Community Benefit: Policies, Practices, and Opportunities at the Half-Century Mark

In the 50 years since the expansion of the legal definition of charity for tax-exempt hospitals, there have been periodic regulatory actions at the municipal, state, and federal level to quantify charitable contributions and justify the deferral of tax revenues. The movement toward risk-based reimbursement in the last decade creates an incentive for a shift in hospital leadership understanding and approach to community benefit programs and services. The historical interpretation of community benefit as an issue of compliance with legal obligations is being questioned by forward-thinking hospital leaders, in recognition that more strategic resource allocation offers the potential to reduce financial risk associated with preventable emergency department and inpatient utilization. Recent actions in the policy arena to strengthen community benefit practices, as well as policies in related areas such as homelessness and behavioral health, challenge hospitals to strengthen their focus on prevention. At the same time, increased availability of data on health care costs, mapping of health care utilization patterns, and parallel overlays of hospital location, jurisdictional boundaries, and the social determinants of health offer significant potential for informed public dialogue at the regional level that builds an ethic of shared ownership for health across sectors. Local public health agencies can play an important role by establishing baselines, goals, and objectives in communities where health inequities are concentrated within county and municipal jurisdictional boundaries to align and focus the assets of health, community development, and business sector stakeholders.