Health Insurers Collaborate to Keep Care Local

L.A. Care Health Plan and Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan announced that they will invest a combined $146 million as part of a five-year commitment to expand community resource centers across Los Angeles County. The collaboration will improve health outcomes in local communities and the total quality of life for members of the two health plans, the companies report. Improved health outcomes will also reduce health care costs over time.

"As mission-driven health plans, we know health is local," says John Baackes, L.A. Care CEO. "By bringing even more services to the community, it will increase our ability to identify health disparities and implement customized solutions."

The two health plans have a long history of working together, as Blue Shield Promise is one of the Plan Partners that L.A. Care contracts with to serve Medi-Cal members in Los Angeles County, and this resource center effort greatly expands their ongoing collaboration.

"We are thrilled to collaborate with L.A. Care to bring more healthcare resources directly into Los Angeles neighborhoods. We will provide residents support through services such as telehealth and community health advocates to provide personalized information and care to help them achieve and maintain good health," says Paul Markovich, president and CEO of Blue Shield of California.

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L.A. Care and Blue Shield Promise each opened their own resource centers more than a decade ago to provide members and the entire community a space to improve their health and wellness through a range of exercise, nutrition, parenting, and health management classes at no cost.

Services provided through the new collaboration include classes, health screenings, on-site care management, and on-site support from community social service organizations focused on addressing social needs of health such as food, nutrition, and income insecurity. Childcare is offered at no cost to ensure parents in each community can take full advantage of the classes. 

Over the next five years, L.A. Care and Blue Shield Promise will jointly open seven new resource centers, remodel four existing centers and relocate three other existing centers to larger locations. In total, they will jointly operate 14 resource centers in L.A. County. Each center will serve approximately 72,000 people per year when services and staff are fully built out.