Chicago, Ill., Feb 13, 2006 / 22:00 pm
Catholic hospitals in Illinois have come under sharp criticism with a recent ad campaign, which alleges that they are not meeting the obligations to maintain their tax-exempt status.
Hospitals — both Catholic and other nonprofit hospitals — in Illinois have been accused of aggressive collection practices and for charging higher rates to the uninsured than to Medicare recipients and to individuals with private insurance, reported the Chicago Sun-Times.
As a result, Attorney General Lisa Madigan is supporting legislation that would set standards for charity care and billing-and-collection practices for nonprofit and tax-exempt hospitals. She says the hospitals, on average, spend less than 1 percent of their operating costs on charity care.
The Tax-Exempt Hospital Responsibility Act would require nonprofit hospitals to allocate at least 8 percent of their total operating costs to charity care. A separate bill would prohibit aggressive debt-collection practices.