Modifying Hospital Community Benefit Tax Policy: Easing Regulation, Advancing Population Health

Editor’s note: This post is part of a periodic series of Health Affairs Blog posts discussing the Culture of Health. In 2014 the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced its Culture of Health initiative, which promotes health, well-being, and equity. These blog posts are being run in conjunction with the November 2016 issue of Health Affairs, a thematic issue on the Culture of Health which explores roles for individuals, communities, commercial entities, and public policy that extend beyond the reach of medical care into sectors not traditionally associated with health.  How might regulatory tax policy constraints be eased while promoting greater health equity? The Trump Administration could take steps—under existing legislative authority—to broaden the longstanding definition of “community benefit” spending to promote fuller community-wide health improvement partnerships between tax-exempt hospitals and the communities they serve. These steps, discussed below, are described at length in a new report issued by the Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University and funded by the Kresge Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Origins And Evolution Of Community Benefit Policy Under policies first adopted by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in 1956 under Revenue Ruling 56-186, nonprofit hospitals could qualify as tax-exempt charities if they “operated to the extent of [their] financial ability for those not ...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Costs and Spending Hospitals Population Health Community Health culture of health nonprofit hospitals tax policy Source Type: blogs