Our Work
Today is not a good day for Alexandre. It’s November 1, the first day of open enrollment for 2017 health coverage, and Alexandre is one of the estimated 400,000 Coloradans who buy insurance on the individual market.
We’re looking at our calendars a lot these days at the Colorado Health Institute. We count just 14 days until the election and just 50 days until our annual health policy conference, Hot Issues in Health Care.
Are you a state legislator, a staffer, an elected county official or a member of Colorado’s health policy community? Mark December 14 and 15 on your calendar for our annual Hot Issues in Health Care conference at Cheyenne Mountain Resort in Colorado Springs.
Research analyst Nina Roumell just had to explain Kylie Jenner to me. I still don’t get it. But while there are many parts of Millennial culture I can’t account for (I’m looking at you, Snapchat, “bae” and pumpkin spice everything), there’s one thing I can: why so many twentysomethings don’t have health coverage.
We spent weeks hashing out our recent financial analysis of ColoradoCare, agonizing over more than 50 different variables and assumptions that fed into our work. I’m not surprised that our analysis of one of those variables — the Hospital Provider Fee — has been one of the more contentious parts of our report.
One of the first questions that Allie Morgan, CHI’s Legislative Director and Policy Analyst, asked me when I interviewed here was, “How confident are you with Excel?” Sure enough, my first project at CHI exposed me to more spreadsheets, tables and lists than I had seen in my lifetime.
Colorado’s safety net clinics have always provided health care for the state’s most vulnerable populations who might not find care elsewhere. But recently, practice transformations have been changing the way clinics care for their patients.
This year’s report on Colorado’s SBHCs focuses on these important safety net providers and the populations they serve. The report is based on data from the annual School-Based Health Center Survey.
It's been only a few years since I strolled the halls of East High School, chatting with other students about various trivialities — soccer tryouts, our crushes and our weekend plans. But in every class, I remember taking standardized tests and surveys, providing my responses by filling in the entire circle as instructed, “completely and darkly with a No. 2 pencil.” As a summer intern at the Colorado Health Institute (CHI), I analyzed how Colorado’s high school students answered one of those very same surveys.
We hope everyone is enjoying the Olympics and possibly pondering which event they would compete in like these New York Times employees did. Tune in this week for a plethora of track and field events, as well as men’s gymnastics, beach volleyball and many others.
This week is also Safety-Net Clinic Week! To celebrate, the Colorado Health Institute (CHI) is publishing two reports.