Las Vegas-based Valley Oaks Medical Group has rebranded to Astrana Care in a move that will take effect on Jan. 1.
The change marks an alignment with its parent company, Astrana Health, which the company says symbolizes its ongoing commitment to providing exceptional care under a new, unified name.
Kimberly Grana, market vice president of Astrana Care Nevada, said Astrana Health has long supported organizations with managed services dealing with claims, billing and delegated credentialing. It has since expanded its footprint by operating clinics.
Valley Oaks, which has been in existence since 2020 when private equity purchased long-established primary-care and speciality care clinics, sold the primary care operations to Astrana Health in October 2022.
“What we are is three organizations under one roof,” Grana said. “We are not only a group of 14 primary care clinics, but also a managed service organization for other clinics in the valley. We provide billing, referral assistance, medical records, prior authorization and a call center — all the tasks that take out the administration burdens from the clinics for ours and others.”
Astrana Health also has an IPA, an independent physician association. That’s a network of providers hand-chosen to provide “excellent care for your patients” where patients can see these doctors in the network with the goal to provide “incredible services,” Grana said.
“We have a very narrow network and only have selected providers that were asked to join the organization,” Grana said. “You can sign up with Optum and see the doctor in that network. You can sign up with Astrana Care Partners and only see the people in our network — our extraordinary primary-care doctors. There are 40 primary-care providers in 14 clinics with extended hours. We have urgent-care services so we can offer walk-ins, and we have X-rays, labs and other services for our members and anyone who needs good primary-care services.”
Grana said they have a unique model compared to others who only see certain age groups or take only a specified number of patients.
“We will see an entire family for ages 6 and up,” Grana said. “We offer standard primary-care services, and we also have a talented group of primary-care providers who provide services like behavioral health, addiction medicine, nutrition, endocrinology and more.”
The providers are diverse in the languages ranging from Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Korean, French, Hindi, Punjabi, Czech, Malaysian and others.
Patients can book appointments through a portal and website chat and in addition to walk-ins, Grana said.
“If you were to call bigger organizations, you might not get a new patient appointment for six to nine months,” Grana said. “What sets us apart is that we deliver access to care with providers who care about their patients. We promise same-day or next-day appointments for our established patients so they can see their provider when it’s important to them.”
Atrana Health has a preferred network of specialists in which primary-care physicians can call that provider and get appointments more quickly, Grana said.
“Our mission is to improve the well-being and health outcomes of preventative care and deliver customer service to the standards of our hospitality-based city,” Grana said. “We want the health care experience to be better than what they’ve experienced before.”
Grana said they are excited for the brand change to be recognized across several states since Astrana Health is widely known across the country in several states — California, Texas, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Hawaii.
Astrana Health Nevada has about 135 employees in 14 clinics. It recently secured the contract to provide services to the teachers in the Clark County School District through Teachers Health Trust. With Astrana Care, the teachers have no co-payment and have benefits such as telehealth, extended hours and weekend days.
“We see patients seven days a week, and we see them from 8 in the morning to 6 p.m. after school hours,” Grana said. “We also recently secured a contract with the Metropolitan Police Department. We see firefighters. We’re definitely a trusted community partner.”
Astrana Health has partnered with the Clark County School District for back-to-school physicals and has done events at senior communities and assisted living facilities.
The chief medical officer is Upinder Singh.
