax-exempt status. No specific minimum was specified in the document released by Sen. Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, and Sen. Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa.

In its objections to the proposal, the association said they were upset that hospitals could not count bad debts as part of their charity care. They said many nonprofit hospitals already provide a lot of uncompensated care because people don’t pay their bills.

The association said it preferred the broader “community standard” requirement that hospitals have been required to follow since 1969.

Under that standard, hospitals can provide a broader range of services to their cities and towns, such as promoting good health and offering preventive care.

— Holly Hall

Comments

There is an assumption built into the proposal that charity care is good for the patient. In many cases it has the unintended consequences of hurting the patient. If more hospitals take the easy way out and declare charity for a patients bill rather then expend the effort to get the patient covered under community medicaid ,we will put at the risk the patients ability to see a physician or get a presription filled. Also the patient takes the course of least resistance and doesn’t support the medicaid process knowing that they will get charity..hospitals should be allowed to declare pre-ememptive medicaid based on the person’s income and expedite their enrollment before we all just give up and call it charity

— notmd Jun 4, 10:23 AM #

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