The Fountain of Youth
Prior to his exit, Ed purchased WellCare’s Bienestar Wellness Program and offered it to other HMOs. He also started an international managed-care consulting business. He consulted in Mexico for a while. He established a wellness company in Florida.
In December 1999 a development company formed by Ed, Golden Springs LLC, bought 81 acres of land including an operating warm mineral spring for $3.75 million. Ed said he wanted to take the spa “to the next level.” He convinced himself the opportunity was irresistible.
“I didn’t know what to do with it for about a year,” Ed was quoted in a 2004 interview as saying. “I just didn’t get it. It was a real-estate deal but it was also a health-care deal. But I decided to give it a try. I would never have believed it would turn out to be the granddaddy of mineral waters in the nation.”
With 9 million gallons of water circulating daily, Ullmann said, the 87-degree mineral spring was the most productive in the United States. In addition, Ed said, the heat and mineral content of the water in the springs had medicinal benefits which needed to be studied.
Despite the pleasant surprise of the bountiful mineral waters, operating revenues from the spring were insufficient to cover debt service and site development costs for the ambitious $50 million project Ullmann envisaged. Ed proposed what he called an entire wellness community: 27 estate homes on the property’s north end, 243 condominiums in vacation villas on the east end, an extensively renovated day spa, a second semi-enclosed mineral pool, a new medical treatment and rehabilitation center called the Fountain of Youth Institute of Natural Healing, a 30,000-square-foot conference and banquet facility, 21,000 square feet of retail space and a 22,000-square-foot welcome center and spa.
“I anticipated a certain level of opposition that has always turned out with environmental concerns,” Ullmann told a local paper. “They are concerned about what we are doing to this great place so we had to move delicately. We are having consultants come out to show that the development won’t have a negative impact on the springs.”
It seemed there was always one more approval, one more rezoning, one more site-plan revision, one more financial restructuring. It seemed there was always one more permit needed to get the Springs Original Fountain of Youth off the ground. “Like Dean Gitter,” Ed explained, referring to the Big Indian developer of the Belleayre Resort.
The project spun its wheels for several more years. Eventually the property collapse of 2008 stopped virtually all Florida development, wreaking the same havoc on Ed’s plans as it did on almost all others.
Home to Mount Tremper
Eventually, Ed threw in the proverbial towel. He resumed his career as a New York pharmacist working for various drug chains. He moved back full-time to Miller Road. That’s what he’s doing now, three years later.
Ed believes that pharmacists can play an important role in health reform as intermediary among patients, insurers and care providers. The profession could be “the perfect bridge” for a patient-centered approach, he said, especially with electronic medical records on the immediate horizon. Ed, who never lacks for ideas, thinks there’s room in the regional marketplace for a community-based network of patient-centered wellness-oriented pharmacies.
Ed’s a believer in most of the national Accountable Care Act. “Whether people like it or not,” he said, “health reform is here.” With the dominant role of public money in the health system, he predicted that it would be only a matter of time before global healthcare budgeting replaces fee-for-service. It’s the best way to reduce waste and to improve outcomes, he said.
Finally, Ullmann has called for a local “big-vision, 20-year community master plan come together backed by our policy leaders, medical community and citizen stakeholders.” Ulster County, he said, has a record of leadership in health innovation upon which to build.
“Be bold again,” he advised in a recent letter to the editor. “Don’t become passive with health reform. Become part of a regional Accountable Care Organization (ACO) network. Global and risk-based Medicare revenue programs can help balance our unfair fee-for-service MSA [metropolitan] rates. Also, partner with our primary-care physicians to increase utilization of prevention services (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) and help form a county-wide Patient Centered Medical Home (performance-based mini-health systems).”
