Whitehead R, Johnson C I, Moore P M
University of Central Arkansas, Conway, USA.
Healthc Financ Manage. 1997 Dec;51(12):56-62.
States attorneys general recently have intervened in transactions involving not-for-profit organizations that wish to convert to or transfer assets to for-profit status. These interventions are significant for two reasons: first, they reflect a tendency amount state attorneys general to involve states in the governance of not-for-profit healthcare organizations, and second, they demonstrate that attorneys general are paying renewed attention to the legal obligation of such organizations to provide a community health benefit, which imposes a charitable trust on not-for-profit healthcare organizations and the fiduciary duties of care and loyalty to that charitable trust on the organizations' officers and directors. To avoid state intervention in such transactions, officers and directors of not-for-profit organizations need to understand the circumstances under which attorneys general justify such intervention, which include the undervaluation of the organization's charitable assets; lack of a private letter ruling from the IRS; failure to adequately consider alternatives to the transaction; conflicts with the best interest of the organization; and inadequate responses to the attorney general's requests for information.
各州总检察长最近对涉及希望转变为营利性状态或向营利性实体转让资产的非营利组织的交易进行了干预。这些干预具有重要意义，原因有二：其一，它们反映出各州总检察长倾向于让各州参与非营利性医疗组织的治理；其二，它们表明总检察长们重新关注此类组织提供社区健康福利的法律义务，这对非营利性医疗组织施加了慈善信托，并对该组织的管理人员和董事施加了对该慈善信托的谨慎和忠诚的受托责任。为避免州政府对这类交易进行干预，非营利组织的管理人员和董事需要了解总检察长为这种干预辩护的情形，这些情形包括对组织慈善资产的低估；缺乏美国国税局的私人函件裁定；未能充分考虑交易的替代方案；与组织的最佳利益相冲突；以及对总检察长信息请求的回应不充分。
