Mayor Taveras Announces PILOT Agreement with CharterCARE

Hospital system agrees to make $100,000 annual payment for three years, Taveras Administration closing in on $7.1 million total contributions from tax-exempts

Mayor Angel Taveras announced today that the city has reached payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement with CharterCARE Health Partners. The agreement is completely voluntary and will provide the city with an additional $300,000 over the next three years. The announcement comes on the heels of the Mayor's work to reach a settlement that reforms Providence's pension system and ends the Medicare lawsuit.

CharterCARE, which operates Roger Williams Medical Center and St. Joseph Health Services of Rhode Island, will pay the city $100,000 each year for three years. The city and the hospital system agreed to reassess the agreement at the end of the three-year period due to unpredictable reimbursement within the health care industry.

"I am pleased to announce that we have taken another step to strengthen Providence's fiscal ground and that CharterCARE has agreed to help position our city for the future," said Mayor Angel Taveras. "Through our partnerships, we have pulled Providence back from the brink and will be in a stronger position to compete with cities and states across the region and across the country."

CharterCARE employs more than 2,800 people across the Providence region and provides nearly $20 million of uncompensated care each year. In 2011, CharterCARE provided outpatient care for nearly 410,000 patients.

"CharterCARE is pleased to have reached an agreement with the City of Providence," said CharterCARE president Kenneth Belcher. "This agreement balances our ability to provide needed cash assistance to the City without jeopardizing the many uncompensated services we currently provide to the less fortunate in Providence."

In his Fiscal Year 2012 budget address, Mayor Taveras called on the city's seven largest tax-exempt institutions to make additional payments to the city to support vital services the city provides. To date, the Taveras administration has reached agreements with five of the tax-exempts, including CharterCARE, Care New England, Lifespan, Brown University and Johnson & Wales University.