Access to Capital

Speaking at Tuesday's Department of Health forum on access to capital, state Health Commissioner Dr. Nirav Shah called the Primary Care Development Corp.'s $4.2 million Wells Fargo Next Award for community development a type of private-public capital source that is "a prime example of the things we want to see much more of." But even with $400 million in financing under its belt, PCDC's median deal is only $2 million per project. "Primary care is underfinanced, and with 2.3 million New Yorkers lacking access to primary care, there is a $1 billion capital need," said Tom Manning, PCDC managing director of capital investment. New payment models that replace fee-for-service make it harder to evaluate how much revenue health care providers will earn in order to pay for capital projects. "We're talking about a lot of private investment at a time when revenue streams are untested," Mr. Manning said.