State issues new guidelines for community hospital care

LYNN – The state issued new guidelines Wednesday that hold non-profit hospitals and health maintenance organizations more accountable for how they respond to healthcare needs in their respective communities.Lori Berry, executive director of the Lynn Community Health Center and a member of Attorney General Martha Coakley’s advisory task force on the issue, said the guidelines address the state’s unmet health needs.”The importance of these guidelines are that they ask non-profit hospitals and HMOs to make significant community benefit donations because they don’t pay taxes,” Berry said. “The benefits are supposed to be aligned with goals set by the Department of Public Health.”According to Berry, the closing of Lynn Hospital several years ago by its corporate parent, Salem-based North Shore Medical Center, and the resulting community benefit programs established in Lynn to fill the void, were used by the task force as a model.”North Shore Medical Center has been working with the Lynn Health Task Force, and that sort of model that was being looked at,” she said. “The health care center has been the beneficiary of programs that were the result of the kind of planning that took place in Lynn.”Since the same level of planning does not occur statewide, the new guidelines are designed to foster more foresight on the part of the non-profit hospitals and HMOs. According to Berry, the guidelines hold these medical facilities more accountable. The facilities would be required to describe their community benefits beforehand, rather than simply list them retroactively.”Some places might ask themselves at the end of the year, ‘what did we do that could be looked upon as a community benefit?’ They could say, ‘we used this or that room for AA (Alcoholics’ Anonymous) to meet. Does that count? That’s giving back to the community,'” she said, explaining that community benefits should be more specifically defined. “It was very forward-thinking on the part of the attorney general to come up with these guidelines.”The guidelines, which take effect in October, are broken down into four categories – things that support the goal of health reform in Massachusetts; projects that reduce health disparities; projects that reach out to under-served population groups; and initiatives focused on wellness prevention.”The attorney general’s office is trying to better organize this process,” Berry said.The Community Benefit Guidelines emerged after a year-long review by the task force of key stakeholders who share the common goal of improving the health of communities across the state. Under the guidelines, hospitals and HMOs submit annual reports to the attorney general on their community benefit programs and expenditures, enabling public scrutiny and oversight by the attorney general’s office.”These changes will make our Community Benefits program an even more effective way to ensure that non-profit health care entities are meeting community health needs and doing their part to ensure access to quality health programs,” said Coakley. “These revisions clarify our expectations of how key health care players should respond to community health needs and will improve transparency and accountability in community benefit reporting.”The guideline revisions come at a critical time for Massachusetts health care because reform measures have substantially increased insurance coverage, but access to affordable, quality health care remains a challenge for many.”Community benefits programs play an important role in our efforts to respond to these challenges,” said Coakley, explaining that hospitals and HMOs assist low-income patients manage chronic diseases like diabetes, provide free dental examinations and sealants for children, provide free pre-natal care to expectant mothers in areas with high rates of infant morbidity and mortality, and fund programs to curb childhood obesity.