Hudson River HealthCare, Inc.

The City of Yonkers is a medically isolated community with an inadequate primary care infrastructure.

As a result of financial stresses, Saint Joseph’s Hospital planned to close its Family Health Center, which would have created an immediate primary care access problem in Yonkers. With NYHealth support, Hudson River HealthCare, Inc. (HRHCare) took over and operated the St. Joseph’s Family Health Center and Residency program.

HRHCare has a long history of acquiring, transitioning, and successfully operating distressed clinics. Funds supported the transition team to implement a clinically and fiscally stable transfer of the Family Health Center, a key access point for an additional 8,500 Yonkers residents, as well as the training site for the Family Practice Residency Program. The integration of the residency program allowed for HRHCare to maintain community-based medical residents as a resource for primary care service provision.

Designation of the Family Health Center site as a federally qualified health center (FQHC) enabled it to receive higher reimbursement rates and achieve sustainability. This transition is expected to yield approximately $1 million in annual savings for the hospital. After the transition, HRHCare should be able to sustain the clinics through increased public insurance reimbursements as a result of its FQHC status.