Hospitals will be well served to take a holistic approach to mounting legal and public scrutiny of the charity care and community benefits hospitals provide, according to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers report My Brother’s Keeper: Growing Expectations Confront Hospitals on Community Benefits and Charity Care. Based on roundtable discussions with hospital executives, interviews with industry leaders, and a review of the literature, the report makes recommendations regarding hospitals’ accountability in reporting, pricing, and managing community benefit relationships. (Click here to download the PwC report. Click here to access HFMA's P&P Board statement on reporting charity service and bad debt.)
Included in best practices for reporting community benefits and charity care, the report advises hospitals to keep the public informed about the real progress they are making in improving the health of the community; to report cost of charity care, not charges; to educate employees on charity care policies; and to adopt the Catholic Health Association/VHA Community Benefit Guidelines for community reporting on IRS Form 990. In developing pricing strategies, hospitals should publish quality indicators alongside pricing; base rates for the uninsured on managed care; and be ready to offer pricing quotes when patients ask. And in structuring business relations, the report recommends that hospitals retain the right to exit joint ventures if their exemptions are threatened; that the executive compensation process be accompanied by a written policy and external and internal communications plan; that an accountable plan be used to reimburse travel and business expenses; and to annually review any potential conflicts of interest by board members.
