A Deer in Durango and other Health Policy News

Being a health policy analyst in Colorado can have its Wild West moments. Just ask CHI’s Jeff Bontrager.

Jeff was sitting at a stop sign in downtown Durango at 6:45 a.m. last Thursday, headed to his appearance at the community’s sixth annual Health Summit, when a deer ran into the side of his rental car. Jeff looked over to the passenger side to see antlers.

The rental car had dents, scratches and a dangling rear view mirror. The deer seemed fine, leaving the scene of the accident without a word. And Jeff, after dealing with the insurance company, made it in time for his talk to the summit hosted by the Community Health Action Coalition.

In other excitement at CHI, we celebrated the seven presentations given last week by CHI team members at the Public Health in the Rockies conference in Vail. Team leader Sara Schmitt reported that she received lots of great feedback on the work of our presenters: Tamara Keeney, Joe Hanel, Natalie Triedman, Hannah Wear, Jessica Fern, Allie Morgan and Nina Roumell.

And CHI’s new publication, “Reaching Our Peak 2015: Scorecard for a Healthier Colorado,” flew off the shelves. Jessica Fern was the lead writer and Cliff Foster was the lead editor. Sara Schmitt oversaw the project.

On our plates this week:

Jeff and Natalie are preparing a presentation for the “Building Better Health” conference scheduled for next week at Crowne Plaza DIA. They will use data from the 2015 Colorado Health Access Survey (CHAS) to help attendees understand who remains uninsured in Colorado after the second open enrollment.

CEO Michele Lueck will be heading to Mesa County to present CHAS findings to community health leaders.

And Allie Morgan is preparing a presentation for the Colorado Economic Forum in Loveland.