Continuing a trend towards increasing detailed taxpayer disclosures (which tax-exempt healthcare providers have seen through the recently re-vamped Form 990), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), in Announcement 2010-9, 2010-7 (Jan.

Recently, the IRS released a final report on its 2006 nonprofit hospital study, which analyzes community benefit and compensation reporting by almost 500 hospitals.  The IRS found that the average and median percentages of total revenues reported as spent on aggregate community benefit expenditures were 9% and 6%, respectively, for the overall group. AHA President and CEO Rich Umbdenstock said, “Today’s IRS report reaffirms that hospitals of all types are providing a healthy mix of care and services to the communities they serve.

Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) propose amendments to the economic stimulus bill "intended to ratchet up the scrutiny on charity care and not-for-profit hospitals" says ModernHealthcare.com.  The Wall Street Journal Health Blog reports that "[o]ne Grassley-sponsored amendment would require the Treasury department (which includes the IRS) to compare the amount of uncompensated care and executive compensation provided at nonprofit versus for-profit hospitals.

IRS Authority to Question Nonprofit Hospitals About Charity Care

“We don’t see much of a difference between nonprofit hospitals and for-profit hospitals,” said Theresa Pattara, a staff member of the office of Senate Finance Committee (SFC) ranking member Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), at an American Health Lawyers Association program on September 12 in Washington D.C.