NYHealth’s Investments in Primary Care Capacity and Access

This NYHealth report describes the Foundation’s efforts between 2007 and 2012 to expand primary care access and capacity to serve more of New York State’s most vulnerable patients.

In 2013, NYHealth launched a new priority funding area related to advancing primary care and health care delivery reform in the State. In this area, the Foundation seeks to expand primary care capacity and access, encourage new approaches to primary care delivery for high-need populations, and advance payment reform.

Even prior to developing this targeted, focused program area to advance primary care, the Foundation had supported dozens of grants to enhance primary care access and capacity. Many of those projects were funded through the Foundation’s responsive grantmaking program, called the Special Projects Fund, and focused on efforts to bridge service delivery gaps through mergers and acquisitions; integrate oral health, mental health, and other services into existing primary care services; or plan for changes in business operations that allowed community health centers to have a more sustainable future.

This report takes a look at NYHealth’s investments to preserve primary care access and make primary care accessible to New Yorkers over a five-year period, and what these grantmaking efforts have accomplished to date.