Healthcare Reform and Community Benefit: Where Do We Go from Here?

This session will provide hospital administrators with practical examples and strategies for how to use the Patient Protection and Afforable Care Act to operationalize and advance their community benefit agendas.

The presentation will begin with an overview of how healthcare reform will change the landscape of how Americans perceive and engage in the healthcare system. Key principles of healthcare reform, coupled with national health objectives will be reviewed. Opportunities for healthcare organizations to advance their community benefit agendas in this environment will be addressed – specifically as they relate to IRS not-for-profit guidelines and community benefit best practices.

In light of the hustle and bustle of an ever-changing healthcare climate, getting everyone on board and aligned to include community benefit as a major operational component can be a challenge. The session will illustrate how participants can mobilize their peers to support community benefit operations in light of healthcare reform. Realizing the argument needs to be tailored differently for different audiences, the second component of the session will provide learners with tips for presenting cogent arguments for community benefit activities to various internal audiences: CEOs, practitioners, finance, compliance, planners.

The final module will allow learners to explore how to create synergy and engage partners in creating and executing a defined, focused and coordinated community benefits strategy. Case studies that highlight the effectiveness of collaborating with non-traditional partners will be reviewed.

The session will be interactive, inspirational, and motivational. Messages and themes will be reinforced through a combination of visual, auditory and experiential exercises. Using a series of vignettes, learners will explore the importance of using a social justice lens, coupled with the social determinants of health, to guide their community benefit programming.