Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan has made a $1 million community investment to support a new urgent care centre in Southeastern San Diego. San Ysidro Health opened the centre at the Joe & Vi Jacobs Center, with a ribbon-cutting held Friday. The 3,300-square-foot site offers an alternative to emergency rooms for the area's more than 153,000 residents. It provides after-hours care, laboratory and basic radiology services, and refers patients needing higher levels of care to nearby emergency rooms. Local residents have had limited urgent care options, said Kristen Cerf, president and chief executive officer of Blue Shield Promise. Many have turned to emergency rooms for non-emergency conditions. In July 2023, the health plan backed an urgent and cardiac care centre in El Cajon.

Expanding Urgent Care in Southeastern San Diego. New San Ysidro Health Urgent Care Center will expand access to timely, high-quality care closer to home and work SAN DIEGO, Oct. 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan announced a $1 million community investment to support the new San Ysidro Health Southeastern San Diego (SESD) Urgent Care Center at the Joe & Vi Jacobs Center, expanding access to timely, convenient healthcare services for Southeastern San Diego residents. 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. The investment reflects the organizations' shared commitment to improving community health by expanding access to after-hours, high-quality care close to home. "Access to timely care should not depend on where someone lives. 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," said Kristen Cerf, president and CEO at Blue Shield Promise. "Our support for San Ysidro Health's new Southeastern San Diego urgent care center will help reduce barriers to treatment and connect families to the right care at the right time, close to where they live." The approximately 3,300-square-foot urgent care center, located within the Joe & Vi Jacobs Center, provides a community-based alternative to emergency room visits, operated by a trusted, local healthcare organization for Southeastern San Diego's more than 153,000 residents. In addition to treating immediate health needs, 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. "This facility represents more than just access to medical services. It represents opportunity for so many people to not just survive, but to thrive here within San Diego," said Assemblymember Dr. Sharp-Collins. "For far too long, members of our community have gone without care they need because of barriers that never should have been put between them, meaning people and their health. Today this facility helps break down those barriers and brings hope closer to home." "We are deeply honored to partner with Blue Shield Promise to bring urgent care services to Southeastern San Diego," said Kevin Mattson, president and CEO of San Ysidro Health. "Our Southeast San Diego families no longer need to leave the community for vital, after-hours care. We are here for the working parent with the sick child, the concerned caregiver of a senior loved one and so many other visits outside of normal operating hours. Blue Shield Promise saw what we saw: a community deserving of the same access and opportunities for health as any other. Together, we are expanding much needed access to convenient, after-hours care for all." "For decades, San Ysidro Health has been a driving force in advancing community health across San Diego," Cerf said. "Its commitment to ensuring access to care for all mirrors our mission to improve health outcomes and reduce barriers. Together, we're helping strengthen the health and well-being of Southeastern San Diego for years to come." Today, Southeastern San Diego experiences a disproportionately high burden of chronic disease compared to other areas of the county. Social and economic challenges contribute to these health disparities, with 13% of residents living below the federal poverty level, 8% lacking health insurance, and 18% of households relying on SNAP/CalFresh benefits. These factors can increase health risks and make it more difficult for residents to prevent and manage chronic conditions. Expanding access to critical care in San Diego County has long been a priority for Blue Shield Promise. In July 2023, the health plan also 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. MEDIA CONTACTS: Alejandra Perez, San Ysidro Health, (619) 253-0140, [email protected] Juliane Matignas, Blue Shield of California, (310) 999-7890, [email protected] About Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan is a managed care organization, wholly owned by Blue Shield of California, offering Medi-Cal. It is led by healthcare professionals with a "members-first" philosophy and committed to building a quality network of providers and partnering with community organizations for more than 500,000 Medi-Cal members across Los Angeles and San Diego counties. It was rated 4 out of 5 in NCQA's Medicaid Health Plan Ratings for 2025. For more information about Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan, please visit www.blueshieldca.com/promise. For more news about Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan, please visit promisenews.blueshieldca.com. Or follow Black Radio Network, Inc. on LinkedIn. About San Ysidro Health San Ysidro Health is a non-profit organization committed to providing high-quality, compassionate, accessible, and affordable healthcare services for the entire family. The organization was founded by seven mothers in search of medical services for their children in 1969. Over fifty-seven years later, San Ysidro Health now provides innovative health services to more than 162,000 lives in its care through a vast and integrated network of 50 program sites across San Diego County including medical clinics, dental clinics, behavioral health centers, HIV centers, WIC nutrition centers, mobile medical units, school-based health centers, chiropractic services, pediatric developmental clinic, teen clinic, senior health center and Program for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE). For additional information, please visit San Ysidro Health at www.syhealth.org. SOURCE Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan

Blue Shield of California named top insurer by Forrester for CX. Blue Shield of California has been ranked among Forrester's top health insurers for brand and customer experience, standing out in a sector known for low member trust and engagement. What happened. Blue Shield of California has been named among Forrester's top-performing health insurers for brand and customer experience. The recognition comes from Forrester's benchmarking of how insurers are perceived and experienced by the people they serve, with Blue Shield of California highlighted as a standout performer in the health plan category. The health plan, which serves members across California, used the announcement to position its customer experience work as a differentiator in a sector where plan members often report low engagement and satisfaction with their insurers. Why it matters. Health insurance is routinely one of the lowest-scoring sectors in customer experience benchmarks, largely because interactions tend to be transactional, complex and triggered by moments of stress - a claim denial, a coverage question, a medical emergency. A health plan being singled out for strong brand and experience performance signals that meaningful differentiation is possible even in a category defined by regulatory complexity and low switching activity. For experience leaders, the takeaway is less about the insurance industry specifically and more about what independent, third-party recognition does for trust. In categories where customers have limited visibility into service quality before they need it, external validation from analysts like Forrester becomes a proxy signal that shapes employer purchasing decisions, broker recommendations and member retention - arguably more than marketing claims ever could. The renascence take. Rankings like this are easy to treat as a marketing win and move on. The more useful question for other operators is what specifically earns a health insurer this kind of recognition in a category where most interactions are adversarial by design - claims, denials, prior authorisations, billing disputes. In low-trust categories like health insurance, brand perception is built less by advertising and more by what happens in the worst moments - a denied claim handled with clarity, a complex authorisation process simplified, a call that resolves rather than escalates. The operators who earn these rankings are usually the ones who have redesigned their friction points, not their messaging. Any insurer - or any regulated, high-stakes service provider in MENA - serious about this kind of recognition should start by auditing its highest-anxiety member journeys, not its brand campaigns. This briefing was written by its Newsdesk, synthesising reporting from the outlets below. Follow the links for the original coverage. Questions Renascence get on this topic. Blue Shield of California was named among Forrester's top-performing health insurers for brand and customer experience, based on Forrester's benchmarking of how insurers are perceived and experienced by their members. More in Customer Experience Stay ahead of CX Get the signal, not the noise. The stories shaping customer experience - plus the Journal and Experience Loom - in your inbox.