Health Affairs

Health Affairs, 28, no. 5 (2009): w809-w821 (Published online 23 July 2009) doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.28.5.w809 © 2009 by Project HOPE	New Online   Getting Health Reform Done   After the State of the Union   Incremental Reform   E-Health in Developing World   Most-Read Articles in 2009

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Charitable Expectations Of Nonprofit Hospitals: Lessons From Maryland

Bradford H. Gray and Mark Schlesinger

Little is known about nonprofit hospitals’ community benefit spending other than for charity care. Better accountability is desirable, but critics have focused too narrowly on charity care. Using data from reporting requirements in Maryland similar to federal rules that take effect in 2010, we describe the broad range of community benefit spending in nonprofit hospitals there, which amounted to 7.4 percent of expenses in 2007. Charity care for hospital services accounted for one-third of this amount (payments to physicians for charity patients are reported separately). Hospitals’ community benefit spending varies with local needs, resources, and resource allocation decisions.

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