title: Not-for-Profit community hospitals' exempt status at issue in charity care controversy.
abstract: Revocations of local property tax exemptions, class action lawsuits, and state and Congressional investigations all beset the not-for-profit sector of the hospital industry. These problems originated from issues relating to the pricing of services to the uninsured, the relative availability of "charity care" or lack thereof and the collection tactics that some hospital-contracted collectors use. Is this controversy really just symptomatic of the extent to which health care charging and payment systems are out of whack? Are ambiguous government regulations to blame? Is large-scale payment reform the real answer?
authors.affiliation: The Health Capital Group.
authors.forename: James J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Unland
mesh_terms: D019981:Health Care Sector; D006740:Hospital Administrators; D006764:Hospitals, Community / Q000145:classification*; D006788:Hospitals, Voluntary / Q000191:economics / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D019464:Tax Exemption; D017664:Uncompensated Care; D014481:United States