(Download) "What is Left of Charity Care After Health Reform?(Policy and Politics) (Report)" by Jessica Wilen Berg * eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: What is Left of Charity Care After Health Reform?(Policy and Politics) (Report)
- Author : Jessica Wilen Berg
- Release Date : January 01, 2010
- Genre: Life Sciences,Books,Science & Nature,Health, Mind & Body,Health & Fitness,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 61 KB
Description
The passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on March 23, 2010, significantly changes the health care landscape. But even with the considerable expansion of insurance, many people will still lack coverage. When fully implemented, the act is designed only to cover about thirty-two million of the forty-six million uninsured Americans. Illegal aliens are specifically excluded. For others, implementation is not immediate; the so-called individual mandate, for example, does not take effect until 2014, and there are exceptions for people for whom available policies are still too expensive, or who have religious objections. Once in effect, the mandate has limited penalties, and some people will choose not to purchase coverage despite the legal requirements. Who will provide care for the remaining twenty million or more people who will still be uninsured? Nonprofit hospitals have long functioned as the "safety-net" in our health system, but the requirements for charity care seem to be evolving. (1) A 2007 Internal Revenue Service report stated that about half of nonprofit hospitals spent 3 percent or less of revenues on charity care. Nowadays, hospitals are bringing in large amounts of money, paying their CEOs record amounts of compensation, and engaging in aggressive debt recovery actions. Richard Scruggs, the high-profile attorney who spearheaded the litigation against the tobacco companies, has filed a class action lawsuit against nonprofit hospitals for their billing and collection practices. The Financial Accounting Standards Board announced in April 2010 that it was interested in comments on current practices of measuring charity care for accounting disclosure purposes. Senator Charles Grassley has proposed federal legislation to establish minimum charity care standards for hospitals. The Illinois Supreme Court recently upheld the revocation of Provena Hospitals' state property tax exemption in Urbana, on the basis that the property in question was not put to a sufficiently "charitable use" under Illinois law. With many other state and local tax authorities scrutinizing nonprofit hospitals, this question has moved to the forefront of health law debates. What obligations should nonprofit hospitals have to provide charity care?