The Daily Caller – by Patrick Howley
Charitable hospitals that treat uninsured Americans will be subjected to new levels of scrutiny of their nonprofit status and could face sizable new fines under Obamacare.
A new provision in Section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code, which takes effect under Obamacare, sets new standards of review and installs new financial penalties for tax-exempt charitable hospitals, which devote a minimum amount of their expenses to treat uninsured poor people. Approximately 60 percent of American hospitals are currently nonprofit.
Charity for the uninsured is one of the factors that could discourage enrollment in Obamacare, which requires all Americans to purchase health insurance or else face new taxes themselves from the IRS.
“It requires tax-exempt hospitals to do a community needs survey and file additional paperwork with the IRS every three years. This is to prove that the charitable hospital is still needed in their geographical area — ‘needed’ as defined by Obamacare and overseen by IRS bureaucrats,” said John Kartch, spokesman for Americans for Tax Reform.
“Failure to comply, or to prove this continuing need, could result in the loss of the hospital’s tax-exempt status. The hospital would then become a for-profit venture, paying income tax — hence the positive revenue score” for the federal government, Kartch said. “Obamacare advocates turned over every rock to find as much tax money as possible.”
Additionally, the rise in the number of insured Americans under Obamacare will make it more difficult for tax-exempt hospitals to continue meeting required thresholds for treating the uninsured, driving more hospitals into the for-profit category and yielding more taxable money for the federal government.
“The requirements generally apply to any section 501(c)(3) organization that operates at least one hospital facility,” according to a “Technical Explanation” report of new Obamacare provisions prepared by the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) on March 21, 2010, the day Obamacare passed.
Obamacare’s new requirements could slam hospitals with massive $50,000 fines if they fail to meet bureaucrats’ standards.
“The hospital must disclose in its annual information report to the IRS (i.e., Form 990 and related schedules) how it is addressing the needs identified in the assessment and, if all identified needs are not addressed, the reasons why (e.g., lack of financial or human resources). Each hospital facility is required to make the assessment widely available. Failure to complete a community health needs assessment in any applicable three-year period results in a penalty on the organization of up to $50,000,” according to the JCT report.
The government is particularly interested in how and why hospitals will be providing discounted or free care to poor patients, requiring each of them to “adopt, implement, and widely publicize a written financial assistance policy” and explain the methods they use to screen applicants for assistance and how they calculate patients’ bills.
A delegate working under the Department of Health and Human Services must review the innumerable reports charitable hospitals file every three years, along with copies of their audited financial statements.
After sifting through this massive amount of information, the delegate and HHS secretary must attempt to identify trends in the hospitals’ spending and send in a comprehensive report of their findings to Congress by 2015, according to the JCT report.
Healthcare experts warn that the Obamacare’s new requirements make it almost impossible for charitable hospitals to navigate treacherous new waters.
“Nonprofit hospitals should be advised that the new PPACA requirements will play a significant role in how they operate and report, specifically when it comes to billing and collections for services provided to the uninsured. The new law leaves many gray areas and hospitals themselves will have to establish eligibility criteria for financial assistance. Following the new procedures as best they can will ensure the best chance of maintaining their tax exempt status,” wrote D. Douglas Metcalf, partner at the law firm Lewis and Roca, in a 2013 op-ed entitled “Will nonprofit hospitals disappear under Obamacare?”
The White House did not return a request for comment.
Where I live there is an abundance of homeless who have no address
and could not pay an obamcare tax. Their only means for treatment
in time of need is the local non-profit hospital. There is more evil to
obamcare then meets the eye.
Yep Leita, and the homless is going to get way worse before it gets better I am afraid. I do not go to dr.s or hospitals but I have heard that most dr.s do not even like this obamacare stuff.
Digger, doctors are another rude awakening. Greedy.
They sure do not practice the Hippocratic Oath:
I will not withdraw from my patients in time of need;
….for the good of the sick. Pray you don’t get real
sick. And pray if you should get real sick, they don’t
kill you off.
By punishing charitable hospitals, “he” definitely wants to kill us off. I’m retired, on a fixed income, unable to afford Obummercare, but not yet on Medicare. I’m one of the ones “he” wants to face the firing squad of the death panel.
Oh, and if you have designated “organ donation” on your drivers license thinking you’re going to help someone else out after you’re dead, better think again. Get that changed in a hurry and document it in writing.
There are 58 Organ Procurement Organizations in our nation working with doctors and hospitals, waiting in the wings for your organs. When a patient gets put on life support, the Drs. usually lie tell families they are brain dead.
There have been cases where patients have been placed on a paralyzing drug so as not so squirm and a “living disection” was performed while the patient was still alive.
Better hope you don’t end up in the hospital and unable to speak on your own behalf. There was a story about a lady in the news not to long ago who woke up just before the “living disection” procedure.
Go here to fine out more about how to protect yourself.
http://lifeguardianfoundation.org/
Be careful! It’s all about the money and your organs are on the menu.
. . .
Thanks Cathleen for the info as I thought the “No” on the DL was all it
took. Funny how they seem to over-ride all ones wishes. I recall
back in the early 70’s there were two men who would come into the
place I worked; their job was to go to the accident site of victims and
collect the organs on the spot. I wonder how many could have been
saved. I was too stupid to ask pertinent questions. I have often thought
the reason none of these illuminati never die off is because they have
organ transplants. This thought parallels along the lines of that old
movie “Coma”. I am going to be sure and tell my family members
I am not an organ donor………just in case. Also, noticed advertisements
on TV pushing organ donations like drugs.
Also, where I live there use to be a free clinic staffed by a doctor , nurse
practitioner, and nurse. Just closed down after being opened by a
priest twenty something yrs. ago. One just walked off the street, paid
what one could or paid nothing. Closed d/t lack of donations which
I doubt; more like closed d/t obamcare.
You’ve got that right Leita! They push the idea of organ donation as a good thing, and theoretically, it is a good thing, but it’s feeding the wrong intent. Most people don’t even know the truth about this. I heard all about this on Deanna Spangola’s show on RBN … yesterday I think. What eye-popping information THAT was!
Be sure to watch the videos of Dr. Paul Byrne at the link I gave above.
. . .
Thanks so much, Cathleen. I think Obamacare is more like
a tracking device. The free-clinics one did not have to
show a drivers license or give social security number.
Their primary interest was in your medical history which
is how it is suppose to be. 1984 is getting closer and closer.
This makes perverse sense when you realize that Obamacare was written by the medical-industrial complex to benefit themselves. Any clinic offering low-or-no cost medical care was a detriment to the profits of the medical-industrial complex, so I’m not surprised that Obamacare contains language to kill these clinics. It also comes as no surprise that the government would support this, because anyone getting this low-or-no cost care didn’t have to earn income to pay for it, and therefore didn’t pay taxes on that income.
It’s becoming more clear that it is the overall policy of our corporate-controlled government to either force you to earn more money, or get rid of (kill) people who are not adding enough to the velocity of money for TPTB to feel it’s worth having you here.