Report: Beyond Patient Care: Community Impact of Pennsylvania Hospitals, Fiscal Year 2022

Hospitals are vital to Pennsylvania communities.

They provide around-the-clock care for all people, regardless of ability to pay.

But hospitals’ critical role extends beyond patient care. Pennsylvania hospitals support their communities by:

• Addressing community health needs and, absent a public hospital system, providing critical public health infrastructure
• Providing charity care to Pennsylvanians when they need it most
• Supporting care for millions of Pennsylvanians by sharing in the cost of Medicare and Medicaid
• Educating and training the next generation of clinicians to care for Pennsylvanians
• Attracting billions in federal research funding for health care innovation
• Employing staff, building infrastructure, and purchasing equipment and supplies
• Supporting other industries such as facilities, grounds, and fleet maintenance
• Generating additional economic activity in sectors such as construction, financial services, and hospitality

This analysis examines how, even through the continued strain of a historic health care workforce crisis, ballooning expenses, insufficient payments, and other pressures that threaten hospitals’ long-term financial sustainability, the hospital community continued its vital economic role regionally and across the state.

It demonstrates that the viability of hospitals is critical to the health and economies of the commonwealth and its communities.

Findings from this paper should be used to inform policy discussions surrounding topics that affect Pennsylvanians’ access to high-quality health care, including, but not limited to, strengthening hospitals’ long-term sustainability, bolstering the health care workforce, expanding behavioral health care access, promoting innovative care and payment models, advancing health equity, reforming medical liability, serving rural communities and vulnerable patient populations, and improving licensing and credentialling.

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Topics: State Advocacy, Tax-exempt Status

Revision Date: 10/16/2023

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