Evolving Hospital Community Benefit Could Be The Next Big Development In Health Philanthropy

“Hospital community benefit”: Remind me, what Is That again? In our experience, when colleagues in health philanthropy hear the phrase “hospital community benefit,” their eyes begin to glaze over. We don’t blame them. It’s a unique and changing corner of the health philanthropy world, manifesting itself in different ways according to states’ varying regulations and differing organizational goals. Unless they’ve worked alongside a hospital on a community health initiative, grantmakers may not be aware of the opportunities in this field. Nonprofit hospitals, in order to maintain their tax-exempt (or “charitable”) status, under section 501(c)(3) of the federal Internal Revenue Code, are required to provide benefit to the communities they serve. Before the Affordable Care Act (ACA), hospitals had a significant amount of latitude in determining what activities and services constituted community benefit. As a result, there has been variation in what is considered a community benefit activity and how to measure its value. In its most basic form, community benefit historically has entailed careful accounting for uncompensated care. If the resulting write-off was sufficient to meet regulatory requirements, hospital finance staff would simply report the numbers. Here in California, since the late 1990s, nonprofit hospitals have been subject to requirements to assess community health needs, and then respond to those needs, on a regular basis. A version of...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Equity and Disparities Featured GrantWatch Hospitals Population Health ACA Affordable Care Act California Community Health Needs Assessment Consumers Counties data Health Law Health Philanthropy Health Reform Hospital communi Source Type: blogs