8 LA Care Scholars get full medical school scholarships – Press Telegram
LA Care Health Plan celebrated its 25th anniversary by announcing that eight students will receive full scholarships to attend Los Angeles-area medical schools on Friday, July 22.
Among the recipients of the fifth cohort of LA Care Scholars, four will attend UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine and four will go on to Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science.
“Throughout LA Care’s history, we have remained committed to a mission of serving marginalized and low-income communities in LA County and supporting the health care safety net needed to ensure access quality care for these individuals and families,” said LA Care CEO John Baackes. . “I’m proud to say that LA Care has always been more than just a plastic card in a member’s wallet.”
The health plan was founded in April 1997 as part of California’s two-plan Medi-Cal managed care model in LA County. Since then, LA Care has grown from a 100-person organization serving more than 200,000 Medi-Cal beneficiaries to a plan that employs more than 2,000 full-time employees and serves more than 2.7 million Angelenos, primarily in low-income communities.
Since 2018, LA Care has committed $100 million to train and recruit more diverse physicians to serve in underresourced communities as part of its “Elevating the Safety Net Initiative,” officials said.