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 Interim Executive Director Michael A. Nolin, MA, made a presentation at the American Public Health Association’s midyear meeting on June 27, 2012, in Charlotte, North Carolina. The session, titled All in This Together – Public Health and Community Benefit, addressed the requirement for nonprofit hospitals to demonstrate their commitment to community health by conducting a community health needs assessment (CHNA) along with a strategy to address the identified needs to support their nonprofit tax status. In his presentation, Nolin gave an overview of the origins of the community benefit standard and discussed the standard in both a federal and state context; discussed the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) reporting requirements for nonprofit hospitals; discussed the CHNA requirements under the Affordable Care Act (ACA); and addressed state policy factors related to CHNAs. Finally, Nolin gave examples of how hospital associations might be responding to these requirements.
Hilltop Interim Executive Director Michael A. Nolin, MA, was a panelist in a special session at the AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting on June 24, 2012, in Orlando, Florida. This special session, <i>Building Research Collaborations with State Health Policymakers</i>, used the states of California and Maryland as examples to address the benefits and challenges of state/university partnerships, as well as ways to structure them. Nolin discussed Hilltop’s nationally recognized eighteen-year partnership with the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the catalyst for the development of the partnership, what it looks like today, its structure, and the benefits and challenges of such state/university partnerships.
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.
In FY 2012, Hilltop assisted DHMH in its efforts to learn more about the recipients of services from the Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA). Hilltop Policy Analyst Aaron Tripp, MSW, and Long-Term Services and Supports Policy and Research Director Donna C. Folkemer, MA, gave this presentation on model state supports waivers to the Developmental Disabilities (DD) Stakeholders Group.
Hilltop Hospital Community Benefit Program Director Martha H. Somerville, JD, MPH, presented as part of a plenary town hall panel in a session titled Community Health Assessments: Opportunities for Collaboration, at the National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI) Annual Conference of May 23, 2012 in New Orleans, Louisiana. In her presentation, Somerville outlined community benefit requirements under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and related reporting requirements (Internal Revenue Service Form 990, Schedule H). The discussion focused on the ACA’s community health needs assessment requirement, how it can relate to public health department accreditation, and how Public Health Institutes can facilitate community partnerships of hospitals, health departments, and community-based organizations to conduct needs assessment and community health improvement planning, as well as develop initiatives to improve community health.
In FY 2012, Hilltop assisted DHMH in its efforts to learn more about the recipients of services from the Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA). Hilltop Policy Analyst Aaron Tripp, MSW, and Long-Term Services and Supports Policy and Research Director Donna C. Folkemer, MA, presented this overview of supports waivers to the Developmental Disabilities (DD) Stakeholders Group.
As part of a two-volume series, this chart book summarizes demographic, service utilization, and expenditure data for state fiscal years 2007 through 2010 on three Maryland Medicaid waiver programs—the Living at Home Waiver, the Medical Day Care Services Waiver, and the Older Adults Waiver—and on nursing facility utilization among Maryland Medicaid recipients. This series, prepared for the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, is intended to monitor trends in these programs. Hilltop updates the chart books annually.
