* Ron Shinkman over at Fierce Health Finance read the bill which raises cigarette taxes and gives non-profit hospitals some concrete guidelines on what they have to do to maintain their property tax exemptions and also gives for-profit hospitals ways to reduce their taxes. He doesn’t think much of it…

The charity care provisions of the bill are meant to provide dollar-for-dollar offsets against property tax exemptions not-for-profit providers in Illinois enjoy. Many industry observers say the Illinois bill could serve as a nationwide blueprint for other hospitals falling short on their charity care obligations. However, it’s more like a terrific linguistic design for a colander or sieve. Here’s why:

• Hospitals could make in-kind or financial contributions to their own affiliated facilities or another provider to offset the tax burden.
• Hospitals could make donations of any sort of supply to offset the tax burden.
• Hospitals could argue that any effort they make in terms of community outreach or education could be used to offset the tax burden.
• For-profit hospitals could use charity care to offset their property tax burden.
• For the purpose of tax assessment, the hospital buildings could be depreciated based on age. If they’re more than 40 years old, they are essentially deemed worthless for tax purposes.

My house celebrates its 52nd birthday this year. I suspect asking for a tax exemption based on its age would receive a less than amused response.

Then again, there’s little to find amusing in a bill that pumps steroids into every sleight-of-hand hospitals use to make it seem they’re generous with uninsured patients.

The hospitals did do well. No doubt. We’ve talked about this before. They had to give up some things, though, including a guarantee for providing “free care,” and took a hit on their state reimbursement rate. There’s also a bill to place a limit on putting people in jail over failing to pay their bills, and the hospitals had been among the worst abusers of this loophole. Shinkman doesn’t mention that stuff.