Question: Many hospitals and health systems are forming a separate corporation to house their physician practices. The question always comes as to what tax status to apply for, for-profit or not-for-profit. What are you all seeing in the market?
Answer: From a physician corporation setup perspective we have seen a mixed bag for ownership. Most of it comes down to control of the entity, as a greater amount of control by the hospital will allow the non-profit status, while a lesser amount of control will call for a for profit status. In other words, a lot of it depends on the goals of the organization and physicians and structure of the deal.
Todd Nelson, HFMA technical director, answered this question ([email protected]).