Can hospitals and other healthcare providers register with the ACNC?

The ACNC registers organisations as charities. Hospitals (and other healthcare providers) that meet the legal meaning of charity and our requirements for registration can register as charities with the ACNC.

Organisations that are run by the government are generally not considered to be charitable. Because they are not charities, hospitals that are run by the government cannot register with the ACNC.

When applying to register, hospitals and other health care providers may wish to select 'advancing health' as their charitable purpose and 'health related programs' as one of their charitable activities. They may also select other recognised charitable purposes they have or other charitable activities they engage in, such as advancing social welfare or scholarly research.

Some hospitals (and other healthcare providers) may be eligible to be registered as a 'subtype' of charity called 'public benevolent institution' if they work directly to relieve poverty, sickness, suffering or disability. Some healthcare providers may also be registered as the subtype of being a health promotion charity if their principal activity is to promote the prevention or control of diseases in human beings. This may include providing public information about a disease, research to develop cures or treatments, or providing equipment to help people who are suffering from a disease. Public benevolent institutions and health promotion charities are entitled to apply for additional tax benefits (such as fringe benefits tax (FBT) exemption) and may be eligible to be recognised as a deductible gift recipient (DGR).

What obligations do registered charities have to the ACNC?

Hospitals and other healthcare providers registered with the ACNC have ongoing obligations under the ACNC Act. These include to:

  • notify us of certain changes
  • keep records
  • report to us each year
  • comply with governance standards and external conduct standards, where applicable.

Unless we or another government agency tell you otherwise, hospitals and other healthcare providers that have obligations to another government agency (such as notification or reporting) must continue to meet these obligations. The ACNC will be working with other government agencies to reduce unnecessary regulatory obligations over time. Find out more about this work and whether it affects your organisation by reading about charity obligations to other regulators.