The provision and reporting of community benefits by hospitals: lessons from Maryland

(1) Most Maryland hospitals experienced a difficult learning curve in 2004 when they were required to begin filing annual reports on community benefit expenditures, but hospital leaders now generally see the reporting requirements to have been beneficial for hospitals. (2) Charity care and health professional education each account for about one-third of community benefit expenditures in Maryland hospitals, and mission-related services around 20 percent. (3) Community benefit accounts for more that [sic] 7.2 percent of hospitals' expenditures on average, with the range from less than two percent to more than 14 percent. Charity care averages 2.1 percent of expenditures, with the range from less than 1 percent to more than 6 percent of expenses.