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According to a report by the Iowa Hospital Association, Knoxville Hospital and Clinics provides more than $1.1 million in benefits to the Knoxville community.  These benefits are defined as activities designed to improve health status and increase access to health care, including services and programs such as support groups, immunizations, nutritional services and health screenings.  The IHA report shows that based on 2009 figures Knoxville Hospital and Clinics provides $1,150,567 in said benefits.  This includes more than $1 million in discounted and uncompensated care and over $80,000 in free community benefits.  CEO Ann Helwig says “it is important to be able to provide access to high-quality care to low-income underserved people and create safe and healthy communities where people live and work”.  She adds that as financial times got tougher, it became even more important to serve the people of our communities.  In the last year, a total of $796.4 million of uncompensated care, including charity care and bad debt, was provided to Iowans, which is an increase of 15.8 percent over 2008.  The IHA survey includes figures of all 118 of Iowa’s community hospitals.