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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

State Restates Need for Hospital-Based Charity

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has ordered that two Valley-area hospitals must pay millions of dollars to local healthcare nonprofits, denying the hospitals’ requests to ease requirements on charitable giving required under state law. USC Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale and Mission Community Hospital in Panorama City were notified that their requests for modification had been turned down in separate letters from the Attorney General’s office dated April 13. Each hospital will be required to pay about $1.7 million “to one or more tax-exempt entities that provide direct medical care services to residents in (each hospitals’) service area.” Under California law, nonprofit hospitals must “assume a social obligation to provide community benefits in the public interest” to keep their tax-exempt status. This includes donating a certain amount of money to charity each year as determined by the Attorney General in coordination with the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development. In their requests, both hospitals argued that the passage of healthcare reform in 2010 has reduced the need for “charity care” spending because significantly more patients have since gained insurance coverage and no longer need help paying their medical bills. Mission Hills asked that its charitable obligations be reduced by 75 percent. USC Verdugo Hills did not specify an exact number. Craig Garner, general counsel for Mission Hills Community Hospitals, said the hospital will adhere to the order. “We are looking into options to appeal the Attorney General’s decision but have no immediate plans to do so,” he said. A spokesperson from USC Keck School of Medicine, which owns the Verdugo Hills facility, said the hospital will also follow the order but does not have plans to file an appeal. In September, California Hospital Association sent a letter to Becerra asking that his office reevaluate how it sets charitable spending requirements in light of healthcare reform. Saint Agnes Medical Center in Fresno and PIH Health Hospital in Downey also requested to reduce charity obligations but reportedly withdrew their proposals before the office came to a decision. Tax Preparation Help Wells Fargo & Co. has donated $50,000 to California State University – Northridge to support the school’s tax preparation assistance clinics for low-income families and individuals. The clinics are part of the program Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, or VITA, a federal initiative aimed at providing financial advice to local tax payers who make less than $54,000 a year. CSUN’s program is intended to help 6,500 people this year. “Well Fargo Bank’s continued support of the CSUN VITA Clinic has been hugely impactful for the clinic’s growth this year,” Professor Rafi Efrat, director of the CSUN VITA Clinic and Bookstein Low Income Taxpayer Clinic, said in a statement. “With their generosity, we were able to enrich the services we offer to low-income taxpayers by offering them financial education and financial coaching.” More than 450 CSUN business students have been trained and certified by the IRS to help people file federal and state taxes at the clinics. This is the second year that Wells Fargo has given to the program. “Wells Fargo is proud to support CSUN’s VITA clinics,” Patrick Nygren, San Fernando Valley region president said in a statement. “We are pleased that through our donation we will be able to provide assistance to local residents with no-cost tax services and financial advice.” SCORE Seminar SCORE, a nonprofit volunteer network that helps entrepreneurs grow and market their businesses, has partnered with digital marketing platform Thryv to hold an online marketing seminar May 10 in Glendale. The event will present strategies and tools to aid small business owners in marketing their companies online. It will cover managing an online presence, customer relationship management systems, social media and digital video. SCORE is a partner of the Small Business Administration and has about 320 chapters and 11,000 business mentors across the U.S. The seminar will be held from 10:30 a.m to 12:30 p.m. at SCORE’s office at 330 N. Brand Blvd. in the same building as the SBA’s office.“This seminar will help small business owners improve their organization’s presence online, know how to effectively use the tools available to increase sales, and measure their success,” said SCORE Chapter President James Fitzhugh. “We want to spread the word about all the great small businesses in our community. Helping small business owners fine-tune their online marketing efforts really makes a difference in name recognition.” Staff Reporter Ethan Varian can be reached at (818) 316-3130 or [email protected].

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