279720
Hospital community benefit obligations: Implications for health centers, public health, and communities
Monday, November 4, 2013
: 12:30 p.m. - 12:50 p.m.
Maureen Byrnes, MPA,
Department of Health Policy, School of Public Health and Health Services, The George Washington University, Washington DC, DC
Improving the health of communities is a central aim of public health, and improving community health is a central tenet of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Section 9007 of the ACA (P.L. 11-148) calls for strengthening and clarifying the obligations of nonprofit hospitals to invest in addressing their communities' health needs as a condition of their tax exempt status. These hospitals are now required to conduct a community health needs assessment (CHNA) and adopt an implementation strategy to address these needs. The CHNAs must take into account input from persons who represent the broad interests of the community served by the hospital facility, including those with special knowledge of or expertise in public health. The CHNA must be made widely available. The hospital must also adopt an implementation plan that describes how the hospital facility plans to meet the prioritized health needs identified in the CHNA, identifies health needs that the hospital facility does not intend to meet, and explains why the facility is not investing in meeting a particular need. The implementation plan must be adopted by an authorized governing body of the hospital organization in the tax year in which it conducts the assessment and must be published as an attachment to the hospital facility's annual reporting to the Internal Revenue Service. This presentation will present an overview of the CHNA requirements, highlighting the ethical dimensions and obligations included in the ACA and will discuss opportunities for public health.
Learning Areas:
Ethics, professional and legal requirements
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines
Public health or related public policy
Learning Objectives:
Describe the community health needs assessment (CHNA) requirements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Discuss the ethical dimensions and obligations included in the ACA.
Describe opportunities for public health officials to participate in the CHNA process.
Keyword(s): Community Benefits, Ethics
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I serve as a lead scientist with the Department of Health Policy at the George Washington University School of Public Health, focusing on public health and health care policy, including implementation of the Affordable Care Act. I served as an independent consultant working on public health and human rights issues and as the Director of the Health and Human Services program at Pew Charitable Trusts. I am a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines,
and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed
in my presentation.
