55 Years of Working to Build Healthier Communities
Twenty-four-year old Brown Beret Gloria Arellanes is on stage when a helicopter begins dropping canisters of tear gas on the march. Reporter Ruben Salazar is killed at the Silver Dollar Bar when the sheriff’s deputy throws a can of tear gas that hits him in the head. The incident is permanently captured in Frank Romero’s Death of Ruben Salazar (1986), and a silkscreen print is included in the AltaMed Art Collection.
Seeing a line outside the clinic, he sees an opportunity to fulfill a need for culturally inclusive, expert medical care in his neighborhood. Under the Urban Health Initiative, the clinic becomes a community health center, meaning it has at least 51% consumer representation on its board and can begin supporting itself with medical coverage from its patients.
The BuenaCare Methadone and HIV Services program opens in Lincoln Heights, eventually relocating to Boyle Heights in 1993.
Joint Commission certification encompasses care coordination, access to care, and how effectively a primary care clinician and interdisciplinary team work in partnership with the patient.
To keep the remaining sites open, we convert ADHC centers in Downey, Lynwood, and El Monte into PACE.
This is the first time we challenged the Department of Health Care Services to approve three PACE sites in one application. The majority of ADHC staff are able to stay employed with us, and are placed within the MSSP, PACE, and our medical clinics.
Employees provide Medi-Cal and Covered California enrollment guidance and we become Covered California’s top certified enrollment entity for several years in a row, earning a grant through the state’s Navigator Program.
It passes, granting an estimated 170,000 undocumented children in California access to health care coverage under Medi-Cal.
As part of their successful advocacy efforts, AltaMed hosts events and engages community partners and elected officials. Most notably was then-State Senator Ricardo Lara, who initiated the $40 milllion allocation and additional $132 million each year to help make sure the children and families throughout California are covered.
among those patients who are commercially insured, uninsured, and insured by Medi-Cal or Medicare.
o AltaMed Medical Group – Huntington Park, Rugby
o AltaMed Medical Group – Florence-Firestone
o AltaMed Medical Group – El Monte, Santa Anita
o AltaMed Medical Group – Pasadena
It is a privilege to celebrate our first 55 years. As we look ahead to the next 50, we honor those who have carried us forward, given us purpose, and remain beside us. I thank you for joining us on this journey and helping us make a difference.
- Cástulo de la Rocha, President and CEO