Survey Says: New Data Ahead

A number of organizations have asked the Colorado Health Institute to help them design surveys around important health and health policy questions. At the same time, we are hard at work on the 2015 Colorado Health Access Survey (CHAS).

Sara Schmitt, Director of Community Health Policy, and Hannah Wear, Research Analyst, are working with Oral Health Colorado (OHCO) to design a survey to collect dental data from safety net clinics. Sara and Hannah facilitated a meeting with the group last week to begin the process of prioritizing topics and questions for the survey. And on the subject of oral health, CHI will be releasing its analysis on the Medicaid oral health workforce in mid-February.  

The other survey work we’re conducting isn’t quite ready for prime time.

Meanwhile, the CHAS, which is administered by CHI and funded by The Colorado Trust will enter the field in the coming months. The 2015 CHAS will provide a wealth of data about who has gained health insurance under the Affordable Care Act and how they are using health care. Watch for the results in late summer. We’re moving up the launch of the data because of the intense interest.

Outside of survey work, the CHI team is busy with ongoing projects.

The 2015 Colorado Health Report Card – a collaboration between CHI and the Colorado Health Foundation – is off to the printer. Now, the team is preparing for the Health Report Card to hit prime time on February 5 when it is unveiled for lawmakers at the Capitol. Colorado’s health grade will be released publicly that day as well.

CHI is serving on the steering committee that is guiding Colorado’s participation in the National Governors Association (NGA) Health Workforce Policy Academy. The governors association staffs the committee, which is focused on developing a framework to plan and implement efforts to build health care workforces.

In case you missed it from last week, Policy Analyst Jessica Fern wrote an insight on Governor Hickenlooper’s new Bike Health Initiative, including data on biking in Colorado. You can read that here.

Also from last week, CHI hosted the first Safety Net Advisory Committee (SNAC) Lab of 2015 with nearly 50 attendees. The focus of the meeting was on big initiatives underway as part of Colorado’s Accountable Care Collaborative. You can find the agenda and slides from the presentation online on our SNAC lab page.  

Finally, CHI is excited to report that the Caring for Colorado Foundation has announced a five-year, $1.65 million grant to continue its support of our work. You can read the press release for more information here.

“As a founding funder of CHI, we are very happy to continue our commitment to support this important organization in Colorado,” said Chris Wiant, President and CEO of Caring for Colorado. “CHI continues to lead the way in studying and informing healthy policy for our state legislature, health policy leaders and the public.”