H.R. 9504: Tax Exempt Hospital Transparency Act

Tax Exempt Hospital Transparency Act

This bill requires tax-exempt hospital organizations to report additional information to the Internal Revenue Service.

The bill defines a tax-exempt hospital organization as an organization that is licensed or recognized as a hospital and is required to

• conduct a community health needs assessment and adopt a strategy to meet the needs identified in the assessment,
• have a written financial assistance policy,
• limit charges for emergency and medically necessary care provided to individuals eligible for financial assistance and prohibit the use of gross charges,
• meet certain billing and collection requirements, and
• file IRS Form 990 (Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax).

Under the bill, a tax-exempt hospital organization must include with Form 990 certain identifying information and

• a description of how the organization addresses the needs identified in the most recent community health needs assessment, the needs not addressed, and the reasons why needs are not being addressed;
• audited financial statements;
• the value (at cost) of the financial assistance provided; and
• the numbers of completed financial assistance applications received, granted, and denied during the tax year.

Further information reporting requirements are imposed on certain large or high-revenue tax-exempt hospital organizations.

Finally, the bill requires the Government Accountability Office to (1) study and report the costs associated with the additional information reporting requirements, and (2) estimate the amount of tax revenue that would be generated from the 25 tax-exempt hospital organizations with the highest gross revenue if such organizations were not exempt from tax.