Nonprofit Health Care Providers See Threat

With Americans' access to health care expanding because of changes in the health-care system spearheaded by the Obama administration, state and local governments hungry for revenue are creating fiscal barriers that limit nonprofit hospitals' ability to provide needed services, a trade group for nonprofit health-care providers' philanthropic programs says.

Some lawmakers, claiming nonprofit health-care groups and hospitals do not provide enough community benefit, have "stripped hospitals of their rightful entitlement to tax-exempt status," says the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy.

Other lawmakers have tried to "extract funds from nonprofits by eliminating specific tax exemptions and instituting new fees and taxes," the group says. "These actions ignore the challenges America's health-care nonprofits face and the good they do in their communities."