Page 12A
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Saturday, July 29, 2017
HOSPITALS: St. Anthony reported $1.5M in charity care this year
Continued from 1A
“Early on, hospitals were (oper-
ated) from a charitable or benev-
olent perspective,” said Umatilla
County Assessor Paul Chalmers.
“But the emphasis has changed
from that primary perspective to be
run like a business — decisions are
made off profit and loss.”
He said part of the legal disagree-
ment stems from the fact that there
has never been a clear definition for
what makes a hospital “charitable”
or for profit.
“Is it five percent? Ten, 30
percent that you’re giving away?
No one knows,” he said. “I don’t
think there’s been adequate case
law to clarify it.”
Chalmers’ concerns have been
echoed by other county assessors,
as well as state legislators looking
at ways to raise funds. But local
hospital administrators have chal-
lenged the idea that hospitals are a
font of readily available dollars.
“There’s a perception that
hospitals are flush with cash,” St.
Anthony President Harry Geller
told the EO in a July 7 story. “That’s
not true. There is a lot of pressure on
large, medium and small hospitals.”
St. Anthony Chief Financial
Officer Scott Attridge said anyone
within 300 percent of the federal
poverty level can have their entire
medical bill forgiven at St. Anthony.
But charity care is just one
component of the hospital’s
community benefit, he said.
“We’ve taken on the Pioneer
Relief Nursery with the donation
of a building and a complete
remodel,” said St. Anthony director
of communications Larry Blanc.
“That was about $120,000.”
He said the hospital, along with
Good Shepherd, pays the salary for
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Emily Smith, education coordinator at St. Anthony Hospital, runs
car seat clinics at least once a month in the hospital’s parking lot
to demonstrate the correct way to secure children in vehicles. The
hospital also gives away car seats to parents who need them. The
car seat clinic is one of multiple ways the hospital contributes to
the community. Oregon hospitals may apply for an exemption un-
der an Oregon statute that allows charitable and benevolent orga-
nizations to avoid paying property taxes.
a nursing instructor at Blue Moun-
tain Community College — about
$50,000. Blanc said the hospital
also supplies an athletic trainer that
works at both BMCC and Pendleton
High School.
Good Shepherd employs a
similar practice for charity care,
according to CFO Jan Peter. He said
the hospital writes off 100 percent
of a balance if a patient’s household
income is lower than 200 percent
of the federal poverty level, and
uses a sliding scale between 90
percent and 10 percent forgiveness
for household incomes below 300
percent of the poverty level.
In addition, he said, the hospital
participates in other charitable
endeavors, such as classes hosted by
the hospital’s education department,
and free transportation services to
and from Good Shepherd facilities
to patients that need it.
All these donations get written
off as community benefit. There
are several specific categories a
hospital has to fulfill that the IRS
deems acceptable as “community
benefit,” and therefore exempt from
taxation. Those categories include
health professional education,
community building activities and
community health improvement
services, Attridge said.
Blanc said while he didn’t know
if there was a specific number or
threshold the hospital had to meet
for community donations, they
were carefully scrutinized.
“We are watched very closely,”
he said. “We are expected to step
up and offer community benefit,
charity care.”
The two men added that their
organizations do pay some property
taxes. St. Anthony pays approxi-
mately $104,000 per year on prop-
erty that is not “part of the primary
healthcare business,” Attridge said.
He said that includes Pioneer
Relief Nursery, as well as other
clinics and buildings, and rental
properties owned by the hospital.
Peter noted that as Good Shep-
herd expands, more of its property
is becoming taxable. He said the
absorption of Gifford Medical
Center into the Good Shepherd
system will not exclude that facility
from paying property tax.
“They will still have to pay
property taxes because that building
is owned by Good Shepherd’s
for-profit company, which does
pay property taxes,” he said. Good
Shepherd’s for-profit company is a
separate entity called Good Shep-
herd Medical Service Corp.
As for community benefit
expenditures, he said the numbers
were still being tabulated for 2017.
But back in 2015, the hospital spent
about $3.6 million. Numbers for
2016 were comparable, he said.
That’s about five percent of the
hospital’s total revenue.
St. Anthony’s reported that they
saw their charity care reach $1.5
million this year — tripling their
previous year’s total of $500,000.
But Chalmers said that doesn’t
necessarily mean a hospital is a
charitable organization.
He lamented the lack of clarity,
statewide, for what makes some-
thing a charitable organization.
Although
individual
county
assessors can challenge a hospital’s
exempt status, Chalmers said the
lack of clear rules can often waste
time and public money.
“If one county or another
chooses to take on a hospital or
medical provider, the appeal can
be expensive and time consuming
and it fragments policy decision
statewide,” he said.
While hospital administrators
say the issue of tax exemption
is not simple and resists clear
rules, assessors like Chalmers are
continuing to look at whether or not
hospitals should continue to receive
tax-exempt status. Other states
have taken action before. Several
Illinois hospitals were stripped of
their status in 2010 and 2011, with
assessors citing that the facilities
didn’t provide enough charity care.
Good Shepherd marketing and
communications director Nick
Bejarano said were something like
that to happen here, it would put a
strain on the services the hospital
can provide.
“All the resources we have,
we’re currently able to re-invest
into the community,” he said. “If
challenged, it would definitely
hinder our being able to provide
some of the services we currently
have. We’d have to tighten our belts
and make sure we’re paying more
attention to the dollars and cents
of everything. And in health care,
that’s not where you want to be.”
Chalmers said clarification
would benefit everyone —
taxpayers, assessors and medical
organizations.
“I think for the most part,
the hospital industry wants that
clarity also,” he said. “If there’s
a bright line and they fulfill (the
qualifications), they’re still exempt,
rather than having that potential tax
liability.”
EOTEC: Waine said he would be pursuing legal action with the state on water rights issues
Continued from 1A
you’re standing out there.
They did 25 to 30 feet of dust
abatement, but you’ll see it
has little to no effect.”
Waine said while the
recently passed state trans-
portation bill was supposed
to allot $1.1 million to fixing
those roads, he did not think
it would be enough.
“I did some research, and
to take a gravel road to paved
is between $2 and $3 million
per mile,” he said. “I think
it’s safe to say that, if the
bill is ever signed, it won’t
be enough to do anything
substantial. And I’d guess
the priority would be the
entrance.”
He asked that the EOTEC
board and the county find a
long-term plan for addressing
the issue. Board members
said there will soon be more
efforts to improve the dusty
conditions.
Waine also said he and
some of his neighbors have
formed a group called the
Hermiston Airport Road
Neighbors Association. He
said they have hired a lawyer
and are communicating with
the EOTEC board.
Waine also said he would
be pursuing legal action
with the state on water rights
issues, which might affect
EOTEC property. Waine said
he had not been able to access
the full extent of his water
rights in the last two years.
“I can’t use my water
right,” he said. “The water
just simply isn’t there.”
Waine said he would be
filing a claim for damages
with the state of Oregon. If
the state approves it, they
could begin reducing some
of the more recent water
rights in the area — which
could include EOTEC. He
acknowledged that EOTEC
may not be the cause of his
water issues, but said the state
shouldn’t have issued them a
water right if it would cause
damage to surrounding right-
holders.
Ryan Murray, another
Airport Road resident, said
he has also been having
water issues in 2017, the first
time since his family had
purchased the property nearly
30 years ago.
Byron Smith, EOTEC
board member and Herm-
iston city manager, said the
water issues were not due to
EOTEC’s use.
“We’ve pumped no water
out of those wells,” he said.
Smith said while the
state may choose to pursue
that action, it won’t hinder
EOTEC operations.
“Our (Hermiston) city
water system is here on
site,” he said, adding that the
system wouldn’t be affected.
He said the city is also
putting a pump in place to
access the Stanfield irrigation
system.
The board also heard from
County Emergency Manager
Thomas Roberts, with the
Umatilla County Sheriff’s
Department, who presented
an event security and
emergency operations plan
for EOTEC. The 23-page
packet reviewed different
types of emergencies, who
would be in charge, and how
different people in the chain
of command would respond
in different situations.
“Seeing what happened at
the Ohio State Fair brought to
light for me the importance of
having a plan,” Roberts said,
referring to an incident in
Ohio this week where a person
died while on an amusement
park ride. “We’re very proud
of the fact that we’ve got a
foundation in place.”
Overall, EOTEC board
members said they were
excited about the upcoming
events.
“I’ve often said, there’ll
be rough edges,” Smith said.
“But we’ll have a fair and
rodeo here, and it’ll be good.”
Important upcoming dates
for EOTEC include:
• A work party, Saturday,
July 29, 8 a.m. to noon
•
EOTEC
Ribbon
Cutting, Monday, August 7
at 5:30 p.m.
• Fair opening, Tuesday,
August 8 at 9 a.m.
———
Contact
Jayati
Ramakrishnan
at
jramakrishnan@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4534
HONORED
to be a part of the community we serve
First-place winner
of the 2017 Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association’s
HONORED
to be a part of the communities we serve
EO Media Group newspapers are proud
to have won 18 first-place awards at this
year’s Oregon Newspaper Publishers
Association Summer Convention
We would like to thank the readers and
businesses in each of the communities that
we serve for their loyalty and support
eo
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eomediagroup.com
• The East Oregonian won
General Excellence for the sixth
time in the past seven years
• The Daily Astorian won
Best Overall Website and placed
second in General Excellence
• Capital Press won the
Sweepstakes award as best
associate member publication
group
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General Excellence
Award
FIRST-PLACE AWARDS
E.J. Harris, Photographer: Best News Photo
E.J. Harris, Photographer: Best Sports Photo
Tim Trainor, Opinion Page Editor: Best Editorial
George Plaven, Reporter: Best Government Coverage
George Plaven, Reporter: Best Feature Story/Personality
Jade McDowell, Reporter: Best Spot-News Coverage
SECOND-PLACE AWARDS
Kathy Aney, Senior Reporter: Best Writing
Drew Langton, Page Designer & Night Editor: Best Headline Writing
E.J. Harris, Photographer: Best Multimedia Element
E.J. Harris, Photographer: Best News Photo
THIRD-PLACE AWARDS
Staff, 2016 Round-Up magazine: Best Special Section
George Plaven, Reporter: Best Coverage of Business & Economic Issues
Phil Wright, Senior Reporter: Best Lifestyle Coverage
E.J. Harris, Photographer: Best Photo Essay
E.J. Harris, Photographer: Best News Photo
Digital Team, Staff: Best Web Project
Pictured in the EO newsroom staff photo, L-R:
Front row: Kathy Aney, Tammy Malgesini, Renee Struthers, Kathryn Brown, Jade McDowell
Second row: Antonio Sierra, Tim Trainor, Daniel Wattenburger, Jayati Ramakrishnan, Drew Langton, Matt Entrup
Third row: Eric Singer, George Plaven • Top row: EJ Harris, Phil Wright
