Opinion ID: 2197282
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Other services to outside entities

Text: Besides Portico, HealthEast has also performed services for several other entities. First, HealthEast employees provided employee assistance services such as counseling for personal and work related concerns to organizations outside the HealthEast system. The gross revenue for these services was $9,412 in 2002, $8,639 in 2003, and $6,802 in 2004. [3] HealthEast stopped providing these services to unaffiliated organizations in 2005. Second, HealthEast reported $399 in 2002 and $60 in 2003 in unrelated business income for creating signs for medical providers outside the HealthEast Care System. Third, HealthEast reported $6,973 in unrelated business income for repairs made by HealthEast-employed medical equipment technicians to biomedical equipment owned by medical providers outside the HealthEast care system. Fourth, HealthEast reported revenue from its mail room of $7,051 over three years, the result of charging the HealthEast Employee Credit Union for postage. HealthEast essentially argues that the value of these services was de minimis and should not be considered in deciding whether it has a separate purpose and existence from the care system. We will leave for another day the question of whether we recognize a de minimis exception to the principles we reiterated in HealthEast I for determining the question of separate corporate status for tax purposes. Here, while the revenue from the employee assistance, sign-making, postage, and equipment services is small, when looked at in the context of services performed by HealthEast, we conclude that the services performed for these entities support a conclusion that HealthEast does not exist exclusively to benefit its affiliated hospitals and clinics.