July was a busy month for Alhambra-based Astrana Health Inc.
Astrana, formerly called Apollo Medical Holdings, is a health care management and technology company enabling physician groups to better manage their practices and improve outcomes for the patients they treat.
Astrana announced July 12 that its subsidiary Allied Health IPA has formed a partnership with an Indianapolis-based Anthem-Blue Cross California subsidiary to establish an unspecified number of health care clinics in underserved communities.
The first of these clinics opened that same day in Whittier. It offers a wide range of services, with a focus on comprehensive health assessments, preventive care and chronic disease management.
“We are excited about this partnership, which opens a new channel of access for delivering high-quality care to Anthem Blue Cross’s members, starting with the Gateway Cities of Los Angeles,” Brandon Sim, Astrana Health’s chief executive, said in the partnership announcement.
Beth Andersen, president of Anthem Blue Cross Commercial Health Plans, said, “This collaboration with Astrana Health will address crucial health needs while ensuring our members receive top-tier care in their local community.”
In a separate development, on July 17, Astrana Health announced a partnership with San Francisco-based electronic medical records company Elation Health. The aim is to provide high-quality health care in a more cost-efficient manner.
Under the partnership, which will function as a joint venture, Elation will provide its electronic health records platform and billing technology to health care providers, while Astrana Health will supply its management and cost-containment platform to those same providers.
“We strongly believe that success in value-based care requires an integrated approach, composed of an EHR that is loved by primary care providers with analytics and insights delivered in the provider’s workflow, and care models with care management capabilities that support a patient’s whole health,” Sim said in the partnership announcement.
The partnership is getting its first test run with an unidentified physician organization in Hawaii consisting of more than 100 primary care providers that collectively treat 20,000 primarily Medicare patients. Astrana said it expects all of these providers to have access to its care management technology platform by the end of the third quarter.
Then, on July 25, Astrana Health announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Collaborative Health Systems, a management services organization serving more than 129,000 beneficiaries across 17 states. Collaborative Health is a subsidiary of St. Louis-based health care giant Centene Corp. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Astrana Health intends to integrate its care management platform into the various health care provider practices that are part of Collaborative Health System’s network.
Collaborative Health Systems “has built a scaled and impactful value-based care ecosystem in markets spanning the South and East Coast,” Sim said. “With this acquisition, we believe Astrana will be even better positioned to deliver accessible, high-quality, and high-value care to more patients across the nation.”
Shareholders have greeted these announcements enthusiastically. The first announcement on July 12 came just one day after an analyst upgrade that had already sent the stock soaring to $45 a share from $38.30. By July 16, shares had crossed the $50 threshold, and the general upward trend continued through July 26, with the stock closing that day at $52.20.
