Community Benefit

Hartford HealthCare's Mission

To improve the health and healing of the people and communities we serve.

Hartford HealthCare's Community Benefit

Hartford HealthCare’s multi-million dollar investment in people and the communities they live in plays a vital role in achieving its mission.

To achieve its mission, Hartford HealthCare (HHC) invests substantial resources - human and financial - to make our communities and the people who live in them healthier and stronger. HHC devotes tens of thousands of staff hours and hundreds of millions of dollars in free services, education, and other assistance to make our communities more capable and our residents more resilient and healthier. These activities are known as “community benefits,” and they flow from a strategic process of assessment, planning and implementation.

This work to reform the healthcare system and improve health outcomes for all residents in HHC’s service areas begins with a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) -- a systematic, data-driven approach to determine their health status, behaviors and needs. View all the HHC hospitals’ CHNAs.

This CHNA, conducted in compliance with federal requirements, provides a tool for achieving three basic goals:

  • To improve residents’ health status, increase their life spans, and elevate their overall quality of life;

  • To reduce the health disparities among residents; and

  • To increase accessibility to preventive services for all community residents.

The assessment informs decisions and guides planning and implementation to improve community health and wellness. The result is initially reflected in HHC’s Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP), a three-year, community-wide plan identifying existing and prospective partnerships, community actions, and structural changes to improve the health of our communities’ residents.

The resulting activities including efforts to promote health and healing in response to the needs identified in the CHNA and implemented as part of the CHIP — are called Community Benefits. These initiatives aim to improve residents’ access to health care services regardless of ability to pay, enhance the health of the community, advance medical or health knowledge, or relieve/reduce the burden on government and other community efforts. With some flexibility to meet local circumstances, HHC’s regional CHIPs generally focus on three areas: (1) enhancing coordination of services; (2) promoting healthy behaviors and lifestyle; and (3) improving community behavioral health.

HHC’s community benefits include education, financial assistance, subsidized health services, community health improvement activities and more. In 2017, HHC reported $265,066,948 in defined community benefit activity. This includes unreimbursed Medicaid, cash and in-kind contributions, financial assistance, health professionals education, community health improvement services and community benefit operations, subsidized health services and research.

View the combined summary report for all of HHC’s hospitals.

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