Ohio hospitals seek to delay revised IRS charity care form

"U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones has asked the IRS to "delay requiring nonprofit hospitals like the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals to provide more detail about charity care they provide." (Source: "Rep. Tubbs Jones takes up hospitals' cause on IRS form on charity care," The Plain Dealer, Dec. 7, 2007.) The revised IRS 990 financial form resulted from recent investigations into whether nonprofit hospitals were providing enough care to earn tax-exempt status. The form will be required paperwork for hospitals starting in early 2009 for the 2008 tax year. Supporters of the new IRS requirements say "very generous tax breaks" should only be given to hospitals when they can actually show they are providing services to the needy.

However, Tubbs Jones and a number of Ohio hospitals say the new requirements should be delayed. The American Hospital Association, which helped Tubbs Jones collect supporters for her letter to the IRS, said "they favor more transparency" but ask that the revised form not take effect until 2010. The AHA also said hospitals should be able to count "all types of community benefits, including bills patients haven't paid and underpayments from federal reimbursements." Other signers of Tubb Jones' letter include Republican Reps. Steven LaTourette and Michael Turner and Democratic Reps. Marcy Kaptur, Zachary Space and Betty Sutton.

The Plain Dealer article also mentioned that MetroHealth in Cleveland recently announced it will lose money for the first time in three years, in part because of an increase in uncompensated care.