Hospital Community Benefits after the ACA: Community Building and the Root Causes of Poor Health

Abstract

This is the fifth issue brief in a series released 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.