"Nonprofit" Hospitals

The Orlando Sentinel is the latest FL media outlet to cover executive compensation at charities. In a column by Scott Maxwell, the paper examines CEO pay at Central Florida's nonprofit hospitals noting that the CEO of Winter Park-based Adventist Health earned $3.5 million in 2007. The column touches on Senator Grassley's long standing interest in ensuring that nonprofit hospitals are providing sufficient charity care --- a topic that Charity Navigator's President & CEO explored in his blog post Rip-off Non-profit Hospitals.

Update: Yesterday, the Senate Finance Committee, of which Senator Grassley is a member, released policy options for financing the reform of America's health care system. In that document, the committee calls for a changes in the rules that establish hospitals as nonprofit. Here's an excerpt:
"Under the policy options, non‐profit hospitals would be required to maintain a minimal level of charitable activity, limit charges to uninsured, indigent patients, and limit aggressive collection actions. Hospitals that do not meet those requirements would be subject to an excise tax."