Nonprofit Hospitals Focus on Community Needs Under the ACA

For the past 6 years, Mardi Chadwick has run a violence prevention program at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The program’s goal is to address broader, community-based health issues and social problems that make people ill or expose them to injury.

In Chadwick’s view, this endeavor has made a big difference in neighborhoods. But its profile in administrators’ eyes got a boost from an Affordable Care Act provision that requires nonprofit hospitals to conduct tri­ennial assessments of local health needs and devise strategies to address them. Falling short triggers a financial penalty.

“Everyone, all of a sudden, cares about the social determinants of health,” she said. “Our expertise is being brought in... We have a bigger seat at the table.”

But will programs such as this one continue to receive such attention? As the Republican-controlled Congress works to scrap the Affordable Care Act, the answer is uncertain.