Posted on 12/30/2014 12:27:39 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The Obama administration announced new rules under Obamacare on Monday that target nonprofit hospitals’ efforts to get paid by their patients.
Nonprofit hospitals, which serve a charitable purpose and are often religiously affiliated, will now be subject to strict rules on when and how they can collect payments from customers, thanks to regulations included in the health-care law. As a condition of their tax-exempt status, these hospitals must “take an active role in improving the health of the communities they serve,” Treasury Department deputy assistant secretary for tax policy Emily McMahon wrote in a blog post Monday.
Under the new IRS rules, the penalty for failing to meet the new standards could even lead hospitals’ tax-exempt status to be revoked entirely.
“Reports that some charitable hospitals have used aggressive debt collection practices, including allowing debt collectors to pursue collections in emergency rooms, have highlighted the need for clear rules to protect patients,” McMahon wrote. “For hospitals to be tax-exempt, they should be held to a higher standard.”
The rules cover a number of Obamacare requirements. For one, hospitals must charge the uninsured the same price for emergency care as those with insurance are “generally billed,” whether they have private coverage, Medicare or Medicaid.
Nonprofit hospitals will be required to have and “widely publicize” a financial assistance program — and will be banned from using certain collection methods until they’ve taken “reasonable efforts” to see whether a patient who hasn’t paid their bill is eligible for assistance. The hospital can’t report unpaid bills to a credit agency or garnish wages until hospital workers themselves have determined whether a customer is financially needy or is just trying to skip out on the payment.
The new regulations don’t stop at active patients. In order to maintain tax-exempt status, nonprofit hospitals now need to actively attempt to handle health problems in their communities.
“Each charitable hospital must conduct and publish a community health needs assessment at least once every three years,” McMahon wrote. “And disclose on the tax form it files annually the steps it is taking to address the health needs identified in the assessment.”
If a hospital fails to live up to the IRS’s new standards, it could have its tax-exempt status revoked. But there’s some leniency — if a misstep appears to be an honest mistake, the hospital can “correct and publicly disclose” its error and pay an excise tax on that program rather than having the whole hospital’s status revoked.
The requirements were included in the health-care law as consumer protections, according to McMahon.
“That is why the Affordable Care Act (ACA) included additional consumer protection requirements for charitable hospitals, so that patients are protected from abusive collections practices and have access to information about financial assistance at all tax-exempt hospitals,” McMahon wrote.
Over half of all hospitals are nonprofits, representing a significant pool of money that’s exempt from state and federal tax authorities. Charitable hospitals have been criticized for years on the grounds that some don’t spend enough on free care for patients who qualify for financial assistance.
A 2013 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that on average, nonprofit hospitals spent 7.5 percent of their operating expenses on charity care and community benefit, according to The New York Times.
Governments hate competition.
Obamacare Nanny State PING!
Non-profit does not mean free.
Non-profit means that none of the revenues flow to the owners. There are a few small exceptions to that (paying salaries for example).
They want to shut them down.
That is the goal.....................
That sounds suspiciously like the same wording they used when forcing banks to give sub-prime loans for McMansions to minority ditch diggers.
Probably is going to end as well as that did, but there will be no bailout at the end for them.
SSDD... SMH
Maybe they should hire Michelle Obama to help steer away potential deadbeat patients?
Making law through the regulatory process, nothing different here from Obama — the continuing usurpation of legislative prerogatives.
Now he has a hammer (the IRS) to enforce compliance. Perhaps that’s why they chose the IRS as the health regulatory agency.
What this means is if your hospital is affiliated with a church and you are indigent, you can tell them to stuff their bill.
If they can’t collect from your insurer, they usually have to write it off to charity care.
Now the Obama Administration is putting legal teeth to it.
Yeah too many people don’t understand what non-profit actually means.
St. Jude may have trouble meeting some of this. The community health requirement is a whole new realm of responsibility. I doubt the Omanites will allow them to call “children with terminal diseases” as their community.
And written off medical debt is income to those who’s debt was written off.
Simple solution, become FOR PROFIT Hospitals.
If you stiff a hospital for $50,000 in medical bills, that’s $50,000 of income you owe taxes on.
Wealth transfer from hospitals to minorities, many of whom are illegal. “Transforming America.”
Makes perfect sense. You can’t pay the $50k medical bill; but somehow, you have the ~$10k for taxes.
Non-Profits actually need to make a profit in order to renovate, expand important services, buy equipment (e.g., MRIs) and pay executive salaries. As a provider for a non-profit, I am not happy that I work to pay mediocre executives a lot more than I make. So be it.
The real problem is that the Feds and their crony capitalist insurance companies are leaving the providers out in the cold with declining reimbursement rates and increasing bureaucracy. I am 61 and will retire earlier than the intended 65. I will be OK. Practitioners in their 40’s with student loans and young children will suffer the most. These are very bright, hard working and compassionate people ... and they are getting screwed!
The biggest offenders of these rules apply to government employees. Those animals are more equal than the rest of us.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.