CHI Announces Funding for Specialty Care Work from Telligen Community Initiative
July 23, 2018
For Immediate Release
Contact: Joe Hanel, Communications Director, 720.382.7093 or hanelj@coloradohealthinstitute.org
The Colorado Health Institute (CHI) is proud to announce grant funding from the Telligen Community Initiative (TCI), an Iowa-based philanthropy supporting community-based, health-focused projects in Iowa, Illinois, Oklahoma and Colorado.
CHI’s project will build on our longstanding efforts to quantify the unmet demand for specialty care among Coloradans who need it the most. We will explore short- and long-term financing models to address the unmet need.
The TCI-funded work will build off our ongoing Specialty Care Stewardship Council, a group of high-level Colorado health and health policy leaders. Funded by Kaiser Permanente Colorado, the Council is committed to building a specialty care access network for Colorado’s most vulnerable residents. CHI facilitates the Council’s work and provides the data and analysis needed to make informed choices. Together, CHI and Council members envision a statewide network that accommodates all specialty care needs and will be a model of equity for the rest of the country.
“We are grateful to Telligen Community Initiative for recognizing the large needs in specialty care access in Colorado and for making it possible to continue the innovative work in addressing those needs,” said Alexandra Caldwell, CHI’s associate director of program development and analysis.
As part of our work, CHI has conducted a first-ever effort to quantify the statewide level of unmet demand for specialty care. Initial results suggest that Colorado must expand its systems of care to accommodate an estimated 666,000 additional specialty care visits a year. That’s an average 95 extra visits annually for each of the state’s licensed medical specialists, including gynecologists, neurologists, orthopedists and others. Demand varies by specialty.
The Affordable Care Act left Coloradans with significant gains in health, including a record-low uninured rate of 6.5 percent and nearly 85 percent of Coloradans with a usual source of care. But the results are much different for specialty care, especially for low-income Coloradans and people of Colorado. Coloradans wait an average of two days for a general doctor appointment, but they wait more than nine days for specialist care. Some Medicaid enrollees report waiting up to a year for a specialist appointment.
The charter of the Specialty Care Stewardship Council sums up its work: “We believe Colorado can be a state where anyone who needs specialty care can get it, regardless of ZIP code, education, income, race, ethnicity, age or insurance status.”
With the continued support of Council members and now the support of TCI, we are working to make this vision a reality.
“Our backing of this project is an extension of our priority to improve access to health care for underserved individuals and families,” said Matt McGarvey, executive director of TCI. “We are excited to help make this essential research a reality and strongly support the foundational work of the Colorado Health Institute on building a statewide specialty care access network for the state’s most vulnerable residents.”
About the Colorado Health Institute
We believe that better information leads to better-informed decisions — and a healthier Colorado. The Colorado Health Institute is nonprofit and nonpartisan. We are a trusted source of independent and objective health information, data and analysis for health care leaders.
About Telligen Community Initiative
Telligen Community Initiative (TCI) is the charitable foundation of Telligen, Inc., a private, nonprofit healthcare intelligence company. TCI provides financial grants to support projects and organizations that strive to improve the health of communities which Telligen serves. Since 2013, TCI has awarded over $5.5 million to over 140 organizations in Iowa, Illinois, Oklahoma and Colorado. TCI’s overall goal is to ensure opportunities for health are available and accessible to everyone. The foundation’s funding focuses on project support within the areas of health innovation, health for the underserved and health care workforce development. For more information about TCI, please visit www.telli