ObamaCare Raises Costs for Non-Profit Hospitals
According to law firm Foster, Swift, Collins & Smith, the ObamaCare law states that the Secretary of the Treasury must review the tax exempt status of every non-profit hospital every three years. Non-profit hospitals shall lose their tax exemptions unless they do four things:
- Perform a community needs assessment
- Have and advertise a financial assistance policy
- Limit charges for people eligible for financial assistance to the lowest amount charged to people who have insurance.
- Take no “extraordinary collection actions” to make people pay their bills.
Unfortunately, no one knows what any of this means.
Have they done an assessment on what happens when the non-profit hospitals decide to close because the regulatory burdens and the intrusiveness, not to mention the added costs of doing business, are too much?
This is a new oportunity for the federal government to harass hospitals.
What is the definition of “extraordinary collection actions”?
If I don’t make payments on a mortgage I have, and the mortgage company forecloses on my house, is that an extraordinary collection action?
How about if I have a car loan, fail to make payments and the auto finance company repossesses my car, is that an extraordinary collection action?
What if I visit the Emergency Room, refuse to pay at time of service and don’t adhere to a payment plan — are phone calls to my home extraordinary collection actions?
Folks:
The point here is that to fully earn their tax-exempt status, non-profit hospitals need to distinguish themselves from the for-profits.
The factors listed attempt to define that distinction.
If the not-for-profits cannot exist by distinguishing themselves from their for-profit competitors, they simply will convert to for-profits.
Don Levit
Community needs are relative. It’s all about demographic data, and that is not always 100% reliable. You’re always making assumptions. And changing one assumption can make huge impacts in the final outcome.
They can’t even define community, let alone “need.”