Summa Health announced that its community benefit provided to area residents in 2020 totaled $132.3 million, according to a news release.
Community benefit reports, an annual IRS requirement for nonprofit hospitals, offer a snapshot of the value the tax-exempt institutions deliver.
"Although the COVID-19 pandemic created many hardships in 2020, Summa Health remained committed to supporting the people we serve," said Dr. Cliff Deveny, Summa president and CEO, in a provided statement. "We take pride in knowing we can improve the lives of people through strong community programs and partnerships. We look forward to continue to work tirelessly to improve the health of our entire region."
Summa's 2020 benefit was a 4.5% decrease from its 2019 total of $138.5 million.
Community benefit reports are divided into several categories. At $42.1 million, the largest portion of Summa's total benefit was in subsidized health services, which are clinical services that meet community needs and are provided despite a financial loss, such as Summa's Senior Health Center, Traumatic Stress Center and Dental Clinic. This represented about a 17% growth compared with 2019.
Summa also grew its community health improvement total by 6.6%, to $12.9 million.
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Its totals decreased in the remaining categories. Summa's total benefit in each were as follows, according to the release: Charity care ($13.9 million in the net cost of traditional charity care), Medicaid shortfall ($36.0 million in unpaid costs for Medicaid patients), education ($21.8 million) and research ($5.6 million).
In early December, Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals each reported they grew their respective community benefits by 11% and 12.6%. UH provided $483 million in community benefit to the region in 2020, while the Clinic reported contributing $1.31 billion in benefit for its operations in Ohio, Nevada and Florida.
This story first appeared in our sister publication, Crain's Cleveland Business.