IRS confirms that hospitals can report housing on Part I of 2015 Schedule H

The Internal Revenue Service publicly confirmed Friday that hospitals are permitted to report expenditures for clean and safe housing as community benefit expenditures on page 1 of Schedule H, which includes calculations for those activities that the IRS views unquestionably as community benefit. “[S]ome housing improvements and other spending on social determinants of health that meet a documented community need may qualify as community benefit for the purposes of meeting the community benefit standard,” the agency’s Dec. 18 EO Update (Issue Number:  2015-9) states. “If a hospital chooses to report such a community benefit in Part I (Financial Assistance and Certain Other Community Benefits at Cost) of Schedule H, then the Instructions say: ‘Do not report in Part II community building costs that are reported on Part I, line 7 as community benefit.’” Current Schedule H instructions include physical improvements and housing in Part II (Community Building Activities), but also provide that “some community building activities may also meet the definition of community benefit,” the agency notes. In July, the AHA, Catholic Health Association and Association of American Medical Colleges urged the agency to formally acknowledge that support for improved housing to enhance the health of a hospital’s community is a community benefit and should be recognized on page 1 of Schedule H.