Healthcare Strategic Growth Blog

Execute Your CHNA and Improve Community Health

By Lee Ann Lambdin

One sentence in the Federal Register requirement for CHNAs (page 19, section 6, paragraph E) calls for “a description of the resources potentially available to address the significant health needs identified through the CHNA.” While this one line may seem innocuous at face value, after 9 years of performing CHNAs, I’ve seen this one little sentence take on significant importance in improving the health of communities.

Initially, this requirement was seen as just that, a requirement. However, communities are now seeing how little cross-communication of community resources takes place and how critical this communication is to providing valuable health resources to their residents. Hospitals and communities are beginning to use the Community Asset Inventory as an online catalog for community members who need access to practical, helpful health resources.

Stay IRS Compliant and Improve the Health of Your Community

By Lee Ann Lambdin

The August 17th issue of Becker’s Hospital CFO Report details how the IRS has revoked an unnamed hospital’s tax exempt status for failing to conduct a community health needs assessment (CHNA), adopt an implementation strategy, and make it widely available to the public. This punishment is beyond the standard $50,000 excise tax penalty typically issued for failure to meet the CHNA requirements. The article states the IRS referred to "egregious failures when reviewed in the context of [section] 501(r)."

When asked why they failed to fulfill the CHNA expectations, officials at the small rural hospital said they lacked the staffing to comply with 501(r) requirements. While this is the first revocation of tax exempt status that I’m aware of, I know that having your tax exempt status revoked can financially devastate a hospital.  

Performing a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) is more than just a practice required by law for certain hospitals. When executed well, it can also dramatically further publicity and marketing initiatives, supporting your annual planning process and enhancing the execution of your strategic growth goals.

CHNAs provide so much beneficial information that one of the nation’s largest for-profit hospitals has brought on Stratasan to execute 17 CHNAs on their behalf. These CHNAs will benefit their community outreach and population health initiatives.

Your Community Health Needs Assessment is complete with lots of community involvement.  Your community has assisted in prioritizing the most important health issues.  Your hospital has selected and prioritized the health issues and goals that it will work on, and has justifications for the issues it will not work on.  There is still one more requirement to be met: an implementation plan with monitoring and evaluation of efforts.  Stratasan suggests creating a Health Issues dashboard containing as much of the following information as possible.