Lawmakers examine nonprofit hospital charity care requirements

In a companion piece to how Ohio nonprofit hospitals are seeking to delay revised IRS regulations on detailing their charity care, federal and state lawmakers are calling for possible measures on how much charity care these hospitals provide. (Source: "Hospitals’ charity care draws scrutiny," The Plain Dealer, Dec. 09, 2007.) Among the questions being asked by lawmakers are "why the federal government does not have a standard to measure exactly how the hospitals provide benefits for their communities." Ohio also lacks such a measure, even though 80% of the state's 171 hospitals are nonprofit. As detailed in the Plain Dealer article, some Ohio nonprofit hospitals already meet proposed measures for charity care, while others would have to increase the amount of charity care they give if such measures were enacted.

Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann said he supported a charity care standard. "The more that it happens collaboratively and voluntarily, the better," Dann said, adding that he intends to push the issue in 2008, possibly using his enforcement powers or rule-making authority. Nonprofit hospitals like the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals said they already "provide millions in community benefits through free care, education, research, jobs and outreach programs." U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones was quoted as saying that while "one standard would be the easiest way for someone to review the work that they do ... the type of work hospitals do may not be as easily shown in one way."