New health center to serve tens of thousands of Placer County patients
WellSpace Health, the Sacramento-based network of safety-net health centers, opened a new outpatient clinic in Roseville on Wednesday, where it will offer medical and dental services primarily to people who depend on Medi-Cal or lack coverage.
Officials said there was a clear need in Placer County: patients there routinely travel to Sacramento County for care. WellSpace CEO Jonathan Porteus said last year, 50,000 Placer County residents were seen at the health system’s Sacramento County sites.
“We’ve not been able to meet that demand,” Porteus said during a ribbon-cutting for the health center Wednesday.
The 16,000-square-foot facility at 100 Stonehouse Court in Roseville will provide primary care, pediatrics, women’s health, behavioral health and dental services. The center will serve 39,000 patients annually, the majority of them insured by Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program.
Porteus said WellSpace has been looking for a new Placer County site since 2015, and acquired the property in the last three or four years. But it will open to patients in a changing financial environment for health care providers, as Medicaid cuts in the latest federal budget take effect.
“Let’s face it, we are going to see a drop in the number of people covered by Medicaid,” Porteus said.
Today the health system serves about 12,000 uninsured patients, he said, and about 125,000 Medicaid beneficiaries. WellSpace has been modeling for scenarios in which its uninsured patient population grows by 20% to 25%.
WellSpace has an immediate care program that can offer brief visits for people who must be seen right away, but full-service visits with providers may begin to take longer.
“For some of these services, it will take longer to get in,” Porteus said.
Sutter Health, the Sacramento-based health system that operates the nearby Sutter Roseville Medical Center, contributed $2.9 million toward the health center, about one-third of the overall cost, Porteus said. It also spent $4.5 million bringing WellSpace’s electronic health record onto its same platform. When WellSpace patients visit a Sutter Health emergency room, for instance, the caregivers will have access to their medical history. And obstetrics and gynecology residents from Sutter Health will rotate through the WellSpace health center.
The new center will relieve pressure from local hospital emergency rooms, officials said. Hospitals have been building out more capacity in and around Placer County, “one of the fastest-growing areas in the region,” said Rachael McKinney, president of Sutter Health’s greater Sacramento division.
Rep. Kevin Kiley toured the facility Wednesday. Earlier this year, Kiley’s office in Rocklin was the site of a protest organized by National Nurses United, urging him to vote against the federal budget bill. Kiley, along with the other eight California Republicans in Congress, voted yes, The Sacramento Bee previously reported.
After he toured the clinic Wednesday, Kiley in an interview with The Bee said he supports access to quality, affordable health care.
“I’ve supported this facility every step of the way,” he said.
This story was originally published September 24, 2025 at 5:55 PM.
