What is community benefit?
Community benefits are voluntary services and activities that hospitals provide to promote the health and wellbeing of the communities they serve. As a result, they may get tax relief from the federal and state governments (501)(c)(3) tax-exemption status.
Examples of community benefit include but are not limited to:
- Accepting people with Medicaid coverage
- Advancing medical training and education using surplus funds
- Providing free or discounted care to patients that qualify, known as charity care
About hospitals' community benefit
Hospitals demonstrate community benefit in a variety of ways:
- Partnering with communities and stakeholders to identify the health needs of those communities through a document called a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA)
- Publishing a corresponding document called an Implementation Strategy, sometimes called a Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP), which documents what needs the hospital plans to address
- Providing services and activities including but not limited to accepting Medicaid patients, providing free or discounted care known as charity care, or using surplus funds to advance medical training, education, and research
Community benefit data submission resources for hospitals
Community benefit portal
Submit Connecticut specific community benefit program reporting and submit a request for All-Payer Claims Database data for community benefit.
Response workbook for Community Benefit Annual Status Report
Clicking the link opens the workbook in an Excel spreadsheet.
Annual status report
See the reports submitted by all hospitals.
Legislation
Connecticut General Statute (C.G.S.) §19a-127k requires the Connecticut Office of Health Strategy, an executive state agency, to oversee certain reporting requirements around Connecticut hospitals’ community benefit.