Nonprofit Hospitals Under Congress Pressure
Last year Republican Representative Bill Thomas of California and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee started looking into the financial practices of nonprofit hospitals. Now Republican Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance is inquiring about nonprofit hospitals too as part of his broader oversight effort on nonprofit groups such as the American Red Cross. At heart is how much and what hospitals really do to enjoy tax exempt status. Since 1969 the IRS has expanded the services that qualify a hospital as a non-profit. Prior to that date, they had to specifically provide charity care, but since then many other community benefits qualify, such as training physicians, screening for diseases or performing medical research. Mr. Grassley specifically has in mind aggressive debt collection practices, high executive salary and joint ventures with commercial companies.
March 19, 2006 Related topics: Legal & legislative