A recent review of hospital records by The Salem News revealed Massachusetts hospitals' community benefit spending declined over the last five years.
Here are five things to know.
1. The federal government requires nonprofit hospitals to spend money on community benefits and report that spending to the Internal Revenue Service annually to stay tax-exempt, according to the National Center for Healthy Housing. The Salem News notes the community benefit spending may include charity care as well as outreach programs focused on the community.
2. Beverly (Mass.) Hospital and Addison Gilbert Hospital in Gloucester, Mass., both members of Burlington, Mass.-based Lahey Health, together reported $5.5 million in community benefit spending in fiscal year 2016 compared to $7.2 million in fiscal year 2012, according to The Salem News.
3. North Shore Medical Center, part of Boston-based Partners HealthCare, has campuses in Salem and Lynn, Mass. NSMC reported $7.9 million in community benefit spending in fiscal year 2016 compared to $10.6 million in fiscal year 2012.
4. Hospital officials partly attributed the decrease in community benefit spending to the reduction in uninsured residents under the ACA, meaning less charity care is required, according to the report. However, The Salem News reports hospitals have not increased spending on outreach programs due to the decline in charity care spending.
5. Nancy Kane, a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, told The Salem News she and others have formed a task force to examine hospitals' community benefit spending outside of charity care, particularly to address "broader social disparities that contribute to poor health."
Read the full report, including individual hospital responses, here.