Health

Thirteen-year-old Samantha Tracy became the La Grange Memorial Hospital Foundation’s youngest benefactor at 9 when she opened her backyard Samantha’s Sunnyside Café in 2007. Her efforts resulted in proceeds and related contributions of more than $1,400. In 2010, she requested that gifts for her 13th birthday benefit the hospital; nearly $600 in gifts were made in her name.

She was honored March 24 at the Foundation’s President’s Circle event. The Foundation supports Adventist La Grange Memorial Hospital through philanthropy.

When City Council was considering a soda tax last spring, doctors from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia testified about the dangers of sugar-sweetened drinks. On Wednesday, the hospital announced that it would expand its obesity program with the help of $10 million from the very industry that produces them.

The three-year grant is the inaugural gift from the Foundation for a Healthy America, a nonprofit created by the American Beverage Association.

Hospitals could lose more than $1-billion in donations if Congress limits charitable deductions, hospital fund raisers estimated in a new survey by the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy.

A poll conducted last month of 317 fund raisers who belong to the association asked about a proposal to reduce the deduction for charitable contributions to a 12-percent tax credit for donations. The credit would be available only for amounts beyond 2 percent of a taxpayer’s adjusted gross income.

It’s March, and for tens of thousands of people, that means it’s time to go bald for St. Baldrick’s Foundation. People who shave their heads have helped raise $100-million to finance research on children’s cancer since 2000. So far this year, St. Baldrick’s has already raised more than $10-million. More than 27,900 people have registered to shave their heads in 2011 at more than 800 events across the country, with about 600 of them taking place this month.

Bayonne Medical Center and Meadowlands Hospital in Secaucus are among the for-profit hospitals that would have to reveal financial information under proposed state legislation praised by labor leaders but opposed by a statewide hospital lobby.

New Jersey Hospital Association, which represents 72 acute-care hospitals in the state, opposes the bill because it would dissuade entities from coming to the state to take over failing hospitals, according to NJHA Senior Vice President Randy Minniear.

The Canucks and the team’s charitable arm, Canucks for Kids Fund, will announce a $5-million donation to BC Children’s Hospital and diabetes research, the largest single gift in the fund’s 25-year history. BC Children’s Hospital said $2 million will go toward diabetes research and $3 million will go to the Campaign for BC Children, a fundraiser launched in April 2008 to raise money to rebuild the hospital into one of the world’s leading pediatric care and research centres.

The IRS issued its first guidance on the requirements for new qualified nonprofit health insurance issuers under IRC § 501(c)(29) and has requested comments on specific issues (Notice 2011-23). The notice clarifies that the IRS is not yet accepting applications for recognition of tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(29) and will not accept applications until it has issued further guidance. In addition, qualified nonprofit health insurance issuers cannot offer a health plan in a state until that state has in effect certain health insurance market reforms mandated by last year’s health care legislation.

Billionaire David H. Koch opened the new David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which he gave $100 million to help build. And in a brief, and rare, interview, Mr. Koch, 70, spoke of his hopes for the new center, his prostate cancer and the prank call heard around the world.

Children's Hospital of Orange County has received a record $30 million gift from a Garden Grove businessman to help fund a major expansion that will open in 2013. CHOC officials today will announce the donation, which is the largest in the hospital's history. The money comes from the estate of Robert Tidwell, a retired investment banker whose only other donation was a used computer.

Kansas University Dance Marathon raised $37,000 for charity at its third annual dance marathon last weekend. More than 400 students attended the 12-hour event, almost double last year’s turnout.

KUDM, a student-run nonprofit organization, raises money for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and as of Jan. 1, donates exclusively to KU Pediatrics. KUDM has donated $57,000 over the past two years and has set a donation goal of $60,000 this year.