Hospitals: community benefits plan reporting.

Existing law requires private not-for-profit hospitals to, among other things, adopt and update a community benefits plan, as defined, for providing community benefits either alone, in conjunction with other health care providers, or through other organizational arrangements. Existing law requires these hospitals to annually submit their community benefits plans to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development and, to the extent practicable, assign and report the economic value of community benefits provided. Existing law defines specified terms for purposes of these provisions and makes certain findings and declarations regarding the social obligation of private not-for-profit hospitals to provide community benefits in the public interest. This bill would require the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development to annually prepare a report on community benefits, as specified, and post the report and the community benefit plans submitted by the hospitals on its internet website. The bill would authorize the office to impose fines not to exceed $5,000 on hospitals that fail to adopt, update, or submit community benefit plans. The bill would authorize the office to grant an extension under these provisions, as specified. The bill would require hospitals to assign and report the economic value of community benefits, and include a description of how needs identified in the assessment are being addressed. The bill would expand the provision that authorizes hospitals to file a consolidated community benefits report, as specified, and would require each hospital's community benefit report to contain an explanation of the methodology used to determine their costs. The bill would also require each hospital to annually post its community benefits plan on its internet website. The bill would revise the definition of community benefits to exclude activities or programs that are provided primarily for marketing purposes or are more beneficial to the organization than to the community. The bill would also revise the definition of hospital to include small and rural hospitals that are part of a hospital system, and to exclude certain health care district hospitals and nonprofit corporations affiliated with a health care district hospital, as specified. The bill would also make clarifying changes to existing law.