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The Role of Community Health Needs Assessments in Medicalizing Poverty

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Abstract

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), passed in 2010, is considered by many to be the most significant healthcare overhaul since the 1960s, but part of its promise — improvement of population health through requirements for non-profit hospitals to provide “community benefit” — has not been met. This paper examines the history of community benefit legislation, how community benefit dollars are allocated, and innovative practices by a few hospitals and communities that are addressing primarily non-medical factors that influence health such as social disadvantage, attitudes, beliefs, risk exposure, and social inequalities.

Type
Symposium 1 Articles
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2018

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