The vital signs of a stronger health organization.

“After more than 45 years in the community health center movement, my work now is simple: to help centers who have a need in the areas where my experience can be of real use.”

Carlos Olivares spent more than four and a half decades in community health, most of it as Chief Executive Officer of the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic — an organization he helped grow from roughly 150 employees and a handful of sites into one of the largest community health networks in the Pacific Northwest.

He is widely recognized as an early architect of full-risk and value-based contracting in the safety-net setting. His was one of the first organizations in the country to enter full-risk contracts with the insurance companies managing Medicaid and Medicare lives — more than 150,000 lives at full risk — and he continues to lead negotiations of this kind, not only for his own health center but for many others across the country.

He also founded one of the first managed-care companies owned and operated by community health centers. Twenty-five years on, it still serves more than 250,000 patients, taking full contractual risk for those lives with the State of Washington. Earlier, he led one of the first CHCs in the country to build and successfully operate a central-fill / mail-order pharmacy, and has since helped other centers craft the same strategy — along with the workflow and productivity redesign that lifts provider output and generates sustainable revenue.

A Pepperdine University graduate who began his career in California health administration, Carlos now brings that operating experience to health centers and healthcare organizations ready to grow without losing the mission.

• Full-risk contracting pioneer — among the first CHCs in the country to take full risk for Medicaid & Medicare lives.
• Founder of a CHC-owned health plan — 25 years serving 250K+ patients at full contractual risk in Washington.
• Central-fill & mail-order pharmacy — built one of the first CHC-operated systems; advises others on the same strategy.
• Workflow & revenue — productivity redesign that increases provider output and sustains the mission.