Q&A with AltaMed Health Services CIO Raymond Lowe: “Everybody Talks about Patient-centered Care, But We Live It.”

There isn’t a single healthcare organization that doesn’t consider patient-centered care to be a top priority. But at AltaMed Health Services – an FQHC serving more than 300,000 people in underserved communities – it’s more than that.

“Everybody talks about patient-centered care, but we really live it,” said Ray Lowe. Through its network of 40 clinics in Southern California, AltaMed seeks to provide “convenient, culturally sensitive care” for often-overlooked populations by “taking value-based care principles and applying them in care settings.”

Recently, Lowe spoke with Kate Gamble, Managing Editor and Director of Social Media, about how his team is leveraging data to more effectively care for patients throughout the continuum; the non-traditional methods being used to communicate with patients about cancer screenings; how they achieved Epic Gold Stars Level 9 – and what it means going forward; and why sometimes AltaMed has to be “a little more scrappy.”

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Bold Statements

We also think about what’s happening in social determinants of health with food scarcity, home housing and security, and behavioral health issues, which affect many of our patients that we serve. And so, we’ve actually tripled down in terms of how we’re providing value-based care for these patient populations.

If we can identify the right cohort and if we’re 80 percent right on that cohort, we can impact the patient population — which we did, versus some other areas where we got to be exactly perfect.

We’ve developed some very effective programs using text campaigns and photo novellas, which are like comic strips, to help educate patients. This way, they get it. They understand it and they’re actually able to act on it.

The power of any type of EHR is how it’s being utilized — not only by clinicians, but also by your patient population. Are they getting it, understanding it, and fully leveraging it?

We’re able to implement all of the patient engagement tools that the patient expects; whether you’re at AltaMed or Cedars-Sinai, we have the same level of engagement, so there’s no differentiation, which really closes down the health equity gap. That’s a big win.

Q&A; with Raymond Lowe, CIO, AltaMed Health Services

Gamble:  Hi Ray, thank you so much for your time! I’m really glad we have the chance to catch up. The last time we spoke was in April of 2020, so obviously quite a bit has changed since then. But I’d like to talk about your core objectives at AltaMed and some of the accomplishments you’ve had in the last year. Can you start by giving a high-level overview of the organization?

Lowe:  Thank you, it’s great to be back and be doing a podcast with you. You and I met during the pandemic; a lot of growth and changes have happened within AltaMed since then. I would describe AltaMed Health Services as a large delivery network. At our core, we’re a federally qualified healthcare center. We treat more than 500,000 lives in the Medicaid space. We’re probably one of the largest FQHCs in the country.

We also have PACE, which stands for Programs for All-Inclusive Care of the Elderly. It has 5,000 participants, making us the second largest PACE organization. We developed a Medicaid full-risk program in our AltaMed Health Network where we’re actually serving about a quarter million lives.  We also have a managed services organization which performs claims and processing for AltaMed, as well as some other clinical entities.

Addressing social determinants

Gamble:  So now,