San Ysidro Health will gather with the community on Saturday to celebrate the opening of the Macias Family Health Center, a 44,000-square-foot medical facility in National City that will consolidate and expand two existing clinics that the medical provider already operates in the area. Located a 601 E. 14th St., the center began receiving patients on Dec. 22, doubling the number of medical exam rooms available for people receiving primary and dental care and also adding a behavioral health unit, which San Ysidro has not previously offered in National City. The two-story building’s first floor is occupied by San Diego PACE, a program that provides comprehensive medical and other services to seniors who are medically qualified for skilled nursing home care. It is the latest expansion of San Ysidro’s PACE program. Medicare allows public and private nonprofits of various types to offer PACE programs as a way of preventing nursing home admissions by combining social and medical services, and even transportation to and from day centers where care is often provided. The acronym stands for Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly. San Ysidro Health operates PACE centers in San Ysidro, Chula Vista, El Cajon and Vista, making National City its fifth. Plans are underway to add a sixth location on the first floor of the Jacobs Center in Southeast San Diego, which the federally qualified health center recently purchased from the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation. “We haven’t had a site in National City, but we do serve plenty of people in National City,” said Kevin Mattson, San Ysidro’s chief executive officer. “We have people from National City in our Chula Vista site and our San Ysidro site, so this is going to allow us to get people closer to home, and then it’ll free up access in those other communities.” The facility is named in honor of the Macias family, which donated an undisclosed sum toward construction. Ben Macias, chief executive officer of Coordinated Fleet Services. Ben Macias, chief executive officer of Coordinated Fleet Services, a company that provides non-emergency medical transportation, including the vans that transport San Ysidro’s PACE patients, said that his family has deep roots in National City. “My heart has always been in National City,” Macias said. “It has been proven that if you have access to health care, you have a prosperous community and prosperous people coming from those communities. “So, when the opportunity arose for us to contribute to the city that is near and dear to my heart, it just made sense.” The $54.5 million building opens just as the federal budget calls for major changes to Medi-Cal, which makes up a large percentage of all health centers’ budgets. San Ysidro is no exception. Mattson said that with construction starting three years ago, he could not have forseen the current funding challenges when the project broke ground. It is, he said, a fraught moment, given that work requirements and other changes to Medi-Cal are expected to increase the overall number of uninsured residents, meaning that San Ysidro and its sister organizations such as La Maestra Community Health Centers and Family Health Centers of San Diego, are likely to see more demand even as they receive less revenue. “Would we do this project today based on today’s rules?” Mattson said. “That’s a tough question.” Construction, he said, was about 70% complete when the administration change occurred. At the end of the day, he said, there is plenty of data showing that even with other community health centers operating facilities in National City, residents are still underserved. “The data shows us that there is still a significant unmet need in National City for health care,” Mattson said. “There are plenty of doctors around, but there just aren’t enough that serve the Medi-Cal population and the uninsured, and that’s why federally qualified health centers like San Ysidro Health exist, to take care of that population.” The National City center is expected to serve about 20,000 residents per year who are likely to make about 61,000 visits per year. The facility will employ between 200 and 250 people. ...read more read less