Opinion: Nonprofit Hospitals Need Clear Guidance on Charity Care

Illinois legislators should set clear guidelines for nonprofit hospitals on what constitutes charity care and how much they must spend on it to protect their tax exemptions, according to a Chicago Tribune editorial.

State revenue officials last week revoked property-tax exemptions for three nonprofit medical centers that had devoted less than 2 percent of their revenue to free or reduced-rate care.

While those figures make it “hard for [the hospitals] to argue that they’ve been exerting themselves to help the poor, ” the Tribune writes, the institutions “need clear standards for how much charity care is expected in return for a tax break.”

The newspaper says lawmakers should allow hospitals to count forgiveness of debts to needy patients, direct grants to clinics that serve the poor, and other activities that benefit the community beyond direct free care.