Location
Northwestern College, Rowenhorst Student Center
Abstract
Whether to grant lucrative hospitals tax-exempt status is a controversial legal topic. Under the current law, non-profits must provide community benefit, a specific type of charitable giving, to maintain their tax-exempt status. The goal of this paper is to argue that hospitals’ community benefit requirement should be strengthened and further specified. I plan to show that the non-profit hospitals can afford charitable contributions to surrounding communities, but such contributions are a small share of their expenditures. I propose two easy steps can be made to make the community benefit requirement meaningful. First, the Community Needs Assessment should be done every three years with an implementation progress report being made every year. This will keep hospitals accountable in their goals set forth by the Assessment. Next, there needs to be a clear basis for what classifies as a community benefit. With these two moves, hospitals will have less flexibility to abuse the guidelines set forth now and make meaningful contributions to surrounding communities.
Included in
Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons, Nonprofit Administration and Management Commons
How to Help Non-Profit Hospitals Serve Better
Northwestern College, Rowenhorst Student Center
Whether to grant lucrative hospitals tax-exempt status is a controversial legal topic. Under the current law, non-profits must provide community benefit, a specific type of charitable giving, to maintain their tax-exempt status. The goal of this paper is to argue that hospitals’ community benefit requirement should be strengthened and further specified. I plan to show that the non-profit hospitals can afford charitable contributions to surrounding communities, but such contributions are a small share of their expenditures. I propose two easy steps can be made to make the community benefit requirement meaningful. First, the Community Needs Assessment should be done every three years with an implementation progress report being made every year. This will keep hospitals accountable in their goals set forth by the Assessment. Next, there needs to be a clear basis for what classifies as a community benefit. With these two moves, hospitals will have less flexibility to abuse the guidelines set forth now and make meaningful contributions to surrounding communities.