community benefit

Proposals for expanding coverage to the uninsured are taking many directions, all of which generate controversy within some interest group, and this is no exception. In Wisconsin, Gov. Jim Doyle is proposing to fund Medicaid and other health programs for the poor with a tax on hospitals. What makes this tax particularly interesting is that it would create winners and losers, deflating profits for cozy suburban hospitals and helping the Medicaid-reliant hospitals improve their bottom …

To date, efforts to make community non-profit hospitals justify that they're providing enough benefits have been controversial, with many accusing hospitals of gaming the system. Another current set of proposals that would tax physicians and doctors to pay for uninsured patients, including one making the rounds in California which would tax physicians 2 percent on their revenues and hospitals 4 percent.

Instead of pushing providers to pay a new tax or prove that they're doing the …

A proposal by the American Hospital Association (AHA) citing bad debt and unpaid costs for Medicare, Medicaid and indigent care costs as "community benefit" is drawing fire from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA). In a letter to his membership, AHA president-elect Richard Umbdenstock said last week that while he supports community benefit reporting guidelines proposed by the Catholic Hospital Association and Voluntary Hospital Association, he believes that it's also …

You think your budget is tight?  Try being a New York state-based non-profit hospital. The state's 218 non-profit facilities lost a collective $95.4 million in 2005, putting them at 49th in the country for operating margins, according to the Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS). HANYS said that 56 percent of the state's non-profits are losing money, breaking even or running margins of less than 1 percent, a dismal situation given …

The Wisconsin Hospital Association has launched a website promoting the quantifiable community benefits provided by its member hospitals. All of the state's hospitals participated in the effort. The site reports that in 2005, Wisconsin's 132 hospitals provided $900 million in free services, including $158 million worth of charity care (the state of Wisconsin defines "charity care" as care the hospital provides knowing in advance that it will not …

A new report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers argues that with lots of high-profile scrutiny under way, non-profit hospitals need to do a much better job of measuring and communicating the community benefit and charity care they provide. What's more, PWC suggests, hospitals will need to develop patient-friendly pricing schemes to compliment their community-friendly policies. The consulting firm breaks down its recommendations across reporting, pricing and business relationship strategies, and …

The level of charity care not-for-profit hospitals provide is under fire once again. In an in-depth study of 10 charity hospitals, Senate finance committee investigators have found that although charity hospitals offer free care, they often don't inform patients that assistance is available. Some charity hospitals also charge poorer patients more for care while charging well-off patients with coverage less. Additionally, hospital CEOs enjoy expensive perks, which calls into question …

In order to retain their tax-exempt status, not-for-profit hospitals must provide some kind of community benefit. But defining what constitutes "community benefit" has been a constant source of trouble for these hospitals. Now the Catholic Health Association says it has developed a set of guidelines for planning, measuring, and documenting community benefits. The CHA also says that almost all of its 4,000 facilities have adopted these measures. The association hopes its guidelines could …