Good Samaritan Hospital Gives $19 Million in Community Benefits to Region
KEARNEY - Good Samaritan Hospital releases its 2009 Community Benefit Report on Saturday. The report will detail some of the ways the hospital reinvested $19,174,457 in quantified community benefit dollars back into the region last year.
"As a non-profit organization, Good Samaritan Hospital reinvests any revenues after expenses back into the hospital and community to serve the community. This is different from a for-profit hospital that pays profits out to investors," said Steve Loveless, interim president and CEO of Good Samaritan Hospital.
Loveless said "care for the poor is the single largest way that we support the community, but we provide a variety of services that care for the broader community as well. Our goal is to fulfill our mission of building healthier communities."
Of the $19 million, $14.5 million went toward benefits for the poor; this includes charitable care for 2,535 patients who otherwise would not have been able to pay for their health care needs. Good Samaritan Hospital subsidizes anywhere from 25 to 100 percent of the cost of medically necessary care for individuals who qualify. This amount also includes $10.3 million for the unreimbursed cost of care provided to 9,989 patients participating in the Medicaid program.
"We gave three times more back to the community than we would have paid in corporate income taxes and sales taxes if we were a for profit organization. We estimate our taxes would have been nearly $6.2 million, compared to the more than $19 million we returned to the community," Loveless said.
Benefits for the broader community include a variety of health improvement services like health screenings, donations to area charities, injury and illness prevention and health education. It also includes medical professions education and clinical trials research.
"Some of the organizations and services that Good Samaritan supports - either wholly or in part - are ones that many people are familiar with like Meals on Wheels for seniors, Safe Kids Platte Valley, Buffalo County Community Partners, Early Development Network and TeenNet. We also provide services within the hospital as a community benefit, like behavioral health care at Richard H. Young Hospital and our 911 emergency response services," Loveless said.
In addition to the $19 million in quantifiable community benefit, Good Samaritan absorbed another $22.8 million for the unpaid costs of Medicare.
Information provided is for Good Samaritan Hospital’s fiscal year 2009, which was from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009.
Copies of the report will be available at Good Samaritan Hospital and on the hospital's Web site at www.gshs.org. It will also be distributed in the January 9, 2010 Kearney Hub.
