Community Needs Assessment

Under Section 9007 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, hospitals with a 501(c)3 non-profit designation are required to conduct a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) once every three years and to develop an implementation strategy responsive to the identified community needs. For tax years after March 23, 2012, designated hospitals are required to complete a Schedule H on their annual IRS Form 990 to report if a needs assessment was conducted. Non-compliant hospitals will be penalized as much as $50,000 per year and will be at risk of losing non-profit status under this new regulatory mandate.

A community health needs assessment or CHNA is a well-defined and ongoing process for a hospital to evaluate its' served community health needs to assure that hospitals have the information they need to provide community benefits that meet the needs of their specific communities. CHNAs also provide an opportunity to improve coordination of hospital community benefits with other efforts to improve community health. By statute, the CHNAs must take into account input from “persons who represent the broad interests of the community served by the hospital facility, including those with special knowledge of, or expertise in, public health.”

We routinely conduct CHNAs for hospitals all across the U.S.