Community Benefit Spending in the Time of COVID-19

Former Stoneleigh Fellow and Board Member David Rubin wrote an article for PolicyLab about its new study illustrating that nonprofit health care systems could better direct their resources toward communities in need.

Community benefit spending by our nation’s nonprofit hospitals has always been a hot-button issue. To qualify for nonprofit status, health care systems are required to report annually to the Internal Revenue Service how they direct resources towards the community. And the results, for years, have been underwhelming.

In the midst of the COVID-19 epidemic, many people may not have seen our new JAMA Network Open study published last month, which further illustrates this evolving story. The pandemic also provides us an opportunity to examine the issue of community benefit spending through a new lens.

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