Health systems: community benefits plan.

Existing law establishes the Department of Health Care Access and Information to oversee various aspects of the health care market, including oversight of hospital facilities and community benefits plans. Existing law requires a private, not-for-profit hospital to adopt and update a community benefits plan that describes the activities the hospital has undertaken to address identified community needs within its mission and financial capacity, including health care services rendered to vulnerable populations. Existing law defines "community benefit" to include the unreimbursed cost of services, as specified, among other things. Existing law requires a hospital to conduct a community needs assessment to evaluate the health needs of the community and to update that assessment at least once every 3 years. Existing law requires a hospital to annually submit a community benefits plan to the department not later than 150 days after the hospital's fiscal year ends. Existing law authorizes the department to impose a fine not to exceed $5,000 against a hospital that fails to adopt, update, or submit a community benefits plan, and requires the department to annually report on its internet website the amount of community benefit spending and list those that failed to report community benefit spending, among other things. This bill would redefine the term "community benefit" to include the unreimbursed cost of services as reported in a specified federal tax filing, would require a hospital to annually submit a copy of that completed tax filing, and would require a community benefits plan to include community benefits reported by category consistent with that filing. The bill would increase the maximum fine for failure to adopt, update, or submit, a community benefits plan to $25,000 and would specify that the community benefits plan should address the community needs identified by the community needs assessment.