Nonprofit hospitals spend an average of $67.9 billion annually on community benefits.
2021 is off and running, and healthcare organizations are positioning themselves for success; community investment and development to address the profound costs associated with the social determinants of health (SDoH) is one hot-ticket item, especially for hospitals.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia recently released their annual report, Hospital Community Development and Investment, showing that nonprofit hospitals in the United States spend an average of $67.9 billion annually on community benefits. Of these expenditures, over half is spent on patient care: 41.2 percent for unreimbursed care, and 20.9 percent for charity care. These numbers are just the tip of the SDoH iceberg!
The report explores each subcategory for investment, across hospital size, geographic region, and poverty rate. Opportunities abound across various areas for every healthcare organization, through commitment to spending for the following:
Nonprofit hospitals are facing increased obstacles to pursue their mission of promoting health and well-being, including rising utilization and costs, often associated with high rates of uncompensated care. This rate has risen steadily since $17.4 billion was reported in 1995; it is now at a high of $41.3 billion for 2019, per the recent American Hospital Association Uncompensated Care Cost Fact Sheet. The numbers are expected to rise exponentially in 2020 and beyond from COVID costs. Hospitals must define fresh ways to mitigate these fiscal care gaps, implement new spending priorities, and engage in strategic investments that bridge gaps in funding.
We used our Monitor Mondays Listeners Survey to ask whether listener organizations invested in community development initiatives. The results yielded opportunities for every organization as a whole, and appear here.
Programming Note: Listen to Ellen Fink-Samnick’s live reporting on the social determinants of health on Monitor Mondays, 10 a.m. Eastern.
I am sure everyone agrees that not only is providing healthcare complicated, but so are all the administrative aspects of healthcare. And as a result,
Let me start this article by asking for your help. Flash back to 2013. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) at that time
Please log in to your account to comment on this article.
Accurately determining the principal diagnosis is critical for compliant billing, appropriate reimbursement, and valid quality reporting — yet it remains one of the most subjective and error-prone areas in inpatient coding. In this expert-led session, Cheryl Ericson, RN, MS, CCDS, CDIP, demystifies the complexities of principal diagnosis assignment, bridging the gap between coding rules and clinical reality. Learn how to strengthen your organization’s coding accuracy, reduce denials, and ensure your documentation supports true medical necessity.
Denials continue to delay reimbursement, increase administrative burden, and threaten financial stability across healthcare organizations. This essential webcast tackles the root causes—rising payer scrutiny, fragmented workflows, inconsistent documentation, and underused analytics—and offers proven, data-driven strategies to prevent and overturn denials. Attendees will gain practical tools to strengthen documentation and coding accuracy, engage clinicians effectively, and leverage predictive analytics and AI to identify risks before they impact revenue. Through real-world case examples and actionable guidance, this session empowers coding, CDI, and revenue cycle professionals to shift from reactive appeals to proactive denial prevention and revenue protection.
Sepsis remains one of the most frequently denied and contested diagnoses, creating costly revenue loss and compliance risks. In this webcast, Angela Comfort, DBA, MBA, RHIA, CDIP, CCS, CCS-P, provides practical, real-world strategies to align documentation with coding guidelines, reconcile Sepsis-2 and Sepsis-3 definitions, and apply compliant queries. You’ll learn how to identify and address documentation gaps, strengthen provider engagement, and defend diagnoses against payer scrutiny—equipping you to protect reimbursement, improve SOI/ROM capture, and reduce audit vulnerability in this high-risk area.
Only ICD10monitor delivers what you need: updates on must-know changes associated with the FY26 IPPS, including new ICD-10-CM/PCS codes, CCs/MCCs, and MS-DRGs, plus insights, analysis and answers to your questions from two of the country’s most respected subject matter experts.
Get clear, practical answers to Medicare’s most confusing regulations. Join Dr. Ronald Hirsch as he breaks down real-world compliance challenges and shares guidance your team can apply right away.
Federal auditors are zeroing in on Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility (IRF) and hospital rehab unit services, with OIG and CERT audits leading to millions in penalties—often due to documentation and administrative errors, not quality of care. Join compliance expert Michael Calahan, PA, MBA, to learn the five clinical “pillars” of IRF-PPS admissions, key documentation requirements, and real-life case lessons to help protect your revenue.
During this essential RACmonitor webcast Michael Calahan, PA, MBA Certified Compliance Officer, will clarify the rules, dispel common misconceptions, and equip you with practical strategies to code, document, and bill high-risk split/shared, incident-to & critical care E/M services with confidence. Don’t let audit risks or revenue losses catch your organization off guard — learn exactly what federal auditors are looking for and how to ensure your documentation and reporting stand up to scrutiny.
Learn how to navigate the proposed elimination of the Inpatient-Only list. Gain strategies to assess admission status, avoid denials, protect compliance, and address impacts across Medicare and non-Medicare payors. Essential insights for hospitals.
Happy National Doctor’s Day! Learn how to get a complimentary webcast on ‘Decoding Social Admissions’ as a token of our heartfelt appreciation! Click here to learn more →
CYBER WEEK IS HERE! Don’t miss your chance to get 20% off now until Dec. 1 with code CYBER25
CYBER WEEK IS HERE! Don’t miss your chance to get 20% off now until Dec. 2 with code CYBER24
