Non-profit hospital community benefit spending based on local sociodemographics

Non-profit hospitals are facing greater pressure to address the social determinants of health. Since 2012, with new requirements for greater transparency and community health needs assessments, non-profit tax exemption requirements are believed to incentivize investments in the community, particularly for vulnerable populations. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of community benefit spending by private, acute care, non-profit hospitals from 2012-2014 to measure if hospitals have begun to address local community needs. We measured total community benefit spending and two subsets of spending-health care-related expenditures and community-directed contributions-as the proportion of their total expenditure. We obtained sociodemographic characteristics for their community, defined by ZIP code. In unadjusted and adjusted analyses using hospital-level and community-level covariates, community benefit spending has not varied and community-directed contribution amounts did not reflect local needs. Stronger incentives-tax-based or otherwise-are needed to steer non-profit hospitals to invest in community health.