WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Catholic health ministry strongly supports the existing community benefit standard for hospital tax exemption and is concerned that inflexible legislation would impede a hospital's ability to address a local community's specific needs, Catholic Health Association Senior Vice President of Advocacy and Public Policy Michael Rodgers said today in a roundtable discussion on not-for-profit hospitals convened by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee and its Ranking Member, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA).
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"We agree that tax-exempt, not-for-profit hospitals should work to improve health in our communities and help people who cannot afford to pay for health care services get the health care they need," Rodgers said. "But we believe legislation is not needed to achieve this goal."
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For nearly two decades, CHA has led a series of efforts to help hospitals plan, quantify and articulate the benefits they provide to their communities. In June 2006, CHA unveiled A Guide for Planning and Reporting Community Benefit, a set of guidelines that have been utilized by all member Catholic health systems and nearly all member hospitals to assess community needs, create programs to meet those needs, and publicly report in a consistent manner the services delivered. In addition, CHA worked closely with the Internal Revenue Service to help shape newly proposed revisions to community benefit reporting in Form 990, which is used by 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organizations to submit information required by the federal government for tax-exemption.
Rodgers told the panel that any further reform measures are not needed because the new IRS reporting standards are just now being implemented. He also told the panel that mandated spending levels on charity care and community benefits would not give credit to low-cost or grant-funded programs that are often the most effective at promoting public health. He cited programs such as those directed at teenage mothers that may be inexpensive to operate but are extremely effective in leading to drug-free babies and full-term deliveries.
"We believe that an arbitrary 'one size fits all' minimal requirement would interfere with the flexibility and creativity needed by hospital community benefit programs, and would discourage innovative, low-cost solutions to the community," Rodgers said. His remarks were echoed by fellow panelist David Benfer, chief executive officer of Saint Raphael Healthcare System, New Haven, Connecticut, and a CHA board member.
"Our outreach, prevention, education and research programs, in my view, are even more important than charity care," Benfer said. He added that many of their programs offer prevention services to the community that result in fewer admissions for serious illness and therefore reduce the need for charity care.
"How much the hospital itself spends should not be the issue. What we do for the community and its residents should be the issue," Benfer noted.
Reflecting on CHA's participation today, President and Chief Executive Officer Sr. Carol Keehan, DC, said, "the Catholic health ministry's mission is to serve communities, and we understand that we need to be accountable to communities, to lawmakers, and to those who grant us tax exemption that we are fulfilling that mission." She stated that the organization will remain active in this important issue.
The Catholic Health Association of the United States (CHA), founded in 1915, supports the Catholic health ministry's pursuit of the strategic directions of mission, ethics, and advocacy. As the nation's largest group of not-for-profit sponsors, systems, and facilities, the ministry is committed to improving the health status of com
