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Texas Health & Safety Code - Section 311.043. Duty Of Nonprofit Hospitals To Provide Community Benefits

Legal Research Home > Texas Lawyer > Health & Safety Code > Texas Health & Safety Code - Section 311.043. Duty Of Nonprofit Hospitals To Provide Community Benefits

§ 311.043. DUTY OF NONPROFIT HOSPITALS TO PROVIDE 
COMMUNITY BENEFITS.  (a) A nonprofit hospital shall provide health 
care services to the community and shall comply with all federal, 
state, and local government requirements for tax exemption in order 
to maintain such exemption.  These health care services to the 
community shall include charity care and government-sponsored 
indigent health care and may include other components of community 
benefits as both terms are defined in Sections 311.031 and 311.042.
	(b)  In order to qualify as a charitable organization under 
Sections 11.18(d)(1), 151.310(a)(2) and (e), and 171.063(a)(1), 
Tax Code, and to satisfy the requirements of this subchapter, a 
nonprofit hospital shall provide community benefits, which include 
charity care and government-sponsored indigent health care, in an 
amount that satisfies the requirements of Section 311.045.  A 
determination of the amount of charity care and 
government-sponsored indigent health care provided by a hospital 
shall be based on the most recently completed and audited prior 
fiscal year of the hospital.
	(c)  Reductions in the amount of community benefits, which 
includes charity care and government-sponsored indigent health 
care, provided by a nonprofit hospital shall be considered 
reasonable when the financial reserves of the hospital are reduced 
to such a level that the hospital would be in violation of any 
applicable bond covenants, when necessary to prevent the hospital 
from endangering its ability to continue operations, or if the 
hospital, as a result of a natural or other disaster, is required 
substantially to curtail its operations.
	(d)  A hospital's admissions policy must provide for the 
admission of financially indigent and medically indigent persons 
pursuant to its charity care requirements as set forth in this 
subchapter.

Added by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 360, § 4, eff. Sept. 1, 1993.           

Last modified: August 11, 2007