Access to Primary Care for the Underserved in the Mid-Hudson Valley

Until 2007, the Mid-Hudson Family Health Institute owned and operated six family practice centers in Ulster and Dutchess Counties.

These centers were the major source of primary and preventive care in New Paltz, Kingston, Ellenville, and Hyde Park. By 2007, the Mid-Hudson network was experiencing mounting financial losses and was on the brink of insolvency. The collapse of the network would create a huge void in area residents’ access to health care.

Consequently, Mid-Hudson asked the Institute for Family Health (d/b/a Institute for Urban Family Health at the time) to step in and assume its operations. By January 2007, the Institute had obtained approval from the Federal Bureau of Primary Care and the New York State Department of Health to acquire the Mid-Hudson sites and include them in their Federal scope of service, transforming the centers into FQHCs and operating them on the Institute’s Article 28 license.