The AAMC hosted a Dec. 3 congressional briefing on Capitol Hill, “Beyond the Bottom Line: Understanding Teaching Health Systems and Hospitals’ Contributions to the Health of Our Nation’s Communities.”
The panel included several experts on hospital community benefit and tax-exempt status, including Atul Grover, MD, PhD, AAMC Research and Action Institute executive director; Jill Horwitz, PhD, JD, MPP, David Sanders Professor in Law and Medicine at the UCLA School of Law; and Donald Brady, MD, executive vice president for Educational Affairs and Medical Staff Affairs at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The panel was moderated by AAMC Chief Public Policy Officer Danielle Turnipseed, JD, MHSA, MPP.
Dr. Grover’s presentation highlighted research published by the institute showing the discrepancies in services offered across short-term general and critical-access hospitals and how these discrepancies relate to charity care, and the policy implications of defining and interpreting charity care differently across institutions.
In the video below Dr. Grover discusses the possible impacts of removing tax exempt status from hospitals. The full briefing is also available for viewing.