The Community is What Counts

The Community is What Counts

During our 40 years of providing high-quality healthcare coverage, Community Health Group remains committed to serving all our members, providers, and community with compassion, cultural humility, and exceptional service.

Community Health Group began as an ambitious idea discussed in the halls of a community clinic in the mid-1970s when the winds of American health care were beginning to shift. Leaders wanted to explore broader healthcare initiatives for San Diego County while remaining true to the noble mission of service to the underprivileged and underserved.

The community clinic’s Chief Executive Officer, in 1974, began looking at the possibility of establishing a health maintenance organization to better serve San Diego’s culturally diverse population, particularly those who were medically underserved.

In May of 1982, Community Health Group was born as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization with a six-member Board of Directors. Soon after, the County of San Diego asked Community Health Group to become the Regional Contractor for the County Medical Services Program. The goal: to manage care for medically underserved adults, a task Community Health Group took on with its mission-defining dedication to providing compassionate, culturally sensitive, and exceptional service.

Two years later, Community Health Group accomplished another milestone—when California’s Department of Health Care Services issued Community Health Group its first contract for a Primary Care Case Management Program to serve Medi-Cal patients. Community Health Group now had State and County contracts.

By the end of its tenth year in business, Community Health Group cared for 31,059 members. By our 20th year, 101,024 members. By our 30th year, 149,480 members. By February 2023, the organization manages the health care of more than 355,000 individuals.

In its 40 years of service to San Diego County, Community Health Group has grown in every direction with a large network of physicians, hospitals, pharmacies, and specialists. Our organization has a service team of nearly 360 employees, all of whom provide service with compassion, cultural humility, and excellent customer service, which has been our hallmark for those 40 years.

Norma Diaz, Chief Executive Officer, knows her team shares and lives the wisdom of the celebrated poet, Maya Angelou, who said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but they will never forget the way you made them feel.”