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UC Health reports $5.9 billion in community benefit and cites Visient analysis estimating 11,000 excess lives saved
Summary
Executive Vice President David Rubin told the Health Services Committee that UC Health provided $5.9 billion in community benefit in FY24 and cited a Visient analysis estimating roughly 11,000 lives saved above expected benchmarks since 2019.
David Rubin, executive vice president of UC Health at the University of California Office of the President, presented systemwide community-benefit figures and cited an independent Visient analysis that estimated excess lives saved at UC medical centers.
Rubin said the University of California Health programs delivered $5.9 billion in community benefit in fiscal year 2024, which includes uncompensated care and other services for patients largely covered by public insurance. He said the system also reported $741 million in direct community investments, which UC uses for mobile health programs and partnerships aimed at addressing inequities in care access.
A slide Rubin displayed, attributed to Visient, compared UC Health medical centers to peer institutions and estimated the number of "lives saved beyond what would have been expected" given case-mix severity. "There are 11,000 people estimated from these slides that are alive today because of the care we provide at the University of California Health Programs," Rubin said.
Rubin emphasized that two-thirds of UC Health patients are covered by public insurance and that reimbursement rates do not always meet the cost of providing care. He said the large community-benefit figure shows what is at stake in policy discussions about Medicaid reimbursement and eligibility and called attention to the system's role in providing care for underserved populations.
Regents asked clarifying questions about the recent spike in the Visient estimate and about the magnitude of the community-benefit figure. Rubin attributed the trend to ongoing quality and safety efforts across UC Health and credited clinical teams and operational investments, while noting the aggregate data does not single out a single explanatory factor.
The presentation was informational; the committee did not take formal action during the open session. Rubin said the full FY24 community benefit report would be published after the meeting.
