In the fall of 2022, Yuvo Health announced a partnership with Primary Care Development Corporation (PCDC), a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and national non-profit that aims to increase access to primary care and achieve health equity through community investment, capacity building, and policy initiatives. Together, out partnership will provide Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) with access to a robust set of support services and new revenue streams through upside risk contracts.
More than six months into the partnership, we sat down with Isaac Kastenbaum, PCDC's Vice President of Training & Technical Assistance. In the below Q&A, Isaac shared more about PCDC's mission and the organization's approach to partnerships.
How does Primary Care Development Corporation (PCDC) serve FQHCs?
PCDC is a community development financial institution (CDFI) that supports healthy, thriving communities across the country through capital financing, expertise, and advocacy.
PCDC partners with FQHCs and other primary care practices — particularly those in low-income communities and communities of color — and investors to identify health care needs, increase primary care capacity, and craft effective, evidence-based solutions. Over the last 30 years, we have leveraged $1.5 billion in capital and investment and provided consultative expertise to 5,000+ practices to develop and improve the primary care field and its infrastructure.
How do you partner with other companies to better support FQHCs?
To enable health centers to grow, remain financially sound, and to meet the continually evolving needs of their community, we've partnered with a wide variety of companies to meet their needs. Examples include:
- Other CDFIs/financing institutions to make available affordable capital and tax credits to enable expansion
- Other consulting/TA organizations to provide well-rounded expertise
- Revenue cycle and other provider enablement firms to support health centers to build and leverage the infrastructure necessary to succeed in today's payment mechanisms.
What do you look for in your partnerships?
When looking for partners to meet the needs of our partner health centers and primary care practices, we first look for mission alignment — a deep commitment to achieving health equity and enabling primary care practices and providers to remain the foundation of healthy communities.
We also look for partners with deep, on-the-ground experience in health centers and the specific communities where we're working. In addition, partners must show the patience and grace to understand the many competing priorities managed by primary care practices and their staff.
How did you first hear about Yuvo Health?
We learned of Yuvo when they completed their first seed funding round in early 2022. At the time, it seemed like we had a shared vision of supporting health centers to succeed in evolving payment/reimbursement models and both recognized that very few health centers were well positioned to make the necessary investment in the workforce, IT/analytics, and business operations; this required scale and efficiencies that might only be achieved across multiple health centers.
What's on the horizon for that partnership?
We're hoping this is an opportunity to bring PCDC's capital, consultative and training expertise, and advocacy to support health centers as they navigate and hopefully benefit from value-based payment. This partnership is in its early stages in New York, but we're confident it will generate knowledge and experience that can support health centers across the country in this new environment.
