City of Commerce-based AltaMed Health Services Corp., one of the nation’s largest federally qualified community health centers with more than 50 facilities in Los Angeles and Orange counties, has acquired the Community Health Alliance of Pasadena, a federally qualified health center serving patients in Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley.
Community Health Alliance of Pasadena, or Chapcare, has eight clinics serving approximately 18,000 patients with medical, dental, behavioral health and pharmacy services, regardless of the patients’ ability to pay. AltaMed serves more than 500,000 patients in Los Angeles and Orange counties with the same suite of services plus pediatric care, again, regardless of patients’ ability to pay.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Federally qualified health centers serve low-income and medically underserved communities, providing care regardless of the ability of patients to pay. In exchange, the center operators receive federal funding and enhanced Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements.
AltaMed was founded as a free health clinic in East Los Angeles in 1969; it now has roughly 3,600 employees at some 57 health care clinics and other facilities throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties. Total revenues from patients, managed care insurance programs and other sources topped $1.25 billion last year.
ChapCare was founded in 1995 by a group of community residents, city officials, and health care agencies to establish primary health care services for low-income, uninsured residents in Pasadena. ChapCare began providing medical services in 1998 and dental services in 2001. According to website ProPublica, ChapCare received more than $28 million in revenue last year.
“As the demand for affordable health services continues to grow in Los Angeles, AltaMed is proud to continue to serve people in Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley,” Cástulo de la Rocha, AltaMed’s chief executive, said in the Nov. 1 acquisition announcement. “For more than 50 years, AltaMed has filled a gap in the need for community health services and is diligently focused on addressing a critical health workforce shortage that is affecting Southern California.”
Through the acquisition, ChapCare patients in Pasadena and the rest of the San Gabriel Valley will have access to a broader geographic reach for health care services. And they will be able to access AltaMed’s pediatric services, including with Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, not only at the latter’s East Hollywood campus but also at co-staffed AltaMed urgent care locations.
