Sr. Carol Keehan better get to work earning herself another pen.
GOP Succeeds on Forcing Another Vote
Someone reported in my comments section that dear, dear sister Carol was awarded a 95,000 raise bringing her salary to nearly a million dollars.
What would be a betrayal to Christ's Church without a bag of shiny silver coins.
The Tenth Crusade
As Anne Hendershott reports in "Catholic Health Association Would Benefit Financially From Pro-Abortion Health Bill" on LifeNews.com, Sister Carol's almost $1,000,000 annual salary is paltry compared to those of some executives in CHA member hospital systems:
ReplyDeleteCEO of Catholic Healthcare West: $5,300,000 in 2006 including forgiveness of a $782,541 housing loan
CEO of Ascension Health System: $3,300,000
The "Catholic" Health Association is just another special interest group of "non-profit" hospitals whose executives seek to live high off the hog on the public trough.
Divine retribution on the CHA?
ReplyDeleteIll. high court: [Catholic] hospital doesn't provide enough charitable services to get tax-exempt status
Associated Press
03/18/10
CHICAGO — The state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that an Urbana hospital doesn't provide enough charitable services to qualify for a property tax exemption, a decision hospitals in Illinois worry could lead local governments to try to overturn other exemptions in a hunt for badly needed cash.
National hospital groups said they, too, were reviewing the decision. Nonprofit hospitals around the country face similar tax challenges as critics accuse them of operating largely the same as for-profit hospitals.
The decision capped a five-year fight by Provena Covenant Medical Center to regain the Champaign County tax exemption the Illinois Department of Revenue revoked.
The court said evidence showed that both the number of uninsured patients receiving free or discounted care and the dollar value of the care they received from the Roman Catholic Church-affiliated medical center were minimal.
"As a practical matter, there was little to distinguish the way Provena Hospitals dispensed its 'charity' from the way in which a for-profit institution would write off a bad debt," the court said in its decision, written by Justice Lloyd Karmeier.
The medical center's chairman, Jon "Cody" Sokolski, said in a statement that he was "deeply disappointed" by the decision.
"Provena Covenant Medical Center cares for all of our community who need our health services regardless of their ability to pay," he said.
Sokolski said the medical center provided "more than $38 million in free care and other community benefits" in 2008 and hopes to "carry on in our charitable works, despite the fact that this ruling restricts our ability to do so."
Department of Revenue spokeswoman Sue Hofer issued a statement saying the department was pleased to have won its battle.
"It seems only fair that, when our communities are in serious financial difficulties, we carefully review exemption requests to ensure they meet the intent of both the Illinois Constitution and the law," she said.
Nonprofit hospitals around the country are facing similar challenges to tax breaks from local, state and federal authorities seeking more accountability about hospital charity care.
The ruling wasn't clear about how to measure a hospital's level of charity care, something that likely will be decided in other court cases, according to Mark Deaton, an attorney for the Illinois Hospital Association. The association represents the vast majority of the state's 200-plus hospitals.
Deaton worries governments may go after hospital tax exemptions to ease their own money problems.
"That would be incredibly damaging and incredibly destabilizing," he said. "Our main message at the moment for policy makers, officials, is: Stand down, figure out what this really means, what the impact is and how we should move forward."
The Catholic Health Association, which is the nation's largest group of nonprofit health care groups and filed legal arguments in support of Provena in the case, said it is reviewing Thursday's decision but declined further comment.
Another organization that backed Provena called the decision out of step with the federal government and most other states.
"We don't expect that the Illinois court's decision ... will be embraced by other states," Melinda Hatton, the American Hospital Association's general counsel said in an e-mail. She didn't elaborate and the group declined further comment.
Hofer couldn't immediately say how many other Illinois hospitals' tax-exemptions are under review by the revenue department. Several, she said, were in the process but had been waiting for Thursday's decision.
Good for them. Here is the list of citations that refer to charity in the CCC__
ReplyDeleteCharity
apathy and indifference contrary to, 2094
call to, 1694, 2013
catechesis and, 25, 1967, 1971
communion in, 953, 1475
destroyed by mortal sin, 1855-56, 1861, 1874
heart as the seat of, 1853
indulgence and, 1478
information and, 2489, 2494-95, 2497
as loving one's neighbor, 1822-29
"never ends," 25
offended and wounded by venial sin, 1855, 1863, 1875
wipes away venial sins, 1394, 1472
See also Love
charity and sacraments
Baptism and, 1269, 1273, 1997, 2156, 2165
catechumens and, 1248-49
Eucharist as the sacrament of, 1323, 1394-95, 1416
marriage and, 1570, 1654
sacrament of Reconciliation and, 1434, 1466
sacramental life and growth in, 1134
sacraments of initiation and advancement in, 1212
charity as Christian moral life
charisms and, 800, 2003
chastity and, 2346
as the form of the virtues, 826, 1827, 1841, 1844
freedom and, 1740
fruit of, 1825, 1829
as the goal of our actions, 1829
peace as the fruit of, 2304
as the perfection of Christian life, 1844, 1973
prayer and, 2098, 2662, 2806
virtue of religion and, 2095
charity as witness and service
among the members of the Mystical Body, 791
the Church as the community of, 771, 815, 834
deacons and the service of, 1570, 1588, 1596
family as the school of Christian, 1657, 1666, 2204-05
love of country and the order of, 2239
Mary as the model of, 967-68
material goods and the order of, 2401, 2439, 2451, 2459, 2545
parish as a place of, 2179
religious life and, 915-16, 926
renunciation of violent action and the witness of, 2306
saints as a model of, 2156, 2165
secular institutes and, 928
as a social commandment, 1889
society of apostolic life and, 930
solidarity and, 1939, 1942
as the soul of the apostolate, 864
towards neighbor, 1789, 1878, 1931-32, 2447, 2462
theological virtues of charity, 1813, 1822, 1826, 1841, 1844
faith and, 162, 1794, 1814, 2093
and the freedom of the children of God, 1828
grace of Christ as the source of, 2011
hope and, 1818, 2090
as love of God and neighbor, 1822, 1840, 1844, 2055, 2086, 2093
as loving according to Christ's love, 1823, 1825
new Law and, 1965-66, 1968, 1972-74
perseverance in, 1824
as the soul of holiness, 826
as the source of merits, 2011, 2026
Hmmmmmm, seems like failure in this arena would be taken, well, rather seriously, huh?
The Catholic Hospital Association will have seven less member hospitals not because of resignations to protest to CHA's support for Obamacare but because of the expulsion of the Caritas Christi system for its sale to Equity and loss of nonprofit status, a key criterion for CHA membership. The Caritas Christi hospitals will retain their Catholic status, which depends on recognition by the local bishop and not membership in CHA. See "Equity firm set to buy Caritas: Catholic identity will be retained: Hospitals to shift to for-profit status" http://www.boston.com/business/healthcare/articles/2010/03/25/equity_firm_set_to_buy_caritas/
ReplyDelete