In communities throughout our state, Californians instinctively know one thing: Their local hospital is part of the fabric of their lives.
The daily miracles that hospitals perform — lifesaving emergency surgeries, cancer care, premature baby deliveries, and more — are what many are reminded of when they think of their local hospital. But there’s so much more.
Hospitals also provide a broad range of critical health, social, and other programs that advance the health and well-being of individuals and communities. These programs, known as community benefits, strengthen the people and places hospitals serve well beyond their four walls.
Last month, a new analysis by international accounting firm EY (Ernst and Young) showed that nonprofit hospitals and health systems delivered $10 in benefits to their communities for every dollar’s worth of federal tax exemption in 2020, the most recent year for which comprehensive data are available.
This underscores the commitment hospitals have to their communities. Nationally in 2020, the estimated federal tax revenue forgone due to the tax-exempt status of nonprofit hospitals was $13.2 billion, while the benefits that tax-exempt hospitals provided to their communities was estimated to be $129 billion — almost 10 times greater than the value of the tax revenue.
Here in California, according to Community Benefit Insight, hospitals provided nearly $9 billion in community benefits in 2021, the most recent year for which data are available.
These benefits go directly to support the most vulnerable Californians, including financial assistance for patients in need, charity care, services for Medi-Cal patients that are otherwise unreimbursed, housing support, food programs, vaccination clinics, and much more.
Truly, the stuff that makes a community’s fabric all that much stronger.
Looking ahead, it’s vital that we not only recognize and appreciate this outsized commitment on the part of hospitals to keep their communities strong but also protect their ability to continue to do so.
