Traditional charity care covers health care services provided to persons who meet certain criteria and cannot afford to pay. Sutter Health had write-offs of charges for charity care services to their patients that totaled $286 million in 2006 and $226 million in 2005. The following is a summary of Sutter's estimated costs of providing services to the poor and broader community (unaudited):

	2006	2005
Services for the poor and underserved:
Traditional Charity Care	$73	$59
Unpaid costs of public programs:
Medi-Cal	308	344
Other public programs	32	22
Other benefits for the poor and underserved	13	8
Total quantifiable benefits for the poor and underserved	$426	$433
Benefits for the broader community:
Nonbilled services	$21	$12
Education and research	27	22
Cash and in-kind donations	7	11
Other community benefits	2	1
Total quantifiable benefits for the broader community	$57	$46
Total	$483	$479

Services for the poor and underserved include services provided to persons who cannot afford health care because of inadequate resources and/or are uninsured or underinsured, as well as the unpaid costs of public programs treating Medi-Cal and indigent beneficiaries. Costs are computed based on a relationship of costs to charges. It also includes the cost of other services for indigent populations, and cash donations on behalf of the poor and needy.

Benefits for the broader community include unpaid costs of providing the following services: health screenings and other health-related services, training health professionals, educating the community with various seminars and classes, the cost of performing medical research and the costs associated with providing free clinics and community services. Also included are contributions Sutter makes to community agencies to fund charitable activities.

In 2006, Sutter Health stopped reporting the unpaid costs of treating Medicare patients as community benefit. Sutter Health made this change to be in alignment with new, voluntary national community benefit reporting standards.