As the field of community benefit enters its second half century, hospitals leaders will be increasingly challenged to work across sectors and to share ownership for reducing costs and improving health in our communities.

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.

The evolution towards assuming financial risk to keep people healthy and out of our emergency rooms and inpatient beds is a game changer, and leaders increasingly recognize the need to engage in communities on multiple levels.

In his latest article, written on behalf of The Governance Institute, Kevin Barnett, Executive Director of CACHE, brings to the forefront the increasingly high-stakes role community hospitals play in addressing SDOH. The opportunity to facilitate and partner with their communities to bring systematic, sustainable solutions will dramatically impact community and institutional health moving forward.

Public Health Institute (on behalf of the Alignment of Governance and Leadership in Healthcare Initiative) and The Governance Institute (TGI) are excited to announce the release of a special AGLH article, The Road to Transformation: Reflections of Healthcare Leaders in the December 2018 issue of BoardRoom Press.

The article shares the experiences of board members and senior hospital leaders of participants in the AGLH program, a collaborative project of PHI, TGI, and Stakeholder Health. To read the full article, please click here

Hospitals and health systems can’t solve societal challenges alone. But they can play a key role in mobilizing and aligning joint resources to bring positive changes to low-income communities. Kevin Barnett authors this piece found in Shelterforce Health