IRS has issued Notice 2010-39 in which it seeks comments from the exempt hospital community on the requirements of new section 501(r), enacted as part of this year’s healthcare legislation. The new statute specifically requires exempt hospital organizations to:
- conduct community health needs assessment every 3 years,
- establish financial assistance policy,
- limit amounts charged for emergency or other medically necessary care, and
- agree to forego extraordinary collection actions before determining whether individual is eligible for assistance under organization’s financial assistance policy.
IRS is specifically requesting comments regarding the need, if any, for guidance relating to the new requirements, what constitutes “reasonable efforts” to determine eligibility for assistance under a financial assistance policy for purposes of the billing and collection requirements, and the provisions of section 501(r)(2)(B)(ii), which provides that an organization that operates more than one hospital facility “shall not be treated as described in [section 501(c)(3)] with respect to any such facility for which such requirements are not separately met,” including the tax consequences of a failure with respect to some, but not all, facilities and the proper tax treatment in future periods in such a case.
Click here to see notice for additional information and let us know if there’s anything you want to discuss. Comments must be submitted by 7/22/2010.
For more information please contact Leigh McKee at lmckee@ddfky.com
I recently had the opportunity to hear Lee Smither speak. Lee is the managing director of management consulting at FMI Corporation in Raleigh, North Carolina. (FMI is the nation’s largest provider of management consulting and investment banking to the worldwide construction industry.) Lee identified four strategic issues currently facing the construction industry and I have summarized below some excerpts from Lee’s presentation.
- Project financing and contractor capitalization now take “center state”. There will continue to be a shake-out of contractors as bonding capacity is cut. Contractors with the ability to “self-finance” between owner payments will have an advantage over pure “pay-when-paid” players. Firms with significant equity are in a “buyer’s market” with respect to undercapitalized but solidly performing acquisition targets.
- Government is in the driver’s seat as both customer and regulator. Government as a buyer of construction services will have a somewhat significant effect for the next two to three years. The construction economy will lag general economic rebound by 18 to 24 months. Each year, federal agencies issue approximately 4,000 new regulations at an estimated annual cost of nearly $1.1 trillion.
- A resistant industry moves towards changing systems, processes, delivery methods and technology. There still exists a need for business acumen training in the project management profession. Consistency and uniformity of practices is still widely divergent and a significant Achilles’ heel for many firms.
- The effects of demographic shifts in the US on both labor and management succession are going to be significant. Sixty percent of human resource directors say that their firms have no CEO succession plans in place. Sixty-six percent of all senior managers hired from outside an organization usually fail within the first eighteen months.
Dupont, Proctor & Gamble, Revlon and Hewlett-Packard all prospered mightily during the Great Depression. This current economic crisis is a charter for business leaders to rewrite and rethink how they conduct business. Great leaders don’t think retrenchment but will think new strengths. Your company’s success will depend on leaders who are able to identify and exploit opportunities, find new market niches, reposition and perhaps restructure their company. Expect to hear more on this later.
If you would like any assistance in possibly restructuring your operations or rethinking how you conduct business, please contact Chris Humphrey at chumphrey@ddfky.com
