How Hospitals Are Benefiting the Communities They Serve
POLITICO鈥檚 recent piece on the impact of the Affordable Care Act on non-profit hospitals is an聽incomplete and inaccurate understanding of the situation hospitals currently face and the benefits they provide.
First and foremost, the piece takes a narrow view of community benefits and fails to account for the full array of programs and services hospitals provide to聽their communities. Per the June 2016 IRS report to Congress, hospitals鈥 financial assistance and community benefit activities reached $157 billion鈥攆ar more than the value of their tax exemption鈥攁 comparison the article neglected to include. The billions that hospitals spend on an array of activities, such as聽wellness programs, transportation and housing assistance among other community-oriented projects, are not accounted for in basic financial聽reports. The bottom line: Hospitals continue to provide tremendous benefits to the communities they serve.
Hospitals also use their resources to reinvest in new models of care that go well beyond the traditional hospital walls, finding new ways to help improve the聽health of their communities鈥攆rom providing access to medical care for patients in rural areas to supporting cutting-edge medical research and聽innovations. Hospitals are also working tirelessly to address and combat the social determinants of health, such as poverty and violence, that harm individuals鈥 ability to achieve聽well-being.
POLITICO鈥檚 piece also omits a comprehensive picture of the fragile financial state of many hospitals nationwide. One out of every four hospitals in America operates in the red. Since 2010, hospitals have absorbed numerous payment reductions for services, estimated as high as $148.75 billion. The fact that the CBO estimates that聽between 40-50 percent of hospitals could have negative overall margins by 2025 underscores our belief that this piece fails to understand the financial聽pressures affecting hospitals.
Despite these daunting financial challenges that many hospitals face, our commitment to our mission remains unshakable: to provide a wide array of benefits tailored to the particular needs of the communities we proudly serve.