Blue Shield Promise Backs San Ysidro Health's New Southeastern San Diego Urgent Care With $1 Million

Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan announced a $1 million community investment to support the new San Ysidro Health Southeastern San Diego Urgent Care Center at the Joe & Vi Jacobs Center, expanding after-hours care for more than 153,000 residents. The health plan announced the investment on October 26, 2026, according to PR Newswire.

San Ysidro Health's New Urgent Care Center

The approximately 3,300-square-foot center, located within the Joe & Vi Jacobs Center, provides a community-based alternative to emergency room visits. Providers will connect patients to ongoing primary, preventive, and supportive care, including laboratory and basic radiology services, while referring patients who require higher levels of care to nearby emergency rooms. A ribbon-cutting event was held Friday to celebrate the center's grand opening and featured remarks from Assemblymember Dr. LaShae Sharp-Collins (D-San Diego), San Diego County Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe, and San Diego City Councilmember Henry L. Foster III.

"Access to timely care should not depend on where someone lives," said Kristen Cerf, president and CEO at Blue Shield Promise. "For too many years, Southeastern San Diego residents have had limited urgent care options, leading many to seek treatment in emergency rooms for non-emergency conditions."

Kevin Mattson, president and CEO of San Ysidro Health, said the center means families no longer need to leave the community for after-hours care. Southeastern San Diego experiences a disproportionately high burden of chronic disease compared to other areas of the county, with 13% of residents living below the federal poverty level, 8% lacking health insurance, and 18% of households relying on SNAP/CalFresh benefits.

San Ysidro Health's Recent Expansion Record

San Ysidro Health is a San Diego nonprofit Federally Qualified Health Center founded in 1969, delivering affordable primary, dental, behavioral, senior, teen, and HIV care to underserved patients across more than 50 county sites, according to akta.pro company records. The same records show the organization opened the $54.5 million, 44,000-square-foot Macias Family Health Center in National City in January 2026, replacing two older clinics and doubling local patient capacity to 20,000 annually. San Ysidro Health also opened Chula Vista Specialty Care and the Joe & Vi Jacobs Center, adding women's health, specialty dental, after-hours urgent care, PACE, and the residency program.

Earlier San Diego Health Care Moves

In August 2026, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors approved a project to build 121 affordable housing units and a new health clinic on surplus land in Logan Heights, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. In July 2026, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that Dr. Maria Carriedo-Ceniceros, a physician raised in San Diego's South Bay, became the first Latina president of the San Diego County Medical Society in June 2026.

Blue Shield Promise's Prior Urgent Care Investment

In July 2023, Blue Shield Promise supported the opening of Family Health Centers of San Diego's El Cajon Urgent and Cardiac Care Center through an investment to increase access to urgent and cardiac care services for East County San Diego residents. Blue Shield Promise is a managed care organization wholly owned by Blue Shield of California, offering Medi-Cal to more than 500,000 members across Los Angeles and San Diego counties.