Section 501(r) was added to the Internal Revenue Code by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, enacted March 23, 2010 and imposes additional requirements on charitable hospital organizations. Since 2010, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service have issued notices and solicited comments regarding the requirements of Section 501(r). On December 31, 2014, the IRS released the regulations finalizing a number of requirements with which charitable hospitals must comply in order to avoid significant fines or the loss of their tax-exempt status (the "Final Regulations").
Topics addressed in the Final Regulations include:
- Application of the Final Regulations to hospital-owned physician practices or other entities providing care within a Hospital Facility
- An expansion of the examples of health needs that a Hospital Facility may consider in its Community Health Needs Assessment
- Requiring a Hospital Facility's Financial Assistance Policy to list the providers, other than the Hospital Facility itself, delivering emergency or other medically necessary care in the Hospital Facility and to specify which providers are covered by the Hospital Facility's Financial Assistance Policy
- Clarity regarding the measures a Hospital Facility must take to make its Financial Assistance Policy widely available
- Guidance regarding the two methods used to calculate the amount generally billed for emergency or other medically necessary care
- Guidance regarding what actions constitute extraordinary collection activities
- A change to the notifications required to be given by a Hospital Facility prior to engaging in extraordinary collection activities
For a more detailed summary of the Final Regulations, click here to view our longer article.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
