US Healthcare Provider Gets Bitcoin Donations Totaling $800K From Single Benefactor

A health care provider in Massachusetts has received sizable donations of bitcoin after setting up an account enabling it to accept cryptocurrencies.

According to a report from the Boston Globe, Cape Cod Healthcare on Friday received $400,000 worth of the cryptocurrency from a regular donor who wished to remain anonymous. That gift came in addition to a further $400,000 the health care provider received from the same individual last month, bringing the bitcoin total to $800,000 at the time.

The health care provider is the parent company for Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, Mass., which has one of the region's busiest emergency rooms, particularly in summer.

Before being able to accept the donations at the request of the individual in January, Cape Cod Healthcare had to establish a cryptocurrency account that could generate a QR code to be shared to the donor to facilitate payment, according to the report.

"Before we responded, we had to make sure there were not any issues," said Christopher Lawson, Cape Cod Healthcare's senior vice president and chief development officer. "It required a good amount of research."

Lawson said he had to check with the provider's legal and finance departments, as well as its CEO, in order to verify whether they could accept the cryptocurrency donation.

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In the U.S. the Internal Revenue Service has advised that charitable donations in cryptocurrency are not required to be reported as gains or losses to the federal tax agency.

In that sense, the chief development officer said bitcoin was an "attractive" asset to donate much in the same way as stock donations. The gifted bitcoin was converted to U.S. dollars immediately, per the report.