Montana Hospitals’ Claims on Community Benefit Questioned

Major medical centers in Montana report providing charity care and other public benefits that exceed the value of their tax exemptions, but an increasing share of those benefits is taken up by “subsidized health services,” says the Missoulian.

A study done for the state attorney general’s office by a former hospital CEO found that most of the state’s 22 biggest hospitals boosted community benefits in fiscal year 2010 but that nearly 80 percent of the increase came in the form of subsidized care—services on which a hospital loses money but that are unavailable elsewhere in the community.

Report author Larry White, now a University of Montana professor, said some hospitals are overstating the amount of subsidized care and that it is “questionable” whether some the included services can be “properly considered community benefits.”