Reimbursing Supplies

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Posted by: Kelly Bowe, Trinity Hospital Twin City

Date: June 22, 2015 8:38 AM

Trinity Hospital is a small critical access hospital in Ohio. When our local ambulance service picks up a patient and treats them in the ambulance with an IV or other supplies on the way to our hospital , our hospital restocks their ambulance with the supplies they used for the patient they brought into our ER for treatment.
We do not charge the ambulance service or the patient for these supplies.
Is the cost of these supplies considered community benefit? If so, any advice on what category to record these costs under?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Response: David A. Rupprecht, St John Providence Community Health
Date: June 22, 2015 10:59 AM
Yes. A possible category would be under Cash and In-kind contributions.
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Response: Elisabeth Lucas, The Valley Hospital

Date: June 22, 2015 10:43 AM

Hi Kelly,
If your ambulance is a non-profit organization funded by your local government, then I think you can consider it an in-kind donation. I have tried to do this but failed in tracking the supplies accurately. I’m curious what other people do…
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Response: Kelly Peisker, St Vincent
Date: June 23, 2015 8:41 AM
Kelly,
If you donated supplies to the ambulance knowing that they could take the patient to any hospital so it would be a general donation, then I would count the supplies as community benefit. But, if you are only giving them supplies for the patients that come to your hospital then that is enticement and I would not count it as community benefit. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Response: Roxanne Hull, Yavapai Regional Medical Center
Date: June 26, 2015 10:11 AM
Good morning!
I contacted our ER to find out what they do and this was their response. Hope it helps!

A question that needs to be asked: Is the ambulance companies for profit? We do not stock for profit companies. They charge for supplies used thereby double dipping if we give them free supplies. We do offer limited supplies to non-profit agencies as a community benefit. These are items that, for example, fit our equipment or speed the lab process by having the correct tubes for blood.
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