Health Research & Educational Trust of New Jersey (HRET)
Research
Ongoing Projects
Community Benefit Tracking and Reporting
NEW!
Nov. 19, 2008
Collection of Community Benefit Data - 2nd Quarter 2008 (April-June)
Sept. 30, 2008 NJHA Training Classes for CBISA Online - Fall 2008 Classes The Catholic Health Association defines the hospital community benefit as a planned, managed, organized and measured approach to a hospital’s participation and contribution toward meeting identified community health needs.
Community benefit includes collaboration with a community to benefit its residents – particularly the poor, minorities, disfranchised and underserved groups – by improving their health status and quality of life and enhancing the overall health and well-being of local communities. Community benefit services are an integral part of the hospital mission and its commitment to community and are not provided for marketing purposes.
Many healthcare organizations demonstrate their commitment to community service through organized and sustainable community benefit programs; i.e., programs or activities that provide treatment and promote health and healing as a response to identified community needs. The services and programs hospitals offer to benefit the community cover a wide spectrum and include an array of support to the body (such as free care for the poor and immunization clinics), the mind (literacy classes and medical and nursing education) and spirit (support groups, exercise classes and stress management programs). These services and programs can be grouped under two broad categories: traditional and nontraditional community benefits.
- Traditional community benefits include the range of healthcare services hospitals provide to their community, such as a variety of clinics and programs that serve the poor and uninsured in the community at minimum or no cost.
- Nontraditional community benefits are programs and community partnerships that promote healthy lifestyles among high-risk groups, such as young children, teen parents, elderly and individuals with chronic health problems. Nontraditional benefits also include programs that address urban violence, child abuse and domestic violence and subsidies to ensure access to dental care or mental health services in urban or rural communities.
These programs include services for persons who face barriers in accessing and obtaining professional healthcare and initiatives for improving the overall health in the broader community.
A community benefit must meet at least one of the following criteria:
- Generates a low or negative margin
- Responds to needs of special populations, such as persons living in poverty and other disenfranchised persons
- Supplies services or programs that would likely be discontinued – or would need to be provided by another not-for-profit or government provider – if the decision was made on a purely financial basis
- Responds to public health needs
- Involves education or research that improves overall community health
For more information about community benefit activities and how to plan them, see the Catholic Health Association’s
A Guide for Planning and Reporting Community Benefit,St. Louis, MO, 63134 or visit their Web site at
http://www.chausa.org/.
Tracking Your Hospital’s Community Benefit Efforts: Reporting Forms and Instructions New Jersey Hospital Association is making efforts to ensure hospitals are prepared to collect, quantify and report their community benefits and meet the new IRS 990 reporting requirements. As part of this effort, a tool has been developed and distributed to hospitals that have not purchased Lyon software to assist them in structuring a standardized, systematic and consistent process for collecting, quantifying, documenting and reporting the value of their community benefits.
NJHA’s community benefit data collection tool is designed to assist hospitals in structuring their community benefit plans, tracking programs, documenting activities and reporting the highlights of hospitals’ valuable contributions to their communities. It provides you with all the information and resources you will need throughout this exercise, including:
- How to establish your hospital’s community benefit processes;
- Best ways to systematically identify community needs and assets;
- How to plan community programs and services that help improve the overall health of your community;
- How to track and document your hospital community benefit program and activities and what forms to use to consistently and uniformly collect and report information about them. (The recommended forms and instructions mirror those developed by the Catholic Health Association and attached to the IRS 990).
Community Benefit Tracking and Reporting Tool (.pdf file size 2,573KB, 69 pgs.)
- Introduction
- Overview of Community Benefit
- Setting up Processes
- Tracking and Reporting Community Benefit Efforts
Form 1: Activity Form
Form 2: Occurrence Form
Form 3: Leadership Journal
Form 4: Facility Financial Form and worksheets
- Attachments
Attachment 1: Examples of Community Benefits Provided by Hospitals
Attachment 2: CHA’s Building a Sustainable Infrastructure Checklist
Attachment 3: CHA’s Community Benefit Categories
Attachment 4: CHA’s Determining What Counts as Community Benefit
Attachment 5: CHA’s Community Benefit Program Structure Checklist
For more information If you have questions regarding the new IRS reporting requirements and the process for collecting and reporting community benefit information, please contact the HRET Research Dept. at 609-275-4145 or
research@njha.com.