A 1,079-bed hospital, JHH is located in the heart of the Baltimore community. Nationally recognized and internationally renowned, JHH serves as the primary teaching hospital for the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and is an unparalleled center for medical research. With state-of-the-art technologies and facilities designed to accommodate patients of all ages and needs, JHH operates over 350 programs to improve the health and wellness of Baltimore residents.

A disproportionate share of low-income, uninsured and Medicare/Medicaid beneficiaries residing in our service area seek treatment at JHH. The 340B program helps JHH offset losses incurred in caring for the most vulnerable and underserved individuals in our community. In FY23, the hospital’s disproportionate share (DSH) percentage was over 19%, well above the 11.75% threshold to qualify for 340B drug discounts. A key benefit of the 340B program is that by leveraging access to discounted outpatient drugs, JHH is better able to absorb the double-digit inflation rates and rapidly rising cost of drugs each year.

The Community We Serve

In Fiscal Year 2024, The Johns Hopkins Hospital partnered with community members to conduct a community health needs assessment (CHNA) to identify the most important health issues in the surrounding neighborhoods. Access to care and support, including transportation and all other barriers to receiving care, was the top priority in 2024. It was followed by, access to employment opportunities, lack of safe, affordable housing and neighborhood safety on a list of 10 areas of concern. Community members participated through surveys, focus groups and stakeholder interviews. See our most recent Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) for a community snapshot, CHNA findings, strategic partnerships, community initiatives and economic development projects on the horizon.

JHH’s FY23 340B savings of $243 million are far less than the hospital’s total Community Benefit activity in FY23 – of $360 million. For many years, the hospital has invested in programming and community support efforts well over and above the savings it receives from the 340B program.

Investing in Our Community

The 340B Drug Pricing Program provides eligible hospitals with the financial flexibility needed to invest in tailored solutions that address the unique needs of their communities. If the program were eliminated or scaled back, safety net hospitals nationwide, like the 340B-eligible hospitals in the Johns Hopkins Health System, would struggle to maintain long-standing vital community partnerships.

Some examples of innovative community outreach programs at JHH include:

• Supportive Housing: Assistance in Community Integration Services (ACIS), is an innovative partnership which created and filled 200 new permanent housing slots for persons currently homeless or at risk of being homeless in Baltimore. After a two-year pilot program, 94% remain stably housed. Additional services are provided including connection to mental health and SUD treatment, home health visits and assistance with paying bills and employment. The program has been renewed and will expand to provide 100 more opportunities for a total of over 300 households in Baltimore.
• Bedside Medication Delivery: This free service ensures patient receive prescribed discharge medications in a timely way with robust education to promote medication adherence and eliminate barriers, like lack of transportation, to improve health outcomes and avoid readmission.
• Break the Cycle: The Johns Hopkins Hospital’s Break the Cycle Hospital Violence Intervention Program (JHH BC-HVIP) serves patients coming to JHH with blunt force intentional trauma (including gunshot wounds and stabbings). Patients are met at the bedside by Peer Recovery Specialists who have experienced similar trauma in the past. The program provides stabilizing social services and assistance to help protect against retaliation and repeat trauma and follows clients beyond hospitalization until such time as they are successfully transitioned to community-based programs for long-term trauma-informed support.
• Home-based Medication Management: The hospital dispatches pharmacists to patients’ homes to review prescription administration instructions, dispose of expired medications, and color-code pill containers when labels are too small to read.
• Specialized, population-specific clinics: The hospital maintains the region’s only Sickle Cell Center providing comprehensive services for adult (predominantly African American) patients.
• Broadway Center for Addiction: A national model for comprehensive substance abuse treatment and detoxification services, the clinic provides medications to address opioid addiction without regard for ability to pay and partners with Helping Up Mission to provide housing, transportation and meals, when needed.
• Assertive Community Treatment (ACT): A unique program providing care in the home or appropriate community settings for individuals with major mental illness who have been repeatedly hospitalized due to challenges in engaging outpatient treatment. Eligible individuals can apply for financial aid through the hospital to cover 100% of the cost of care.

Johns Hopkins is committed to listening and learning from the community residents we serve. We strive to address their most pressing needs and highest priorities through direct initiatives and leveraged partnerships to improve community health and wellness in our closest neighborhoods.

Read the Community Benefit Report about our Health System’s continued commitment to community at each of its six hospitals.