Federal Health Care Legislation (HR 3590 Sec. 9007)

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has far reaching implications for our nation’s broad network of nonprofit health care providers.

Effectively section 501 of the internal revenue code has been re-written with regard to nonprofit hospitals: “A hospital organization shall no longer be treated as tax-exempt, unless it meets several new requirements, including the regular conduct of a community health needs assessment.”

According to Sec. 9007, a community needs assessment must be conducted every three years. The assessment must include input from “persons who represent the broad interests of the community served by the hospital facility, including those with special knowledge of or expertise in public health.”

The community needs assessment must be made widely available to the public, and the nonprofit hospitals will be required to demonstrate how they have adopted an implementation strategy to confront identified community needs.

We are working to modify the methodology of our planning studies to respond to these new statutory requirements. Please contact us if you would like to learn more.

click here for pdf version: FRM54