Spectrum Health Provides $79.4 Million in Community Benefit

Spectrum Health provided $79.4 million in community benefit to West Michigan during its 2009 fiscal year.

“Spectrum Health’s mission is to improve the health of the communities we serve by providing access to high quality, low cost care to all who seek our services,” said Richard C. Breon, Spectrum Health President & CEO. “As a not-for-profit organization, we are committed to investing resources into the community to ensure we meet the health care needs of all who seek our services.”

As part of the community benefit, Spectrum Health dedicates $6 million annually to its Healthier Communities department. Created in 1997, Healthier Communities focuses on removing barriers to care, collaborating with not-for-profit agencies, raising awareness about community health issues and helping people develop healthier lifestyles. Last year, Healthier Communities provided nearly 230,000 service encounters to community members.

As an integrated health care system, Spectrum Health’s community benefit expense includes all of its entities-Spectrum Health Hospital Group, Spectrum Health Medical Group and Priority Health. Among the entities, the most significant expense was the $41 million the hospital group spent on care for Medicaid patients. For every $1 of Medicaid care provided, Spectrum Health is paid just 85 cents.

In addition, Spectrum Health as a system spent $29 million caring for the uninsured who do not pay their medical bills and nearly $9 million on traditional charity care, which covers services for patients who cannot afford to pay based on their income and assets.

Spectrum Health is now calculating its community benefit in accordance with the suggested Internal Revenue Service’s new Schedule H guidelines. Previously there were no standardized guidelines for reporting community benefit. Using the new methodology, Spectrum Health’s community benefit from its previous fiscal year (FY08) is $97.5 million.

See detailed information about Spectrum Health’s community benefit contribution, on its Web site.

Spectrum Health is a not-for-profit health system in West Michigan that offers a full continuum of care through the Spectrum Health Hospital Group, a collection of seven hospitals and more than 140 service sites; the Spectrum Health Medical Group, mmpc® and West Michigan Heart-physician groups totaling more than 400 providers; and Priority Health, a health plan with 580,000 members. Spectrum Health’s 16,000 employees, 1,500 medical staff members and 2,200 volunteers are committed to delivering the highest quality care. The organization provided $79.4 million in community benefit during its 2009 fiscal year. As a system, Spectrum Health has earned more than 100 awards since it was formed in 1997.