Gary and Mary West Foundation

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West Health serves as the umbrella for three organizations, can you tell us a bit about the mission and your role with the organizations?

West Health is a family of three nonprofit entities: The Gary and Mary West Foundation, the West Health Institute, and the West Health Policy Center. All three work together in a very coordinated fashion to achieve a central goal: Improve aging in America. Our efforts are centered around lowering healthcare costs, improving the quality and accessibility of healthcare for seniors, and ensuring our nation’s older adults can live with dignity in their homes and communities as they age.

Through West Health’s structure, we’re able to package strategic grantmaking with the extensive market expertise of our team members, which amplifies our impact across all our initiatives.

As president of West Health, my work spans all three of our entities, as well as the Gary and Mary West PACE center, an independent nonprofit in San Diego County where I serve as CEO. The West PACE center has become a gold standard of community-based care for frail older people, and we look to serve as a model for PACE programs nationwide. As you may know, “PACE” is short for Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly; it’s a program that helps seniors with chronic care needs remain in their homes and communities, with greater social connection and quality of life than they’d have in nursing homes.

What are the current funding priorities and where do you fund?

There’s an overwhelming amount of work to be done to enable successful aging for everyone in America, especially those who are low-income or middle-income. So, what do we prioritize first? At West Health, we believe successful aging simply isn’t possible without quality health care—and that quality healthcare isn’t possible without being both affordable and accessible.

Thus, a lot of the innovations and programs gaining our attention are new models of care that improve efficiency and outcomes of our healthcare system. We test new models, gather data, and share our learnings widely with the healthcare community and policymakers.

As an example, one of our current priorities is helping more hospitals implement Geriatric Emergency Departments, which provide specialized care to older adults and address many of the problems patients face during and after an ER visit. We’re also leading industrywide efforts to help telehealth providers optimize their services for older patients, who can benefit greatly from the accessibility of remote care. In addition, we fund advocacy and policy efforts to reduce the cost of care for Medicare beneficiaries and all Americans, and we partner with Gallup on large-scale public opinion polling efforts to amplify the voices of Americans on topics related to aging and healthcare.

The Gary and Mary West Foundation supports GIA's newest Funders Community on Multisector Plans for Aging (MPA). What has been the Foundation’s role in California’s MPA movement?

West Health has been involved from the very beginning in the creation and implementation of California’s Master Plan for Aging, which was nothing short of a groundbreaking public-private partnership. The plan encompasses healthcare, housing, social services, mental health, transportation, caregiving, public policy and financial security. The idea is to comprehensively address the current and future needs of our state’s increasingly diverse senior population. Now that California’s plan is successfully launched, we’re taking an active role in tracking key data and metrics that measure the plan’s impact and highlight areas for improvement. We’re making this data available through a publicly accessible dashboard.

How do you think other funders can help build momentum for the MPA movement in their states?

Our teams are energized by what we’ve helped accomplish in California, and we’re now focused on spreading this approach to other states nationwide. We firmly believe that every state can benefit from having its own multisector plan that addresses the unique needs of their senior population—as well as people with disabilities, family caregivers, and others in the community. To facilitate this, we’re bringing together expertise and guidance to help state leaders build consensus and create a plan.

While it’s true that no two plans are alike, we have found there’s great value in sharing learnings and resources. That’s why West Health, along with partner organizations, created a Multisector Plan for Aging Learning Collaborative to support state success. This collaborative gives members access to technical assistance, peer-to-peer exchanges, and a wide range of expertise to help move their plans forward. It’s just what many states need to create enough momentum to get a plan off the ground.

We’d like for you to share a bit about yourself. We’re all aging personally, but how did you get involved in aging professionally?

I find that it’s hard to separate personal from professional when you work in the healthcare field. In fact, the personal element is what brings purpose to me and many of my colleagues at West Health. Prior to joining West Health in 2013, I worked in the pharmaceutical industry—specifically with Johnson & Johnson. My passion then, as it is now, was propelling new models that fill a dire need in our healthcare sector. I’m drawn to innovations that can operate within the real market, not in a healthcare utopia. With West Health, I saw the opportunity to affect so many facets of healthcare and drive solutions that are urgently needed today, especially as our population ages. The reality is that our current healthcare system, from our emergency rooms to our remote care options, simply isn’t optimized for older people. And too many people enter old age in serious medical debt or in poor health because they couldn’t afford the right care when they needed it. At West Health, we embrace evidence-based approaches to fixing system-wide healthcare problems and improving quality of life for people as they age. I am personally invested in making sure these changes happen.

What about GIA’s mission really motivates you?

As GIA says in its mission, aging is universal. That fact alone is extremely motivating to me. At West Health, we’re advancing initiatives that can touch every member of our society in some way—it doesn’t get much more motivating than that!

But also, I’m closely aligned with GIA’s focus on creating a society that “engages” and “connects.” These elements of wellness are often overlooked, yet they must be prioritized by our society and any solutions we put forward. Just this spring, the U.S. Surgeon General released an advisory calling attention to the public health crisis of loneliness, isolation, and lack of connection in our country. Not only does this epidemic impact physical health, but mental health—and it has profound consequences for our older adult populations.

For some fun insight, can you share with us what you enjoy doing most when you’re not working?

I live in San Diego with my wife, Lauren, of 18 years, and our two daughters, Ava, 10, and Olivia, who’s 13. Because I travel so much for work, I spend every possible moment of my free time with my family, which also includes our very spoiled Goldendoodle, Lucy. About once a month, the girls and I will venture out on a camping trip together, often to our favorite spot, Joshua Tree National Park. One great thing about San Diego is that you don’t have to travel far to find amazing camping destinations. It’s a fun way to spend time together, totally unplugged and enjoy nature. We also love traveling together as a family and have been on more Disney cruises than I’d care to admit!