The Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center has applied for a 1998 tax exemption from the city of Lebanon on the grounds that it is both a charitable and educational institution.
DHMC was denied its tax exemption for 1997 three weeks ago, when the board of assessors decided it should not be classified as a a charitable organization. Lebanon had granted DHMC exemptions since the facility moved there in 1991.
Laurie Storey-Manseau, the DHMC spokesperson, said the current change is not significant.
"We just wanted to be a little more descriptive of the organization," Storey-Manseau said. DHMC "operates differently than a for-profit organization," she said.
The board of assessors denied DHMC its 1997 tax exemption after receiving a report prepared by Lebanon attorney Adele Fulton
"It appears that the clinic is a non-profit facade for the for-profit Hitchcock Clinic Inc., and there is no apparent difference between the operations of the clinic and HCI and the operations of private for-profit physician practices," Fulton wrote in her report on the taxable status of DHMC.
When asked to compare DHMC to a for-profit institution, Fulton said she sees "no difference between the two."
Fulton explained that the amount of charity care given by the hospital is 2.9 percent, compared to the range of 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent given by most for-profit hospitals.
Fulton said she "sees some weakness in" the new DHMC claim that it is a charitable and educational institution, partly because she questions the validity of DHMC suddenly switching its claim.
"Next year they can call it a religious institution," Fulton said. She went on to explain that such a claim that is not necessarily correct would also be subject to review.
Storey-Manseau said the DHMC is not a for-profit institution because it has no shareholders.
DHMC "is governed by volunteer trustees who are members of the community" and make decisions "based on what the community needs."
"The medical center will file an appeal" of the decision for the 1997 year, Storey-Manseau said, but when and how this will occur "hasn't been decided."
DHMC can appeal the board of assessors' decision either to the Superior Court or the state Tax and Land Appeal Board.
Upon receiving the DHMC appeal, City Assessor Norman Bernaiche said that the city board of assessors "will look at the claim in depth and probably turn it over to our legal counsel for review."
The entire appeal process will last "as long as it takes to get to the Supreme Court," Bernaiche added.
Ultimately, the city will need to know the daily operations of DHMC to make a decision on DHMC's latest appeal.
This entails the "hospital providing information to the city on how it is an educational institution," Fulton said.
Whenever DHMC decides to file an appeal, Storey-Manseau said, that the appeal process "may go many years."
