Op-Ed in Support of Minimum Charity Care Requirement for Nonprofit Hospitals

Pablo Eisenberg, a senior Fellow at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, opined in a recent piece for the Huffington Post that Congress needs to set a benchmark for nonprofit hospitals to provide a minimum amount of charity care in exchange for their tax-exempt status.  Eisenberg discusses a recent investigative report on North Carolina nonprofit hospitals revealing increases in profits, reserves and compensation packages for their executives in recent years while less than 3 percent of their operating budgets were spent on charity care.  Eisenberg also references the recent legislative solution to the standoff between Illinois hospitals and the counties seeking to require a minimum charity care standard in exchange for property tax exemption. He frames that solution as a success for those hospitals in avoiding revocation of their tax exemptions.  A federal legislative solution is necessary, Eisenberg opines, to ensure nonprofit hospitals “earn” their tax-exempt status by adequately serving the poor.

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