Six Massachusetts health maintenance organizations (HMOs) provided more than $188 million in community benefits for state residents in fiscal year 2017, according to reports from the office of Attorney General Maura Healey.  

More than $130 million of the funding contributed to the state’s Health Safety Net, a health improvement program that pays for care for uninsured and underinsured residents without access to affordable health coverage.  

Healey has updated the community benefits program guidelines, which gives hospitals and HMOs a more formal way to address unmet community health needs with their funding. These updates will be effective in 2019 and will improve coordination of hundreds of millions of dollars invested in community health programs by hospitals and HMOs.