Chris Palmieri became chief executive of Commonwealth Care Alliance last November with the task of turning around the Boston-based nonprofit. Commonwealth Care isn’t a typical Massachusetts health care company; it’s a small player in a big market, a service provider and insurer focused entirely on low-income patients. The organization uses multiskilled teams to help manage all aspects of a patient’s care. The goal is to give patients what they need — even nonmedical services like transportation — to help them manage diseases and stay out of hospitals. Palmieri, 41, told Globe reporter Priyanka Dayal McCluskey about joining the organization after several years working at health care companies in New York and Connecticut.

1Palmieri started college as a political science and English major, but he soon switched to health care management. In doing so, the Ithaca College grad followed several family members — including his mother, a nurse — into the field. But he was also inspired by his older brother, who has cerebral palsy and epilepsy and requires a lot of medical care.

“We’re kind of all his care team,’’ Palmieri said. “My mother, my brother, my sister, and myself are all experts in health care . . . and I see even for us how difficult it is to get the system to sync up with my brother’s needs. The reality is most people that have high health care needs are going at this alone; they don’t have any resources.’’

2Palmieri comes to Commonwealth Care at a critical time for the organization. Since 2013, when it joined the state’s One Care pilot program that coordinates care for some of Massachusetts’ most complicated patients, Commonwealth Care has grown significantly and struggled financially. It temporarily had to stop taking new members. The company relies on government funding, and it gained a victory when payment rates were increased last year. But Palmieri has also taken steps, such as freezing hiring, to help stabilize the business. Commonwealth Care employs about 800 people.

“[The board] brought me in to turn the organization around,’’ Palmieri said. “They thought that this organization belongs in the community to provide the services we do, but there was a thought that it could be done better. So for the last seven months, I’ve been exploring ways that we could do things better.’’

3Commonwealth Care serves a select group of people known in the industry as “dual eligibles.’’ They are covered by both Medicare, the federal insurance program for seniors and people with disabilities, and Medicaid, the federal-state program for the poor. Palmieri has always been drawn to this population and intrigued by how two big government programs can be integrated to help people.

“These populations are ones that really need the health care system,’’ he said. “They’re spending a lot of the dollars in Medicare and Medicaid, and for me it’s an opportunity: How do they get better care at the same time [we] potentially spend less to give them better care, doing it through coordination? That’s the piece that’s been fascinating.’’

4Palmieri talks a lot about scale. Though Commonwealth Care has already grown rapidly, he wants it to expand even more. After all, its model of coordinated care designed to limit hospital stays represents a strategy that the federal government has been pushing and many health care organizations are now pursuing. Commonwealth Care has about 20,000 members.

“I believe someday we should be able to serve 50,000 people,’’ Palmieri said. “I’m not sure when . . . We have a unique model. We have figured out the recipe that really works well for these consumers, and we’d like to see the services delivered to more of them.’’

5Palmieri is a native of upstate New York and moved to the New York City area for work. Palmieri’s family lives in Mount Kisco, N.Y., which is about 15 miles north of White Plains in Westchester County. He has an apartment in Boston and sees his wife and three kids on weekends. But in the winters, they meet in Vermont. The whole family skis, and Palmieri’s 10- and 8-year-old daughters even ski race. One of his favorite things about hitting the slopes?

“Skiing is a technology-free sport,’’ Palmieri said. “You can’t be on your phone or your iPad. From that perspective, it’s really cool.’’

Priyanka Dayal McCluskey can be reached at priyanka.mccluskey@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @priyanka_dayal.