AHA blog pushes back on report on nonprofit hospitals

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget is supposedly committed to being “an authoritative voice for fiscal responsibility,” which is why it’s so “disappointing that they would propose something so irresponsible in a new report — repealing nonprofit hospitals’ tax exemption,” writes AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack in an AHA blog.

“In reality, eliminating that exemption could result in more burden being placed on taxpayers to cover the cost of all the benefits and services these hospitals provide to their patients and communities. Worse than that, eliminating the longstanding exemption would cause hospitals across the country to close their doors, which would be the epitome of fiscal recklessness.”

The blog highlights all the ways nonprofit hospitals and health systems give back to their communities. In 2020, the most recent year of data, nonprofit hospitals and systems provided nearly $130 billion in benefits to communities — $20 billion more than the prior year. The blog also notes how hospitals tailor the benefits to the local needs of their communities, which can vary drastically based on location, patient demographics, and payer mix. “In fact, the benefit that tax-exempt hospitals provided to their communities, as reported on the IRS Form 990 Schedule H, was estimated by the consulting firm EY at almost nine times greater than the value of tax revenue forgone. That is a striking return on investment.”

In addition, the blog highlights that the report was produced in conjunction with the “well-known anti-hospital, billionaire-backed Arnold Ventures and in large part relies on prior studies also funded by Arnold Ventures that the AHA has debunked time and again.”