John Muir Health

The largest portion of our community benefit services is devoted to the most vulnerable individuals of our community. This means we provide health care regardless of an individual’s ability to pay for services received at our hospitals. This includes the critical emergency and trauma services at our medical center campuses. Charity care is a community benefit, providing healthcare services for those who have no insurance and are otherwise unable to pay. Amounts listed here are costs, not charges. We believe that a portion of our bad debts would be classified as charity care if we had more complete information from our patients regarding their economic status. Bad debts are not included here.

We provide care for patients who participate in government-sponsored programs such as Medi-Cal. The payment we receive from these programs rarely covers the full cost of services provided to these patients. As a community benefit, John Muir Health absorbs the difference between the cost (not charges) and the payment. In addition, Medicare does not cover all the health care costs for patients over 65 years old. The Medicare costs are not included here.

These services are underwritten by John Muir Health. In some cases, services are provided by John Muir Health at a loss because John Muir Health is the community’s sole provider of the service. We consider these losses a community benefit. Subsidized services include the Emergency Medical Services ambulance base station for the county at our Walnut Creek medical center.

John Muir Health also supports a wide range of activities and resources that promote health and wellness, including health education, libraries, health fairs, screening, and support groups. The John Muir Community Health Alliance brings to the community an array of resources from John Muir Health, including healthcare professionals, mobile health services, information, and education services. The John Muir Community Health Alliance also works in partnership with local communities, other nonprofit health systems, public health providers, nonprofit organizations, and school districts to identify and address unmet health needs among uninsured and underserved populations.

This includes workforce development activities and community collaborative development as well as John Muir Health support for the Monument Community Partnership.

The John Muir/Mt. Diablo Community Health Fund is a unique grant program that provides funds for health initiatives conducted by community-based organizations. With an annual contribution of over $1 million from John Muir Health, and through partnerships with other grant-making foundations, the Community Health Fund focuses on ways to achieve fundamental improvements in the health status of uninsured, underserved, and overlooked families, children, and seniors. Also included in this area are grants to fund instructors for nursing and other health careers; donations to community based-organizations focusing on diseases such as heart, cancer, stroke, and diabetes; and in-kind donations of supplies, facilities, and staff time.

Community benefits also include health professions education programs in the areas of nursing, physical therapy, ultrasound technology, radiologic technology, social work, rehabilitation, and clinical pastoral care.

Clinical research funded by government agency or tax-exempt organizations where findings are available to the public.

In order to coordinate our community benefit planning and delivery of programs to maximize their impact, we also support a small dedicated staff and their office operations.