Hospitals Serve and Support People and Communities in Many Different Ways

All of America’s hospitals and health systems, regardless of ownership status, size or location, provide a vast range of benefits, programs and essential services to their patients and communities that no other entity can.

In addition to 24/7 specialized care and emergency services for all patients in every community, hospitals and health systems lead programs that advance health and wellness. These include partnerships with schools to promote youth mental health, mobile clinics for rural and underserved areas, and investments in food security programs, just to name a few.

At the same time, hospitals and health systems provide transportation to patients who need it to receive care, training for the next generation of caregivers and vital research to aid in the treatment of complex diseases, such as cancer.

These services are a few of the many that distinguish hospitals and health systems from all other sectors in health care, several of which have no commitment to serving everyone in their community and often delay or deny care.

Nonprofit hospitals have special obligations to their communities in exchange for being tax-exempt. These hospitals report the amounts they spend on community benefits yearly and conduct a community health needs assessment in conjunction with their community at least every three years.

The incredible importance of hospitals to the people and communities they serve is illustrated in a new AHA analysis released Sept. 10 that shows tax-exempt hospitals provided nearly $150 billion in total benefits to their communities in 2022 alone, the most recent year for which comprehensive data is available from the Internal Revenue Service.

The figure is a nearly 50% increase in community benefit spending over five years from 2017 to 2022. A large portion of these benefits — nearly 7% of nonprofit hospitals’ total expenses — was for financial assistance for patients in need, including absorbing underpayments from Medicaid, CHIP and other federal, state, or local government programs for low-income people. Tax-exempt hospitals’ and health systems’ total community benefits were 15.1% of their total expenses in 2022.

The analysis reinforces a 2024 report from the accounting firm EY showing that for every dollar invested in nonprofit hospitals and health systems through the federal tax exemption, $10 in benefits was delivered back to communities, a remarkable return on investment you won’t find anywhere else.

The AHA shared many of these points and others this week in a statement submitted to the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight, which held a hearing on the community benefit standard for holding hospitals accountable for tax-exempt status. During the hearing, some representatives and witnesses challenged whether nonprofit hospitals were meeting the community benefit standard while others highlighted the important role nonprofit hospitals play in the communities they serve.  

Improving the health of their communities is at the heart of every hospital and health system’s mission. Please visit our Telling the Hospital Story webpage for many examples of amazing and inspiring programs hospitals and health systems across the country are leading.

In the face of several obstacles that pressure our health care system and caregivers — including workforce challenges, rising costs of providing care and federal spending reductions — the hospital field has doubled down on our commitment to caring and advancing health in the communities we proudly serve.