Asian Health Services receives $4 million to help Asian communities in Alameda County area

Asian Health Services, a community health center that offers comprehensive primary medical, behavioral health and dental care, received $4 million in capital to help the nonprofit clinic deliver quality health care services to immigrant and refugee Asian communities in the greater Alameda County area.

“The cost-savings will help us in our mission of providing quality health care to low-income and immigrant families. We thank UnitedHealth Group for helping us to continue meeting the vital health care needs of our communities.”

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) purchased Asian Health Services’ tax-exempt revenue bonds through the California Health Care Investment Program, which gives California health care entities access to capital at rates that are highly competitive with those of conventional financing. Additionally, given the dollar size of the bond issue, Asian Health Services also qualified for a cost of issuance subsidy of $274,000, which covered nearly the entire amount of the organization’s bond issuance costs. The cost of issuance was subsidized by UnitedHealth Group’s Capital Access Small Issuance Program.

UnitedHealth Group’s California Health Care Investment Program is a 20-year, $200 million commitment to health care organizations that provide services to underserved, low-income and underinsured communities and populations throughout the Golden State.

Asian Health Services will use the proceeds from the bonds to refinance the clinic’s debt, allowing the center to save about $70,000 in its operating budget over the life of the loan. The clinic, founded in 1974 and located in Oakland’s Chinatown district, operates 36 exam rooms and seven dental chairs. The center’s mission is to provide quality health care to the medically underserved, including the immigrant and refugee Asian communities. The staff is fluent in English and nine Asian languages: Cantonese, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Mandarin, Mien, Mongolian, Tagalog and Vietnamese. Asian Health Services serves more than 20,000 patients and receives more than 90,000 patient visits each year.

“The bond refinancing with UnitedHealth Group yields important cost-savings for Asian Health Services,” said Sherry Hirota, CEO of Asian Health Services. “The cost-savings will help us in our mission of providing quality health care to low-income and immigrant families. We thank UnitedHealth Group for helping us to continue meeting the vital health care needs of our communities.”

“UnitedHealth Group is committed to investing in California’s health care infrastructure to help ensure that all Californians have access to quality care. We are pleased to be able to help Asian Health Services meet its community’s health care needs, and we believe it is essential that medically underserved residents in Alameda County continue to have this important health care resource in their community,” said Steve Nelson, CEO, Western Region of UnitedHealthcare.

UnitedHealth Group offers health benefits, including commercial and Medicare health plans, to more than 2.8 million Californians, and partners with about 50,000 physicians across the state.