Doctors Hospital eyes not-for-profit status

The hospital Jan. 1 will come under ownership of Ozarks Community Hospital Inc., a not-for-profit corporation created Sept. 18 and registered under Paul Taylor, the hospital’s administrator. The corporation should receive its tax-exempt determination letter from the Internal Revenue Service within a few months, according to a hospital news release.

Employees and patients will notice few operational differences, according to the release, but the hospital will be able to seek community support, tax exemptions and other assistance because of its not-for-profit status.

The outside help will be welcomed, according to hospital officials, as the growing number of uninsured patients now accounts for more than 50 percent of the hospital’s client base and the number of Medicaid patients has fallen dramatically, all resulting from 2006 Medicaid reform.

Because of a climbing number of self-pay patients, Doctors Hospital last year cut benefits to all employees, froze salaries, terminated some employees and reduced expenses unrelated to care. Physicians also voluntarily accepted a 15 percent reduction in compensation and benefits.

Officials say the hospital has always conducted business more as a nonprofit business anyway, and the transaction is an acknowledgement of that.

“Since we opened in 2000, the physician ownership group has never received a distribution of profit – despite significant personal risk and obligation on debt incurred by the hospital,” Assistant Administrator Alexis Brown said in the release. “Furthermore, we have never managed the hospital in such a way that would maximize its profitability in preference to our patient-care mission.”

The hospital was founded by 23 original investors, including Taylor, and has grown to employ more than 600 people in Springfield, Nixa, Webb City, Mount Vernon and Rogersville.[[In-content Ad]]