Community Benefit Resources

Responding to the health needs of our communities, especially to the most vulnerable among us, is central to the mission of Catholic and other not-for-profit health care organizations. To do so, we need to have an understanding of community health needs and use a deliberate approach for addressing those needs.The importance of assessing community health needs and developing an implementation strategy to address selected needs was reinforced by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Affordable Care Act), enacted March 23, 2010. The law added new requirements on tax-exempt hospitals to conduct community health needs assessments and to adopt implementation strategies to meet the community health needs identified through the assessments.CHA, in collaboration with Vizient and the Healthy Communities Institute, developed this resource to help not-for-profit health care organizations strengthen their assessment and community benefit planning processes. Using CHA’s previous work, the experience of community benefit professionals and public health expertise, this resource offers practical advice on how hospitals can work with community and public health partners to assess community health needs and develop effective strategies for improving health in our communities.This resource was developed especially for the hospital staff responsible for conducting or overseeing community health needs assessments and planning community benefit programs.Others with an interest in community health may find this book useful as well. These could include staff within the organization such as administrators, clinicians and strategic planners, and community partners such as policy makers, consumer advocates, public officials and representatives of community groups.Members Only: View and download a copy of Assessing and Addressing Community Health Needs. (Note: you must be logged in to access)

It is essential to evaluate community benefit programs in order to improve programs and ensure the effectiveness of actions taken to address significant health needs in the community.Community benefit program evaluation is important for compliance reasons as well. The Affordable Care Act added requirements for tax-exempt hospitals to assess the health needs of their communities every three years. The federal regulations implementing those requirements specify that hospitals need to include in their community health needs assessment (CHNA) reports an evaluation of the impact of actions taken to address the significant health needs from their immediately preceding CHNA report (Treas. Reg. § 1.501(r)-3). The intent of these requirements is to increase transparency and accountability around tax-exempt hospitals' obligation to improve community health.This CHA resource, developed in collaboration with Vizient and the Healthy Communities Institute, is designed to help community benefit leaders take a systematic approach to evaluating and improving their programs and to meet their legal requirements by applying the knowledge and experience of public health program evaluation to community benefit programs.While the resource is primarily geared to staff members who work in the area of community benefit, it can also be used by others who need to understand how to assess evaluation findings and use those findings in their work.  Other groups that may find this information useful include trustees; executive leaders; strategy; population health; finance and communications staff; community partners; and program participants.

This resource, Healing the Multitudes – Catholic Health Care’s Commitment to Community Health: A Resource for Boards, explains why the Catholic health ministry is called to take a leadership role in addressing the social determinants of health and the board’s key role in making this work a strategic focus of their organization. This focus on addressing the root causes of poor health is not unique to Catholic health care. What is unique to Catholic health care is that our faith compels us to give special attention to our neighbors who are economically poor and to work for the common good. It is these values that drive us to lead the way in this work, even when the path forward is not clear.

Catholic and other not-for-profit health care organizations were born out of community need, not for economic opportunity. They not only provide essential health care services to their communities but also serve their communities through community benefit and other programs and activities. They promote community partnerships to address community needs, address social, environmental, and economic well-being of their communities, advocate for just  health policies, and are in the vanguard of working for health equity in their communities. In recent years, the increasing availability of data and resources has led researchers and others to ask new questions about how hospital charity care and community benefits impact their communities.

Addressing the complexities of health inequities is beyond the scope of any one organization or entity. To make a difference, we must work with community members whose voices have not been heard and who experience disparities. This resource provides a summary of ways to incorporate equity into each component of the Community Benefit Framework.