UPDATE: ILLINOIS HOSPITALS

Illinois hospitals are fighting back against a state effort to legislate the amount of free care nonprofit facilities must provide, adding fuel to a nationwide controversy over whether nonprofit hospitals deserve their tax breaks, the Chicago Tribune reports. In response to Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s proposal, which would require nonprofit hospitals to spend eight percent of their operating costs to cover charity care for low-income patients, the Illinois Hospital Association presented new survey data that showed that hospitals in the state currently spend approximately $3-billion in “community benefits” each year. Supporters of the proposed measure, however, questioned what services the survey counted as charitable.