Colorado Access Reinvests Almost $300,000 Back Into 6 Community Providers

DENVER - Jan. 29, 2014 - PRLog -- Colorado Access was awarded performance incentive funds for meeting or exceeding performance targets in one or more of the three current Key Performance Indicators, including the reduction of unnecessary emergency department use, 30-day hospital readmissions, and high-cost imaging.

The mission of Colorado Access is to partner with communities and empower people through access to quality, affordable care. To further this mission, Colorado Access has reinvested their performance incentive funds back into the community as grants to healthcare providers, helping Primary Care Medical Providers (PCMPs) increase the integration of physical and behavioral health care services within their practices. The award for integrated care focus is in direct response to a survey asking how the funds should be reinvested. Colorado Access awarded the funds to 6 providers through a Request for Proposal (RFP) process.

Applicants for the grants included a diverse group of contracted PCMPs (including pediatric offices, family practices, and Federally Qualified Health Centers) in Denver, Adams, Arapahoe, Douglas, Cheyenne, Kit Carson, Lincoln, Logan, Morgan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington, Weld, and Yuma counties. In the RFP, Colorado Access asked bidders to explain how their practice plans to expand or enhance integrated care, either within their individual practices or within their medical neighborhoods and awards were determined based on these responses.

“Our goal has always been to make our Regional Care Collaborative Organization (RCCO) regions the strongest and healthiest in Colorado,” said April Abrahamson, Executive Director of Medicaid at Colorado Access. “We can achieve this goal by working together with community providers and building on their strengths. This is essential to create innovative collaborative platforms to improve our members’ overall health. We asked our providers what was important for their patients and we listened. We learned that it was important to enhance patients’ access to integrated systems of care, like behavioral and physical – and then we invested in that purpose.”

Colorado Access believes that the relationship between behavioral health and physical health is significant, and that it is crucial to invest in clinics and provider offices that aim to increase integration between the two.

About Colorado Access:

Founded in 1994, Colorado Access is a local, nonprofit health plan that serves more than 500,000 members. The company’s members receive healthcare under Child Health Plan Plus (CHP+), Medicaid behavioral and physical health programs, long-term support, and/or Medicare Advantage. Colorado Access provides care coordination and management for three (3) of the seven (7) Regional Care Collaborative Organizations (RCCOs) under Colorado’s Accountable Care Collaborative Medicaid program. To learn more about Colorado Access, visit coaccess.com.