Below is a listing of select Hilltop publications and presentations. You can search by type, topic, date, and/or title. The search function searches for key words in both the title and the publication summary. Click on the publication’s title below to go to its summary.
Accessibility Notice: Publications released before April 24, 2026 have not been remediated for Section 508 compliance.
This is the seventh issue brief in a series released by Hilltop’s Hospital Community Benefit Program. This brief is a companion to the online tool, Community Benefit State Law Profiles, and presents the Profiles’ findings and begins the analysis—in effect, viewing state community benefit standards through the lens of the ACA—to facilitate a better understanding of each state’s community benefit landscape and its significance in the context of national health reform.
At the AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting on June 25, 2013, in Baltimore, Maryland, Hospital Community Benefit Program Director Martha H. Somerville, JD, MPH, delivered a panel discussion. Her presentation addressed hospital charity care/community benefits/tax exemption; federal community health needs assessment and implementation strategies; collaborative needs assessment; and the role of nonprofit hospitals in health system transformation.
At the AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting on June 23, 2013, in Baltimore, Maryland, Hospital Community Benefit Program Director Martha H. Somerville, JD, MPH, and Policy Analyst Gayle Nelson, JD, MPH, gave a poster presentation entitled Community Benefit State Law Profiles. This poster highlights the variation in community benefit laws across states in comparison with the federal community benefit standard.
Hilltop Hospital Community Benefit Program Policy Analyst Gayle D. Nelson, JD, MPH, gave a presentation at a National Association of Counties (NaCo) webinar titled “Using the Community Health Needs Assessment to Inform Policymaking” on May 30, 2013. In her presentation, Nelson provided a legal context for community health needs assessment (CHNA); described CHNA’s role in community health improvement; and discussed CHNA requirements and processes for nonprofit hospitals.
Hilltop Hospital Community Benefit Program Director Martha H. Somerville, JD, MPH, gave a presentation at an Institute of Medicine (IOM) workshop titled Achieving Health Equity via the Affordable Care Act: Promises, Provisions, and Making Reform a Reality for Diverse Patients on April 22, 2013, in Hartford, Connecticut. In her presentation, Driving Health Equity through Public Policy: Hospital Community Benefits, Somerville discussed tax-exempt hospitals’ community benefit responsibilities under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and identified how the ACA requirements can be used as levers to advance health equity.
This is the sixth issue brief in a series resleased by Hilltop’s Hospital Community Benefit Program. This brief is a companion to the online tool, Community Benefit State Law Profiles, and presents the Profiles’ findings and begins the analysis—in effect, viewing state community benefit standards through the lens of the ACA—to facilitate a better understanding of each state’s community benefit landscape and its significance in the context of national health reform. The other issue briefs in the Hospital Community Benefits after the ACA series are The Emerging Federal Framework, Building on State Experience, Partnerships for Community Health Improvement, Schedule H and Hospital Community Benefit—Opportunities and Challenges for the States, and Community Building and the Root Causes of Poor Health.
This is the fifth issue brief in a series resleased by Hilltop’s Hospital Community Benefit Program. It discusses hospital community building activities and their importance in addressing the root causes of poor health and disability. It explores hospitals’ community benefit activities that go beyond the provision of health care services to focus on “upstream” social, economic, and environmental factors—education, employment, income, housing, community design, family and social support, community safety, and the environment—that are major contributors to community health. IRS Form 990, Schedule H is the vehicle hospitals use to report these activities.The other issue briefs in the Hospital Community Benefits after the ACA series are The Emerging Federal Framework, Building on State Experience, Partnerships for Community Health Improvement, and Schedule H and Hospital Community Benefit—Opportunities and Challenges for the States.
This issue brief, the fourth in a series published by Hilltop’s Hospital Community Benefit Program, is a collaboration between Kevin Barnett, DrPH, MCP, Senior Investigator at the Public Health Institute, and Martha Somerville, JD, MPH, Hilltop’s Hospital Community Benefit Program Director. It discusses key federal community benefit reporting requirements developed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as Form 990, Schedule H and explores the opportunities and challenges these present to state officials and policymakers, both as a reporting framework and as an informational resource.The other issue briefs in the Hospital Community Benefits after the ACA series are The Emerging Federal Framework, Building on State Experience, Partnerships for Community Health Improvement, and Community Building and the Root Causes of Poor Health.
Hilltop Hospital Community Benefit Program Director Martha H. Somerville, JD, MPH, presented at the American Health Lawyers Association’s June 21, 2012, webinar titled Protecting Tax Exemption Under the ACA: Exploring New Requirements Related to Community Needs Assessments; Financial Assistance Policies; and Billing and Collection Policies and Procedures. Somerville’s presentation provided an overview of the origins and evolution of charitable tax exemption, the community benefit standard, and current tax exemption requirements for nonprofit hospitals. Other webinar presenters were Julie A. Trocchio, Senior Director of Community Benefit and Continuing Care at the Catholic Health Association, and Jessica Curtis, Esquire, Project Director of Community Catalyst’s Hospital Accountability Project. The session was moderated by Thomas Hyatt, Esquire, of SNR Denton.
Hilltop Hospital Community Benefit Program Director Martha H. Somerville, JD, MPH, presented at the American Health Lawyers Association’s June 21, 2012, webinar titled Protecting Tax Exemption Under the ACA: Exploring New Requirements Related to Community Needs Assessments; Financial Assistance Policies; and Billing and Collection Policies and Procedures. Somerville’s presentation, titled Community Benefit in Context: Evolution to ACA §9007, provided an overview of the origins and evolution of charitable tax exemption, the community benefit standard, and current tax exemption requirements for nonprofit hospitals. This brief provides background and support for the presentation.