community benefit

Just as healthcare systems seek to maintain their tax-exempt status by providing “community services,” health insurers seek to dispense their largesse on the corporate term for those community services – the social determinants of health. A new study suggests that, like those not-for-profit, tax-exempt healthcare systems, the money flowing to social determinants is more for appearances. How surprising.
Instead of paying taxes, non-profit health systems give back to the community. But how much, to which community and who actually benefits is increasingly a divisive issue. Here, the spotlight finds Sutter Health, the seventh largest health system in the United States.