 SPECIAL TELECONFERENCE: 'THE PROVENA
CONTROVERSY"
Illinois Department of Revenue Issues Final Provena
Ruling
Revoking the Champaign-Urbana Hospital's Property Tax Exemption
The Key 'Principals' In The Highly Controversial Provena Tax Exemption Revocation Case
Discussed The Illinois Department of Revenue's Decision, Lessons Learned
And This Ruling's Implications For All Community Hospitals
Will Your Hospital's County Tax
Board Now Be Motivated To Examine The Hospital's Property Tax Exemption?
What Issues Most Galvanized The Champaign County Tax Board's Inquiry?
How to county tax board officials view tax-exempt hospitals? Is Your Hospital
Ready For Their Inquiries?
What Can Your Hospital Do To Avoid A Similar Challenge To Its Tax-Exempt Status?
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Presenters In This Teleconference:
Mark Wiener, CEO of Provena Covenant Medical Center, 2003 - 2005
Stan Jenkins, Chairman, Champaign County Board Of Review, 2003 - 2005 (and continuing
member)
Claudia Lennhoff, Executive Director, Champaign County Health Care Consumers
with...
Special Legal Commentary by Stephen E. Weyl, Partner, Hinckley, Allen & Snyder LLP
Read Mr.
Weyl's Article Alert For The American Bar Association On This Ruling
   
Mark Wiener(L)
Stan Jenkins (C)
Claudia Lennhoff (L)
Steve
Weyl
Background
and Call Participants:
Will the final action by the Illinois Department of
Revenue revoking Provena Covenant Medical Center's property tax exemption motivate other
U.S. county and/or state taxing bodies to investigate local hospitals in that the
controversies over the most incendiary alleged practices -- hospitals' pricing and
collection practices in respect to the uninsured -- seem to be continuing unabated? (READ AND/OR DOWNLOAD THE FULL
ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE DECISION)
What happens if your local county board knocks on your hospital's door? What will
they be looking at, what issues concern them the most, what are their motivations and what
proactive steps can local hospitals take to avoid a challenge to the property tax
exemption? What can CEOs, CFOs and Board Members do to avoid such challenges or
otherwise effectively deal with the inquiries of taxing bodies? What should CEOs, in
particular, do to establish proactive liaison with local community groups who are
concerned about patient access to care, hospital pricing, collection practices and charity
care?
The three key players in the Champaign County controversy agreed to appear together to
discuss the Provena Covenant case and, more importantly, suggestions for hospitals who
now, based on the Illinois decision, might be receiving inquiries or undergo reviews from
their local tax review bodies:
(a) Mark Wiener, the CEO who entered the scene in the spring of 2003
during a time of contentious tumult when a community group was significantly challenging
the hospital at the same time that the county Board of Review filed the recommendation to
revoke the hospital's property tax exemption, will discuss his ultimately successful
efforts to bridge the gap between the hospital and the community group notwithstanding the
tax exemption challenge including a discussion of the significant pricing, collection and
charity care reforms and the transformation of the community group from suing the hospital
to a partner in dealing with uninsured and collection issues, leading to uninsured
patients taking their hospital bills more seriously.
(b) Stan Jenkins, a member of the Champaign County Board of Review, who
at that time was its Chairman (the chair rotates), who learned of hospitals in
Champaign-Urbana overcharging and suing their patients -- as a result of a community
group's activities and the accompanying publicity -- and who led the investigation into
that and a number of other matters with the resultant Board of Review recommendation to
revoke the property tax exemption of both community hospitals (the Carle Foundation
revocation has been pending to await the Illinois Dept of Revenue's final determination in
the Provena case), will discuss matters that a Board of Review member looks at in the
context of tax-exempt community hospitals and will make specific recommendations
concerning how hospitals can and should relate to local taxing bodies as well as steps
they can take to mitigate or avoid conflicts in this arena;
(c) Claudia Lennhoff, Executive Director of the Champaign County Health
Care Consumers, an indpendent community patient advocacy group, will discuss how her
research and work during the late 1990s and from 2000-2002 led to news conferences by
affected uninsured persons and to reports published by her organization concerning
hospital pricing as well as the large numbers of lawsuits being filed by hospitals ... all
of which, in turn, initially attracted the attention of the Board of Review in the first
place. During the teleconference Ms. Lennhoff will make recommendations to hospitals
both with respect to pricing/collections/charity care policies/behaviors and with respect
to hospital-community relations in general.
(d) Stephen E. Weyl, Partner with the Boston-based law firm Hinckley,
Allen & Snyder LLP, has followed legal and regulatory controversies involving
tax-exempt hospitals for many years, including closely following the Provena case for the
past three years. He will provide a brief legal commentary on his views of the
strengths and weaknesses of the Illinois Department of Revenue's legal reasoning in their
ruling. He will also remark on the similarities of many states' laws, regulations
and case law relating to the property and other tax exemptions for charitable tax-exempt
hospitals. Steve is a long time health care attorney who assists hospitals with
tax-exempt bond financings as well as regulatory and transactional matters; in addition,
he is counsel to the New Hampshire Health and Education Facilities Authority. Read
Steve's Article For The American Bar Association On This Ruling
The teleconference will be moderated by James Unland, who is
President of the Health Capital Group, Editor of the Journal of Health Care Finance and
Executive Editor of Health Business and Policy.
Read Other Materials On These Controversies
EMAIL QUESTIONS DURING OR AFTER THE TELECONFERENCE TO: healthbusinessandpolicy@yahoo.com
and please indicate in your email to whom the question is addressed.
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