Attorney General Dann says non-profit hospitals need to do better job justifying tax-exempt status

In a follow-up to an item reported last week, Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann said yesterday that the state's 174 nonprofit hospitals need to do a better job justifying their tax-exempt status. (Source: "Nonprofit hospitals back under microscope," Columbus Dispatch, Jan. 22, 2008.) "Dann is launching a wide-ranging look into the practices of nonprofit hospitals: how much they pay their executives, how they collect unpaid medical bills, how much charity care they provide and how much financial information they disclose to the public. The effort recalls a similar but largely abandoned campaign by Dann's predecessor, Jim Petro. It ran aground in 2006 after an outpouring of criticism from leaders of hospitals and other nonprofit groups."