|
|
 |
|
| Philanthropy |
Commercial Concerns
Samantha Marshall
05/03/2004
|
Its clientele reflects its
address. Dr. Orli Etingin, director of the center, says at least 80 percent of
the facility’s patients are insured. (The ratio varies depending on the medical
service provided.) Many have private insurance plans that pay generous
reimbursement rates. For these patients, the center offers a one-stop oasis for
every procedure a woman might need. The center’s active cardiac care and
neurology practices, two fields that are becoming increasingly important as the
population ages, contribute to its overall financial health. But its success is
due in no small measure to its ability to attract patients who can pay
out-of-pocket for some of the best dermatologists and plastic surgeons in the
country.
The remaining 10 percent to 20 percent of its clients are poor
patients who either have insufficient insurance to cover their procedures, or
none at all. Often, these patients are referred from other parts of the
extensive hospital system of New York-Presbyterian. In most cases, the hospital
absorbs the cost of their care. Cantor says the center eventually plans to do
more community outreach. If poorer patients were not being served, she says, “I
don’t think I would be satisfied.”
All of the center’s services are already
operating in the black, which is notable: The Center for Women’s Health at Weill
Cornell’s sister campus, Columbia-Presbyterian/Eastside, did not break even
until about six years after it opened. Even Etingin expected the center to take
longer to start turning a profit. While the reimbursements and out-of-pocket
patient fees have not covered the cost of establishing the facility, none of the
center’s services—even those with the largest proportion of uninsured
patients—are losing money, Etingin says. But the wholehearted pursuit of
medical care for the less fortunate will still have to wait: Bauer projects that
it will take 10 to 15 years for the center to generate enough cash to reinvest
in outreach and services for poorer patients.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
