GiveBetter x New York City

Bergen Volunteer Medical Initiative

Free primary and specialty care for working uninsured Bergen County adults

Research time: 4 min on GPT-6 Astra Light
  • Research — reviewed programs, finances and impact evidence.

Updated: 2026-09-14

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Summary

What do they do? BVMI provides free primary, chronic, urgent and referred specialty care to eligible uninsured Bergen County adults. The estimate includes the full recipient and recognized donated clinical labor, not only the cash cost of one volunteer visit. Our judgment-based estimate is about $15.1 million per 10 MSA QALYs for finite clinical improvement, with longer-term prevention and wider effects unpriced.

Why we’re interested in this organization:

  • Residency verification makes the local beneficiary boundary unusually clear.

  • Original audits disclose donated clinical resources and separately netted event costs.

  • Recent patient and clinical-monitoring data support a real care-delivery mechanism.

Our main reservations:

  • Clinical control percentages and lower emergency-use comparisons are not causal estimates.

  • The net health improvement and ordinary-gift response are explicit subjective assumptions.

  • Garfield expansion and major restricted gifts complicate a simple historical cost-per-patient forecast.

What do you get for your dollar? $15.1M per better life: ten additional quality-adjusted life years in New York City. Whole BVMI recognized annual expense, including donated services/goods and event costs, charged to a finite near-term clinical-health component for eligible MSA patients. Long-term prevention and wider social effects remain unpriced; additional partner and volunteer resources are stress-tested. Not a measured whole-portfolio return or proven lower bound..

Distinct annual patients -> genuinely additional effective care patient-equivalents -> finite clinical utility improvement minus treatment burden.

1. What do they do?

Bergen Volunteer Medical Initiative Inc., EIN 20-2633437, is the entire recipient in scope. It provides free primary, chronic and urgent care, mental-health support and outside specialty/diagnostic referrals. Eligibility requires adulthood, Bergen County residence, no insurance, a working household and income no higher than 250% of the federal poverty level; residence and income are checked annually. Bergen County is inside the official 22-county New York–Newark–Jersey City MSA. Services and eligibility

Hackensack and Garfield are both local delivery sites. Current materials show Garfield accepting patients, so a stale campaign promise to open in early 2025 is not treated as a new donor's future accomplishment. No restricted expansion gift or patient slot is assumed. 2025 report Campaign

2. Monitoring and information sharing

The 2025 report records 1,026 patients and 9,725 visits. We use patients, not repeated visits, as the clinical denominator. Its diabetes and hypertension control comparisons are useful quality indicators but lack a matched untreated population. Likewise, its comparison of 12 emergency visits per 100 patients with a national uninsured benchmark cannot by itself establish prevented visits or causal hospital savings. No emergency-use cash saving is subtracted from the model. 2025 impact report

The decision-relevant additions are condition-specific baseline severity, subsequent health utility, treatment completion, medicine access, unsuccessful referrals, alternative care received and sustained follow-up. Patient testimonials and annual screening counts cannot replace these measures.

3. Qualitative assessment

There is a credible route from affordable ongoing care to symptom relief, treatment of depression or acute illness, and prevention of complications. But insurance access and care use do not guarantee large near-term physical-health gains. Oregon's randomized Medicaid experiment improved depression and financial protection without significant measured improvements in blood pressure or glycated hemoglobin over two years. This is a caution and external mechanism check, not a direct effect estimate for BVMI's volunteer clinic. Original randomized study

The central model is therefore a plainly labeled clinical-portfolio judgment: among genuinely additional annual patients, a quarter receive improvement equivalent to 0.1 health utility for half a year. It represents an aggregate clinical improvement across conditions, not a claim that 25% were observed cured or that a national trial measured this exact yield. Long-latency cardiovascular, cancer and diabetes prevention may add value, while screening overdiagnosis, drug effects and referral burdens can subtract value; these cannot be fully resolved from published aggregate data.

4. What do you get for your dollar?

The conditional best estimate is about $15.1 million per 10 official-MSA QALYs, retaining $4,513,270 in full annual recognized recipient costs and modeling about 2.99 QALYs. This is a finite clinical-health estimate across the care portfolio, not a full social return or a proven lower bound.

The native bridge is 1,026 distinct annual patients, 50% genuinely additional effective care relative to safety-net alternatives, and 50% response to a marginal ordinary gift after other funders and capacity constraints. For the resulting 256.5 attributable patient equivalents, the central clinical prior is 25% improving by 0.1 utility for six months, less 0.0005 QALYs per patient equivalent for treatment/screening burden. Health is discounted 3% at year end and stops; there is no recurring lifelong award for annual visits. All causal and utility factors are judgments, not observations disguised as trial effects.

Because the service requires Bergen County residency, g=1 is a supported central allocation for patient health; a 98% sensitivity allows exceptions or residency changes. Indirect nonpatient benefits are excluded rather than assigned this same geography. Current expansion may change throughput and costs; the model assumes a proportional continuation-scale response, not that the 2025 cost structure perfectly predicts 2026.

One sensitivity adds $1,000 per attributable patient equivalent for unrecognized partner diagnostics or specialist care. Another raises recognized volunteer-service opportunity cost by 50%. These are illustrative resource stresses, not new observed expenses. Low, favorable, zero and adverse clinical scenarios are retained. Social, financial-security and long-term preventive outcomes remain unpriced.

Model, assumptions and sensitivity

Whole recipient annual gross recognized resources, including donated clinical labor/goods and netted events. Finite clinical improvement modeled across care, not full social/long-term portfolio return.

Bergen County residency verified annually by recipient eligibility; central g=1 for modeled patients within official22-county MSA, with .98 sensitivity. No headquarters or population-share shortcut.

Qall=N*a*b*(c*u*t-h)/(1+d); QNYC=g*Qall; Price10=10*C/QNYC when positive. Central c*u*t=.0125 QALY per additional annual patient before .0005 burden; horizon at most one year.

C
4513270 USD annual recognized gross recipient cost (observed). Audited pre-event-netting functional expense total. [audit25]
N
1026 distinct annual patients (observed). 2025 report distinct annual patients, not visits. [impact25]
a
0.5 fraction (judgment). Explicit modeling judgment; no source empirically estimates this factor. [services] [oregon]
b
0.5 fraction (judgment). Explicit modeling judgment; no source empirically estimates this factor. [services] [oregon]
c
0.25 fraction (judgment). Explicit modeling judgment; no source empirically estimates this factor. [services] [oregon]
u
0.1 health utility difference (judgment). Explicit modeling judgment; no source empirically estimates this factor. [services] [oregon]
t
0.5 years of improvement (judgment). Explicit modeling judgment; no source empirically estimates this factor. [services] [oregon]
h
0.0005 QALYs lost per attributable patient (judgment). Explicit modeling judgment; no source empirically estimates this factor. [services] [oregon]
g
1 fraction (judgment). Eligibility requires and annually verifies Bergen County residence; applying it to health assumes continued residency. [services]
d
0.03 annual discount rate (judgment). Explicit modeling judgment; no source empirically estimates this factor. [services] [oregon]

Conditional annual clinical portfolio: Cost: $4.5M; New York City QALYs: 2.9883495145631067; all-population QALYs: 2.9883495145631067. {"C":4513270,"N":1026,"a":0.5,"b":0.5,"c":0.25,"u":0.1,"t":0.5,"h":0.0005,"g":1,"d":0.03}

Small health response and strong substitution: Cost: $4.5M; New York City QALYs: 0.018303640776699034; all-population QALYs: 0.018677184466019424. {"C":4513270,"N":1026,"a":0.25,"b":0.1,"c":0.1,"u":0.05,"t":0.25,"h":0.0005,"g":0.98,"d":0.03}

Broad favorable clinical response: Cost: $4.5M; New York City QALYs: 44.22757281553398; all-population QALYs: 44.22757281553398. {"C":4513270,"N":1026,"a":0.8,"b":0.75,"c":0.5,"u":0.15,"t":1,"h":0.001,"g":1,"d":0.03}

Complete financing replacement: Cost: $4.5M; New York City QALYs: 0; all-population QALYs: 0. {"C":4513270,"N":1026,"a":0.5,"b":0,"c":0.25,"u":0.1,"t":0.5,"h":0.0005,"g":1,"d":0.03}

No improvement with treatment or screening burden: Cost: $4.5M; New York City QALYs: -0.24902912621359224; all-population QALYs: -0.24902912621359224. {"C":4513270,"N":1026,"a":0.5,"b":0.5,"c":0,"u":0.1,"t":0.5,"h":0.001,"g":1,"d":0.03}

Illustrative induced partner care: Cost: $4.8M; New York City QALYs: 2.9883495145631067; all-population QALYs: 2.9883495145631067. {"C":4769770,"N":1026,"a":0.5,"b":0.5,"c":0.25,"u":0.1,"t":0.5,"h":0.0005,"g":1,"d":0.03}

Higher recognized volunteer opportunity value: Cost: $4.9M; New York City QALYs: 2.9883495145631067; all-population QALYs: 2.9883495145631067. {"C":4857495.5,"N":1026,"a":0.5,"b":0.5,"c":0.25,"u":0.1,"t":0.5,"h":0.0005,"g":1,"d":0.03}

Counterfactual: Other free/sliding-scale providers, emergency care, future insurance, volunteer availability, current grants and committed Garfield expansion continue. a removes care replacement; b removes funding replacement; they represent distinct constraints and appear once each.

Attribution: No multiplying the number of visits by full annual health, no treating disease-control benchmarks as causal response, and no claiming all new-center patients depend on this donor. Ordinary gift response is proportional and conditional.

Very weak-confidence judgment-based clinical estimate, not a measured treatment effect. c,u,t,h are explicit health priors supported only qualitatively by scope and external access evidence. No inferred precise efficacy from A1C or emergency visits.

Sensitivity

  • The low and high scenarios jointly vary additional care, gift response, clinical improvement and duration; they are not statistical bounds.
  • Benefit stops within one year; no lifetime prevention award is inferred from disease-control percentages.
  • Partner-cost and higher volunteer-value stresses retain the same health numerator.

Unresolved inputs

  • Condition-specific causal health outcomes against alternative care.
  • Current marginal funding response and capacity after committed Garfield expansion.
  • Unrecognized partner resources, long-term prevention and broader net social effects.

5. Funding and previous grants

Original calendar-year audits report gross recognized expenses of $3,817,656 in 2023, $4,089,961 in 2024 and $4,513,270 in 2025, a comparable mean of $4,140,295.67. These restore $120,601, $136,375 and $119,967 respectively that the statements of activities net against event revenue. The functional expense statements explicitly show the pre-netting totals. Recognized donated goods and services are already included, not added twice. 2024/2023 audit 2025/2024 audit

The 2025 audit recognizes $688,451 donated services and $267,377 donated goods; services include medical, medical-support, legal and other specialist time valued at comparable market rates. Its total differs from the impact report's broader volunteer valuation, so the model consistently uses audited recognition and tests higher opportunity cost separately.

FY2025 government grants were $1,125,726. Ending net assets were $5,241,836, including $2,623,487 restricted; the liquidity note identifies $2,196,966 available for general expenditures after restrictions. Two donors supplied 53% of contribution/private-grant revenue, and the Garfield lease was signed in August 2025. Existing restricted expansion support remains in the counterfactual; a donor is not credited with the whole new center. No current quantified funding gap was verified. 2025 audit Ordinary gift route

Expense appendix: FY2025 pre-netting functional costs are $3,590,542 program services, $363,872 management/general and $558,856 fundraising, totaling $4,513,270. The $119,967 event amount is already in that fundraising total and must not be added again.

Annual expenses

Organization-level spending, including programs, administration and fundraising. The research list averages three comparable, consecutive full fiscal years when available.

  • FY 2023: $3.8M; Bergen Volunteer Medical Initiative Inc., EIN 20-2633437, 12-month period, Calendar-year accrual gross recognized resource expense including donated goods/services and event direct-benefit costs.. Source
  • FY 2024: $4.1M; Bergen Volunteer Medical Initiative Inc., EIN 20-2633437, 12-month period, Calendar-year accrual gross recognized resource expense including donated goods/services and event direct-benefit costs.. Source
  • FY 2025: $4.5M; Bergen Volunteer Medical Initiative Inc., EIN 20-2633437, 12-month period, Calendar-year accrual gross recognized resource expense including donated goods/services and event direct-benefit costs.. Source

6. Sources

  1. 2025 and 2024 audited financial statements. Bergen Volunteer Medical Initiative. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  2. 2024 and 2023 audited financial statements. Bergen Volunteer Medical Initiative. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  3. 2025 impact report. Bergen Volunteer Medical Initiative. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  4. Services, eligibility and locations. Bergen Volunteer Medical Initiative. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  5. Financial-document directory. Bergen Volunteer Medical Initiative. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  6. Garfield expansion campaign, stale opening language. Bergen Volunteer Medical Initiative. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  7. Current service and expansion announcement. Bergen Volunteer Medical Initiative. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  8. Randomized Medicaid experiment: clinical outcomes after two years. Baicker et al., New England Journal of Medicine. Published: 2013-05-02; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  9. Ordinary donation route. Bergen Volunteer Medical Initiative. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.