USA Tax deduction for hospital

[alumascape]

Hi all,

Okay this was a bit of a family argument last night and I would love to solve it. I was recently admitted to a local hospital for surgery and had a 2 night stay. The hospital billed my insurance company about $300,000 and was ultimately reimbursed around $60,000 as they were in-network provider. I know this happens all the time and it has to do with the providers contract with the health insurance company and what they will be reimbursed. My father went on to say that the hospital or provider will do that so they can claim the difference as a loss on their taxes. I'm not an accountant but that doesn't sound right to me. This hospital knew what they would be reimbursed? They knew how much they would be getting paid on the claim, it just doesn't make sense.

So can a healthcare provider write off the difference of what they bill insurance as opposed to what they receive as a reimbursement?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Drmdcpa]

Generally no. Unless they first recognized the full amount as revenue, they cannot eventually write off the discount.

 

[kirby]

I brought this up to an expert. She said consider that high billing charges are used by both for profit and not for profit hospitals. As the not for profits have no tax, to say this is done for tax writeoffs makes no sense.