Community Benefit Annual Reports

CHRISTUS HEALTH is steadfast in its commitment to providing the highest quality healthcare services for all, even as the economy continues to affect family incomes and health insurance coverage. In its most recent Continuing Population Survey 2004, the US Census Bureau reported that the:

Official poverty rate in 2004 was 12.7%, up from 12.5% in 2003

Number of people in poverty now stands at 37 million, up 1.1 million from 2003
Ranks of the uninsured grew by 800,000 to 45.8 million
Coverage provided by Medicaid grew to 12.9% and 37.5 million, up from 12.4% and 35.6 million in 2003.
Texas (25.1%) has the dubious distinction of leading this nation when using the 3-year-average uninsured rates for 2002-2004, and Louisiana (18.8%) is fifth. Both are well above the national average of 15.5%.

In the face of these daunting statistics, CHRISTUS Health continues on an exemplary Journey to Excellence. The CHRISTUS Health FY2005 management directive to its Regions recommends waiving charges for uninsured patients with incomes up to 100% of federal poverty guidelines and offering discounts for those with incomes up to 400% of the federal poverty guidelines.

Total Charity Care, the unpaid cost of medical services provided to the uninsured and underinsured, including Medicaid, was more than $228 million, an increase of 32.9% when compared with fiscal year 2005.

Our Community Services contribution to the communities we serve is valued at more than $39 million. This is an increase of nearly 27% from the previous year; primarily on account of:

Reduced reimbursement rates for medical education
Participation in new programs through the provision of company paid staff time
Improved reporting of medical home enrollment net costs
Increases in the CHRISTUS Fund, CDI and other corporate sponsored services.

In fiscal year 2005 and through these two primary community benefit indicators, CHRISTUS Health has:

Contributed more than $268 million, or approximately 11.2% of Net Patient Revenue to the communities we serve.

Government Sponsored Programs like Medicare contributed nearly $225 million in unpaid costs for FY2005 and increased 5.3% from the year before. System-wide, the total of community benefit plus unpaid Medicare is more than $493 million, or 20.5% of NPR for FY2005; an increase of nearly 18.4% from FY2005.

2004 Community Benefits by Region

CHRISTUS Health remains committed to offering the highest quality healthcare services for all but the road ahead does appear to be a challenging one. The US Census Bureau reports that both the number of Americans living in poverty and the number without health insurance rose by more than 1 million in 2003. Both sets of data rose for the third straight year. One in eight people now lives in poverty and one in six is without insurance.

In the most recent CDC data, Texas leads the nation in uninsured; the percent of uninsured Texans increased from 24.1% to 24.6%. Louisiana ranks third in the nation with 19.4% without health insurance coverage.

These trends are reflected in the nearly 7% increase in Inpatient and Outpatient Charity Care. CHRISTUS Health's Charity Care directive recommends that Regions waive charges for uninsured patients with incomes up to 100% of federal poverty guidelines and offer sliding scale discounts to those without insurance with incomes between 100 and 400% of poverty.

Total Charity Care, the unpaid cost of medical services provided to the uninsured and underinsured, including Medicaid, decreased by about 8% when compared with fiscal year 2003 due to higher reimbursement rates. The value of our Community Services contribution to the communities rose by approximately 21% to $31,204,627, predominantly due to a decrease in medical education reimbursement. In sum, these two indicators of community benefit by our System decreased from 10.0% of net patient revenue in FY 2003 to 8.9% in FY2004.

Government-Sponsored Programs like Medicare contributed another $213,541,299 in unpaid costs for FY 2004 and down nearly 6.7% from the year before. System-wide, the total of community benefit plus unpaid Medicare is about 18.3% of NPR for FY2004.

2003 Community Benefits by Region

CHRISTUS Health, like other Catholic health care providers, is committed to offering access to appropriate, quality services for all. This challenge increased in FY2003.

Charity care, which is the un-reimbursed cost of medical services provided to the uninsured and underinsured, including Medicaid, increased by about 19 percent to $187,385,317 compared to FY2002.

By comparison, CHRISTUS Health's contribution to the communities it serves through Other Community Benefits programs and services, decreased by approximately 27.6% to $25,748,588, primarily due to an increase in medical education reimbursement. Overall, these two markers for community value-added benefits by the CHRISTUS Health system increased from 9.2% of net patient revenue in FY2002 to 10% in FY2003.

Government-Sponsored Programs such as Medicare contributed another $228,803,747 in unreimbursed costs for FY2003. This represented an approximate increase of 27.7% over FY2002. System-wide, the total of community benefits plus unreimbursed Medicare is about 20.7% of net patient revenue for FY2003.

Special Edition FY2003 Annual Report

2002 Community Benefits by Region

Each year within CHRISTUS Health, we set social-accountability objectives and evaluate our performance in accomplishing them. The term social accountability is used to define all elements of our contributions to our communities, including charity care (which consists of government-sponsored indigent care), and other community benefits.

Whether measured in terms of cost or the number of patients served, CHRISTUS Health's greatest commitment to communities is provided through charity care for uninsured and underinsured patients.

CHRISTUS Health provided $157,514,910 in charity care and $35,584,938 in other community benefits in 2002. This represented an increase from 8.2 percent of net patient revenue (NPR) in the 2001 fiscal year to 9.2% in the 2002 fiscal year.

Social accountability assumes a broader definition when reporting our community benefits to regulatory agencies; it includes the unreimbursed cost of Medicare and other government programs. In the 2002 fiscal year, the CHRISTUS Health community-benefit investment was 17.7% of the system's NPR.

CHRISTUS Fund spreads hope and help

During the 2002 fiscal year, the CHRISTUS Fund awarded $2,394,437 in grants to community-based programs. The majority of the CHRISTUS Fund's investments went to organizations within CHRISTUS Health regions. A smaller percentage were awarded to selected programs outside of CHRISTUS regions where CHRISTUS' sponsoring congregations maintain ministries. In addition to community health programs, the CHRISTUS Fund also has provisions for disaster relief.

The investments made by the CHRISTUS Fund help support our commitment to creating healthier communities and ensure that the work of social accountability and moral and ethical stewardship continues in spite of challenging fiscal conditions faced by local operating entities.

VIA FY2002 Annual Report

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