Andrea Straus, HVCS’ Executive Director, speaks at the press conference held on Wednesday, February 12, 2020 to announce the intended merger.

Cornerstone Family Healthcare (CFH) and Hudson Valley Community Services (HVCS) are announcing plans to integrate their services and administrative functions in late 2020 after both organizations signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to merge. CFH, with 50,000 patients and sixteen locations, and HVCS, with over 3,200 clients and seven locations, already share a number of clients and a programmatic focus on assisting underserved patients.

Pending regulatory approvals and a final board vote, both organizations expect the merger to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2020.

The decision to merge followed months of preparatory work by each non-profit’s board of directors. HVCS’ board began a strategic search for a merger partner in 2018 due to the changing health care environment. Exact programmatic and departmental structures are to be mapped out over the coming months.

Wayne Day, Chairman of the Cornerstone Family Healthcare Board of Directors, said, “The decision to merge our organizations came after many months of due diligence on the part of both boards. The more we looked into it, the more the merger made sense to everyone involved. Hudson Valley Community Services and its board of directors share our values and commitment to this community. Uniting our organizations in this way will improve our ability to serve those who rely on us.”

“The HVCS board, directors and staff undertook a comprehensive strategic planning process starting in 2018,” explained Andrew Evans, President of HVCS’ Board of Directors. “During this journey, I am heartened by the synergies that this merger will bring to both enhance, improve and broaden  services to the clients that we already serve in the Hudson Valley and will give us access to even more persons-in-need.  Merging gives better assurance that the customer service values and the history and culture of HVCS will be maintained for years to come.”

Linda S. Muller, MS, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cornerstone Family Healthcare, said: “Hudson Valley Community Services and Cornerstone Family Healthcare have shared a common mission for decades, meeting the health and human service needs of the Hudson Valley community. Combining our organizations will strengthen our programs while ensuring that the valuable services we offer remain accessible to those who need them in our community.”

Andrea Straus, HVCS’ Executive Director, discussed her pleasure at the news. “Together our two organizations, as an integrated entity, will be able to continue offering not only the quality medical care that Cornerstone has always delivered, but also bring HVCS’s expertise to address the social determinants of health that are so critical in ensuring that Hudson Valley residents have a high quality of life,” she said. “I am so pleased to see HVCS enter a new phase in its development and growth. “

The two non-profits hosted a joint press conference regarding the merger on Wednesday, February 12 2020 from 11:15 am to 11:45 pm at the Kaplan Family Health Center, 147 Lake Street, Newburgh. View the Facebook Live video for a limited amount of time.

About Cornerstone Family Healthcare
The purpose of Cornerstone Family Healthcare, a non-profit organization, is to provide high-quality, comprehensive, primary and preventative health care services in an environment of caring, respect, and dignity, and in a cost-effective manner that maximizes revenues; to be responsive to the needs of the communities that we serve but with continued emphasis on the underserved and those without access to care regardless of race, economic status, age, sex, sexual orientation, or disability.

Cornerstone Family Healthcare is an organization licensed to operate by the State of New York as an Article 28 Diagnostic and Treatment Center. It also is recognized by the Federal Government as a Section 330 Federally Qualified Health Center.  Our Center also operates with the following designations: Medically Underserved Area (MUA), Medically Underserved Population (MUP), and serving in a Health Professionals Shortage Area (HPSA). Cornerstone was recognized by The Joint Commission for offering higher standards of care to its patients, a distinction that few Community Health Centers have received.

Although a significant proportion of our patients are enrolled in federal or state health insurance programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, or Family or Child Health Plus, a large number of the patients who utilize our services have their own medical insurance. Our core mission remains to provide primary and preventative medical services to any who need our service regardless of ability to pay.