OHA announces community benefits reporting
initiative
Hospitals operate in an
environment nowadays where the cost and characteristics of rendering
care are causing government officials, the media and the public at-large
to increasingly ask questions about the ‘value of services’
hospitals bring to their communities. We in the provider community know
we have an important and valid story to tell about how we extend
ourselves to help our communities.
In many instances
hospitals can measure the financial value they provide to their
communities, but many benefits can only be measured in the lives that
are made better and healthier as a result of what hospitals do, both
inside and outside the walls of their organizations. It is vital to the
advocacy efforts of the Oklahoma Hospital Association that we can
clearly convey the collective benefits our members provide across
Oklahoma.
As announced at
our 2008 regional meetings, the OHA is offering a special
opportunity to assist your hospital in telling its story to your
community. In doing so, you greatly aid the OHA in emphasizing the
collective benefit of such stories to policymakers and the
public.
Our statewide community
benefit reporting initiative uses a new, free service
made available by Lyon Software. Lyon’s Community Benefit Inventory for
Social Accountability (CBISA) – which is based on reporting
guidelines developed by the Catholic Health Association (CHA) and VHA,
Inc. - has been the preferred tool for hospital community benefit
reporting since 1990. Today more than 1,000 hospitals and health systems
are using CBISA as their community benefit tracking and reporting
tool.
OHA members can take
advantage of a free, online version of CBISA known as “CBISA
Survey.” This will help your hospital track statistics, costs and
stories associated with the community benefits provided by your
hospital, while allowing OHA access to your data in a statewide
“rollup.” All information released publicly by OHA will be
aggregated, and individual hospital information will only be released
with permission from each hospital organization.
For hospitals required
to file a Form 990 tax return, CBISA should be a valuable tool. The free
“CBISA Survey” will help with Schedule H requirements, but
990 filers may want to consider licensing Lyon’s main product, CBISA
Online.
If you have any
questions about the community benefit project, please call Rick
Snyder at (405) 427-9537, or rsnyder@okoha.com.
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