• Supports the hospital’s community-based mission
• Targets the problems of the poor or medically underserved
• Impacts the health status of the identified community
• Reduces community health costs
• Is accessible to the entire community regardless of ability to pay
• Would likely be discontinued if decisions were made on a purely financial basis
• Stimulates external community partnerships

Hospitals provide two types of community benefits: traditional and nontraditional.

Traditional community benefits refer to a hospital’s commitment to provide needed health care services to all regardless of their ability to pay. These “traditional” benefits reflect the services and financial assistance or charity care provided to patients who can’t pay for their care.

South Carolina hospitals also offer nontraditional community benefits with little or no compensation—both on the hospital campus and beyond the hospital walls—to improve health status, increase access to care, and enhance the quality of their communities’ lives.