University Hospitals has Invested $3 Billion in Community Benefit During the Past Decade

CLEVELAND – In its newly released 2019 Community Benefit Report, University Hospitals illustrates recent examples of its continued effort to address health and economic disparities in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio.

During the past decade, UH has invested $3 billion in community benefit expenditures. And in 2019 alone, the health system’s community benefit expenditures totaled $429 million.

As the community experiences a surge in spread of the COVID-19 virus, UH also dedicated its Community Benefit Report to the system’s response to the pandemic.

“The report documents many of the innovative and compassionate ways our health system has risen to address community needs, deliver care to patients, and advance research into COVID-19 treatments and vaccines,” said Thomas F. Zenty III, UH CEO. “It tells stories of patients like Larry Davis, Stacey Unsinger and Jerry Gustin, who are grateful to UH and our caregivers for their recovery from life-threatening COVID-19 complications.”

UH works with the community to identify and address the region’s most pressing health care needs through research, charitable care, education, training, community outreach and subsidizing health care. UH provides national leadership and neighborhood care through an integrated system of 19 hospitals, more than 50 outpatient centers and hundreds of other care-delivery points. More than 27,500 UH physicians and caregivers serve nearly 1.1 million patients with the finest quality care, best care experiences and highest care value at every stage in life. According to national community benefit experts, much of the work health systems have invested in the COVID-19 response counts as a community benefit investment.

UH follows Internal Revenue Service guidelines to determine allowable community benefit contribution. UH’s total community benefit spending includes: Charity care ($50 million); community health improvement services, programs and support ($25 million); Medicaid shortfall ($217 million); research ($47 million); and education and training ($90 million).

Medicaid shortfall refers to subsidized care to Medicaid patients because this government program pays well below the cost of providing such care. While thousands of more under-resourced residents qualified for Ohio’s expanded Medicaid coverage, the state-federal health-insurance program reimbursed providers for only a portion of the care they provide. UH underwrote the remainder of these patients’ bills.

“UH’s significant contributions of community benefit are made possible through the work of our caregivers, the guidance of our Board members, and the support of numerous community stakeholders,” said Cliff Megerian, MD, FACS, President of UH. “UH was founded on the premise that ‘the most needy would be considered the most worthy.’ Together, we are making a difference in the health and well-being of people throughout Northeast Ohio.”

These are some of the areas highlighted in UH’s 2019 Community Benefit Report:

• UH’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic for the community, with COVID testing sites, COVID-19 vaccine trials, and a rapid response to a nursing home to protect its residents from spread of the virus.
• The recovery of Kent, Ohio, pilot Larry Davis from COVID-19.
• The story of 74-year-old Jerry Gustin of Parma, Ohio, father of four and grandfather of eight, who spent 57 days in the hospital because of COVID.
• Dedicated UH Parma Medical Center Environmental Services employee Stacy Howard who returned to work more dedicated than ever after a 14-day quarantine following a COVID-19 exposure.
• Stacey Unsinger, 51, of Geneva, Ohio, who tells her story of COVID recovery after seven weeks at UH Cleveland Medical Center, some of which were in the ICU on a ventilator.