The significant reduction in the proportion of uninsured Americans as a result of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) health insurance expansions, coupled with the greater focus on community health planning under the ACA’s reforms governing tax-exempt hospitals, has increased interest among hospitals in how they might expand the traditional community benefit concept into a newer and larger horse for health and society.
One such health care delivery system example detailed in this post is Trinity Health’s Transforming Communities initiative. Trinity Health is focusing on Community Health and Well-Being as a way to empower low-income, disadvantaged, and underserved populations and communities while also addressing the social determinants of health.
According to Trinity Health’s Community Health and Well-Being strategy, achieving these goals rests on three pillars comprised of clinical services through the Trinity Health system for those living in poverty, community engagement through wraparound services focusing on poor and vulnerable populations, and of particular relevance to this post, community transformation focusing on the built environment, economic revitalization, and other social determinants of health.