Community Benefit

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 imposes new requirements for tax-exempt hospitals to maintain levels of community benefit-related care. These hospitals must conduct assessments of the level of need for healthcare in their communities, notify patients of financial assistance policies available to them, and restrict charges to uninsured, indigent patients to the same levels charged to insured patients. A 2009 Health Affairs study notes nonprofit hospitals in Maryland, which make up virtually all hospitals in the state, spent more than $800 million on community benefit actions to maintain tax-exempt status in 2007.

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