Founded | 1996 |
---|---|
Focus | Improving access to coverage and care for low-income Californians, ensuring high-value care, and informing decisionmakers |
Location | |
Area served
|
Improving health care in California |
Method | Grants to conduct research and analysis and program-related investments |
Key people
|
Dr. Sandra R. Hernández, President and CEO |
Employees
|
50 |
Website | www |
Based in Oakland, California, the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) is an independent, nonprofit philanthropy that primarily focuses on improving access to coverage and care for low-income Californians, ensuring high-value care, and informing decisionmakers.
Established in 1996, CHCF operates with an endowment of more than $750 million in assets and has paid out more than $500 million to support its programmatic work.
The California Health Care Foundation was one of two philanthropies created in 1996 as a result of Blue Cross of California’s conversion from a nonprofit health plan to the for-profit corporation WellPoint Health Networks. CHCF’s first responsibility was managing the sale of WellPoint Health Networks stock. Of the $3 billion yielded from this process, four-fifths of the proceeds went to create The California Endowment and the remainder, some $600 million at the time, stayed with CHCF. From its inception, CHCF has looked for opportunities to improve health care in California by supporting higher quality, greater efficiency, and broader access to care.
Dr. Sandra R. Hernández became president and CEO of the California Health Care Foundation in January 2014. Prior to joining CHCF, Hernández was CEO of The San Francisco Foundation, which she led for 16 years. She previously served as director of public health for the City and County of San Francisco.
Hernández is an assistant clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine and maintains a clinical practice at San Francisco General Hospital in the AIDS clinic. She is a graduate of Yale University and the Tufts University School of Medicine.
Previously, the foundation had been led for 18 years by founding president and CEO Mark D. Smith, MD, MBA, a board-certified internist and clinical faculty member at the University of California, San Francisco.
Signature initiatives of the foundation are: