From The Naperville Sun:
County backs Edward tax exemption
By Susan Frick Carlman
November 8, 2011
The DuPage County Board agrees that Edward Hospital and other nonprofit health care centers deserve a break on their property taxes.
The board voted unanimously Tuesday night to back a resolution stating their support for maintaining the hospitals’ tax-exempt status.
The vote of confidence — already passed by the Naperville City Council, the Plainfield Village Board, the Will County Board, the Naperville Development Partnership, the DuPage Community Clinic and the Napeville-based Illinois Hospital Association — is a response to the Illinois Department of Revenue determining last summer that the facilities don’t perform enough charity work to merit the exemption.
That’s not true, according to the president of the DuPage Health Coalition and Access DuPage. Dick Endress said the donated services of 220 organizations last year helped deliver $80 million worth of health care to underserved and low-income county residents.
“I think the hospitals are absolutely a key component of that,” Endress said.
Dan Beck, Edward’s vice president for legal affairs and general counsel, said hospitals’ loss of tax exemption would undermine the regional health care safety net.
He and other representatives of nonprofit hospitals assert they provide nearly immeasurable medical benefit for their communities, including Edward’s estimated $77.5 million in annual charitable contributions.
Beck said DuPage hospitals gave a cumulative $401.5 million in 2009, but the state Supreme Court only gave weight to the $109.5 million that went to direct charity care. Unreimbursed Medicaid and Medicare services, subsidized services and volunteer hours and donations valued at $15 million were excluded.
“We’re very concerned about that dynamic,” he said.
Endress emphasized the collaboration that produced Access DuPage, illustrating the greater value of a whole as opposed to the sum of parts. Enlightened public policy, he said, focuses on measurable outcomes.
“Here in DuPage County, we’re getting results,” Endress said.
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