Business
IRS surveys nonprofit hospitals
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted June 26, 2006
The Internal Revenue Service has sent letters to nearly 600 nonprofit hospitals seeking information about their executive compensation and community benefits practices. The letters, sent May 15 to randomly selected nonprofit hospitals, include a survey with 81 questions on topics such as whether the hospital operates an emergency department or training program, how much it spent on uncompensated care, and whether it includes bad debt in that calculation.
Though the IRS has been conducting similar so-called compliance checks in recent years in the broader world of nonprofit organizations, this is the first time the agency has specifically targeted hospitals.
Jack Reilly, a technical adviser with the tax-exempt section of the IRS, said the voluntary information would be used to help the agency examine what hospitals need to do to live up to the community benefits they promise in exchange for tax breaks.
The American Hospital Assn. says it hopes the IRS will also use as a resource a recent guide by the Catholic Health Assn. and Irving, Texas-based VHA about how to report and define community benefits.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2006/06/26/bibf0626.htm.
