CHA official addresses House panel on tax exemption for nonprofits

Published: 2005-06-02

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Catholic hospitals provide community benefits that far exceed the value of their tax exemptions, the head of the Catholic Health Association's board of trustees told a House committee May 26. But Sister Carol Keehan, a Daughter of Charity who also chairs the board of Sacred Heart Health System in Pensacola, Fla., emphasized that "Catholic hospitals do not provide these services to justify continued tax exemption." "We provide them because serving our communities in this way is integral to our history, our identity and our mission -- it is what we always have done," she said. Sister Carol spoke before the House Ways and Means Committee the day after Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, announced that the Senate Finance Committee, which he chairs, had asked 10 nonprofit hospitals or health systems to account for their charitable activities in light of their tax-exempt status.

Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .