Montana's nonprofit hospitals are pushing back on a proposed bill that would give the state more oversight powers on the ways hospitals claim they provide benefits to their communities in exchange for tax breaks, Kaiser Health News reported Feb. 13.
The bill would require the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services to define what hospitals can count as a community benefit, detail how hospitals must report their giving and create penalties for those that do not meet the standards, according to the report.
The Montana Hospital Association opposes the bill after initially saying it would support the legislation if it did not clash with federal rules, according to the report. The group wants changes to the bill, but supporters of the legislation said those changes would shrink oversight and defeat its purpose.
Duane Preshinger, the hospital association's vice president, said the bill would increase hospitals' administrative burden and that hospitals are already highly regulated by the federal government, according to the report. He said the information the state needs is included in documents hospitals submit to the IRS.
In the past, however, association officials and hospital administrators have said those documents are not a fair way to compare hospitals' community benefit because there is significant variety in how those reports are filled out, according to Kaiser Health News.
Bob Olsen, the Montana Hospital Association's interim president and CEO, said the state's 48 nonprofit hospitals provided $435 million in community benefits in 2019. He added the hospitals agree there is room to improve reporting and have taken their own steps to do so, according to the report.
Brenton Craggs, the health department’s information and regulatory affairs coordinator, said the agency could have created standards without legislation but wanted to show its intention to work with hospitals on a plan.