Community Benefit: A new national data base on hospital-related community activities

New IRS reporting requirements effective in 2009 will create a national data base with a plethora of information pertaining to community health. Public health professionals should be aware of these data and help shape the application of the new information to community health. This presentation presents an overview of the data base; highlights definitions, measurements and analytical methods pertinent to public health; and suggests themes for analysis that will be mutually beneficial to communities as well as hospitals. Non-profit hospitals earn their tax-exempt status by providing contributions to the community called “community benefits.” For years, this term was loosely defined and the $12 billion of annual activities not reported, except in a few states. The IRS recently implemented detailed reporting requirements for all 2900+ non-profit hospitals. Activities that qualify as “community benefit” include numerous public health initiatives, such as patient education and screenings, as well as health professions education, emergency room care, and selective research. The category of non-qualified activities includes community initiatives such as emergency preparedness, community collaborations, economic development, and environmental health. Public health methods are explicit and implicit in the new data base, including such elements as community needs assessments, definitions of community, and measurement of changes in community health status. Used with input from public health professionals, this extensive new data base can inform approaches to healthcare reform and local public health initiatives, as well as to hospital outreach. This session will explain and promote use of this new national database on hospital and community activities.