Catholic Health World

New resource available for IRS Form 990

CHA has developed a guide for responding to the open-ended questions on the IRS Form 990, Schedule H. These questions, known as the "essay questions," provide an opportunity for hospital organizations to expand upon answers to other questions on the form and to present additional information.

For tax year 2009, hospital organizations must file a Schedule H attachment with their Form 990 tax returns. The Schedule H asks about organizations' community benefit programs and activities and for other information related to tax exemption.

The essay questions are in Schedule H, Part VI. The questions concern how the filer assesses community needs, how patients are informed about eligibility for financial assistance, the makeup of the area served, how community-building activities promote the health of local residents and whether or how much bad debt and Medicare losses are reported as community benefit. The open-ended questions section also provides space for listing other ways the organization promotes community health.

The new web-based resource from CHA includes the IRS instructions for Part VI and offers recommendations for responding to the Part VI questions. It was developed with the assistance of CHA's community benefit, legal and communications leaders. The resource is published at www.chausa.org/communitybenefit/H.

For questions or comments, contact Julie Trocchio, CHA senior director of community benefit and continuing care, at jtrocchio@chausa.org.

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