Health Policy in the Mountains

Team CHI is headed to the mountains this week – along with many other members of Colorado’s health policy community – for the 2015 Colorado Health Symposium.

We are especially excited because CHI will be involved in two of this year’s discovery sessions as well as the release of a research paper.

“Over the Threshold: Building a Solid Foundation for Medical Homes in Colorado” is the title of a discovery session Wednesday afternoon that examines the growth of medical homes and the innovative work being done across Colorado.

The session is based on a new report titled “Colorado Medical Homes Creating Healthy Connections” which is being released Wednesday. It is a collaboration between CHI and the Colorado Health Foundation, part of our year-long spotlights delving into data from the 2015 Colorado Health Report Card.

Besides research into medical homes underway in Colorado, the report profiles five practices across the state in a section called “On The Front Lines.” They are the Colorado Adolescent Maternity Program (CAMP) clinic in Aurora; High Plains Community Health Center in Lamar; Northside Child Health Center in Montrose; the Family Medicine Clinic, affiliated with Physician Health Partners, in Littleton; and Rocky Mountain Youth Clinics based in Thornton.

Sara Schmitt, CHI’s director of community health policy, will kick off the session with a discussion of the findings related to the medical home movement in Colorado. A panel of experts, including Cecillia Bohl of High Plains Community Health Center, Dr. Stephen Scott of the CAMP program, and Zula Solomon of Physician Health Partners, will then discuss the challenges of translating policy to reality. Finally, audience members will engage in a health policy exercise. CHI will report on the policy suggestions following the symposium.

The session will be live streamed, so even if you won’t be with us in Keystone, you can follow the action by registering for free here. You can also follow the CHI Twitter account @CoHealthInst for updates from the conference.

Meanwhile, our CEO Michele Lueck, will be making a presentation during a session on Thursday afternoon titled “Applying What We’ve Learned: How the Colorado Community Can Accelerate the Triple Aim.” Michele will be highlighting the work of a collaborative group called Better Care, Better Costs, Better Colorado, or BC3.

Best of all, we are primed to hear the latest thinking and the newest ideas from the best and the brightest in health policy.