Rural hospitals expect boost from tax credits

Published 8:26 am Tuesday, May 9, 2017

ATLANTA — Gov. Nathan Deal has signed a bill that expands a tax break for those who donate to rural hospitals.

The measure raises the tax credit percentage — now up to 90 percent — and the amount per donor that qualifies for the break. It’s a change that lawmakers hope will spur more donations through a program that has so far been off to a slow start.

Alan Kent, president and CEO of Meadows Regional Medical Center in Vidalia, said donations help offset high indigent care costs and Medicare and Medicaid funding shortfalls.

“There’s just not a lot of room to make up the difference,” Kent said during a press conference Monday at the Capitol. “And this bill represents a real opportunity that, in many cases, could mean the difference between success and failure of a rural hospital.”

Kent said later that his hospital has raised about $300,000 so far through dozens of donors.

He said he expects a more generous tax credit to help draw more donors. But when asked if he thought his hospital could max out the $4 million in tax credits available to each hospital, he said that was “a stretch.”

Sen. Dean Burke, R-Bainbridge, who carried the bill, said the program is part of a broader effort to help address the issues hampering rural healthcare.

“There is no one easy solution or we would have found it already,” Burke said during the press conference, adding that the focus has to be on more than just finances.

“I don’t think this problem can be solved in Washington. I don’t think it can be solved here in Atlanta. It’s going to be solved in the communities of Georgia, working one-on-one with patients. But those provider groups have to got to have the resources to do what needs to be done.”

Burke, who is also a physician, is part of a task force focused on promoting the tax credit program, which will offer up to $180 million in credits over three years.

Nearly 50 hospitals are enrolled in the program, from Grady General Hospital in southwest Georgia to Chatuge Regional Hospital in the northeast corner of the state.

Jill Nolin covers the Georgia Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites.