Letter from the CEO

I was delighted to join Colorado Hospital Association CEO, Steven Summer, and other Colorado hospital leaders at the American Hospital Association Membership meeting in Washington D.C. in April. The trip gave me the chance to continue our discussion with Colorado’s Congressional Delegation about the need to support Colorado’s Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) and Community-funded Safety Net Clinics (CSNCs). Due to some excellent communications work done by CRHC’s Policy Analyst, Terri Hurst, during her February trip to our nation’s capitol, I was able to get right to the point: Colorado’s RHCs and CSNCs need additional funding!

There is a lot of confusion in Congress, and elsewhere, about the providers who make up the healthcare safety net. Many of these providers are known as Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), and this type of provider has received a significant amount of financial support thanks to almost $40 million in total dollars from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), combined with funding from The Colorado Health Foundation. An additional $11 billion is expected for FQHCs through the recent health reform bill.

As I expressed to the Colorado delegation, the Colorado Rural Health Center is pleased that FQHCs have received funding. These facilities play a vital role in serving medically vulnerable populations in rural and urban Colorado. I am concerned, however, that other critical components of the healthcare safety net, the RHCs, CSNCs, and rural hospitals are not getting the funding necessary to meet their current and future needs.

CRHC represents 52 RHCs and, in partnership with the Hospital Association, 40 rural hospitals that take care of an increasingly aging rural population. While the aging of the rural population raises demand for services, demand is expected to grow even more due to the passage of federal health reform legislation and the newly enacted Colorado Hospital Provider Fee that expands the number of Coloradans eligible for Medicaid.

In addition, Community-Funded Safety Net Clinics (CSNCs) are clinics that don’t meet the federal requirements of being designated as RHCs or FQHCs. Together all of these types of healthcare providers make up the quilt that is our state’s safety net. I will not rest until the provider quilt is properly knit together to provide coverage and access to care for all Coloradans, and I thank Steven Summer and CHA for helping me take that message to our congressional delegation one more time.

Lou Ann Wilroy
CEO
Colorado Rural Health Center

Register now for the 2010 Annual Rural Health Conference in Breckenridge!

July 1-2, 2010; Breckenridge, CO
Join us in beautiful Breckenridge, Colorado for the 19th Annual Colorado Rural Health Conference, to be held July 1-2, 2010. This conference will provide participants with a wide range of educational topics, resources, networking, and an evening reception. As the State Office of Rural Health, CRHC holds an annual meeting to keep our membership informed on the latest changes in rural health policy, provider recruitment and retention techniques, and to address the challenges different regions the state are facing.  Some scholarships are available, as well as sponsor and exhibitor opportunities.  Also, don't forget to nominate someone for the Annual Rural Health Excellence Award, an award given to honor those who have made a notable contribution to health, healthcare, or a healthcare delivery system in rural Colorado.

Information on how to register, sponsor, exhibit, receive a scholarship, nominate for the Excellence Award, reserve your hotel room, and MORE is available on the CRHC event website.

Colorado Health Service Corps Awards $1.60 Million to Health Professionals

The Colorado Health Service Corps has awarded $1.60 million in educational loan debt forgiveness to primary health care professionals serving Colorado’s medically underserved.

On April 20, Gov. Bill Ritter signed House Bill 1138, which enhanced the Colorado Health Service Corps without adding any additional burden to taxpayers. Gov. Ritter said, “This act will strengthen the health professional workforce for people in both urban and rural areas of Colorado. When we invest in the health of Colorado’s citizens, we can expect significant dividends, both in quality of life and economic return.”

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Sara Gagliardi (D-Arvada) and Sen. John P. Morse (D-Colorado Springs), received broad bipartisan support in the Legislature. The legislation renamed the program the Colorado Health Service Corps and adjusted program policies to attract more private philanthropic organizations to participate in funding future awards. In addition, the legislation added oral health professions to the list of eligible program participants.

The Colorado Health Service Corps will accept applications for additional providers in July and November 2010. For more information about the Colorado Health Service Corp or to apply to the program, visit http://www.coloradohealthservicecorps.org/ or call 303.692.2466.

HRSA Announcement: Updating How MUPs and Primary Care HPSAs are Designated

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 requires that a process be established for updating the criteria and methodology that define how Medically Underserved Populations and Primary Care Health Professional Shortage Areas are designated.

In a Federal Register Notice published May 11, a brief description and timeline for the process are outlined. The FRN also includes a listing of proposed organizations and entities that would be represented on the rulemaking committee.

There is a 30 day period during which comments can be submitted on the issues presented and on the proposed makeup of the committee. The procedures for submitting comments are included in the Notice, as are the contacts for further information.

BHH Learning Collaborative: How Northern Colorado Health Alliance is Preparing for Health Care Reform Implementation

May 27, 2010; 12pm-1pm PDT
Weld County has one of the most effective local health access initiatives in Colorado—the North Colorado Health Alliance (NCHA). The recent federal healthcare reform legislation will have a big impact on NCHA operations—both in the near future and post 2014 when the major provisions are implemented. During the webinar two NCHA leaders (Mark Wallace, MD, President of the Board, North Colorado Health Alliance, and Director of Public Health, Weld County & Mike Bloom, CEO, North Colorado Health Alliance) will discuss how their program is responding to community needs, including impact of Health Care Reform legislation on: current operations, local delivery system development, and access to integrated health care services. The speakers will also discuss NCHA initiatives to: improve patient outcomes, population health and reduce total health care costs per capita.  Register now for this webinar!

A Big Thanks to Participants and Sponsors of The Forum 2010!

The Forum 2010: Essential Perspectives for Safety Net Providers, was held April 19-21 and presented by CRHC and ClinicNET. The Forum brought together participants from all over Colorado and the surrounding states. This year, the event had an expanded reach to include other states and clinic types in order to address the central issues facing us all. The agenda was comprehensieve with a special focus on Health Information Technology. Presentations and other materials are available to attendees. Please contact Sarah Mapes at sm@coruralhealth.org if you attended this event but do not have login information to access the materials.

CRHC and ClinicNET would like to extend a huge thank you to the sponsors who helped make this event possible: Premier Sponsors The Colorado Health Foundation and Kaiser Permanente; and Classic Sponsors, the Colorado Hospital Association and COPIC.

High rural suicide a rates a big problem for Colorado

Rural counties have always had unique struggles with suicide and other mental illness, and for Park County, 2009 was particularly difficult.  In the Denver Post's recent article, "Park County's 2009 suicides a stark reminder of state's high rate", they detail the mental health challenges facing rural Colorado:

"In a county of breathtaking mountain vistas, with barely 18,000 residents spread sparsely over 2,200 square miles, 15 people eventually took their lives in 2009, nearly doubling the previous record high.  While hardly a statistical trend, the sudden spike offered a jolting reminder that Colorado's suicide rate continues to hover well above the national norm — and that experts still haven't fully come to grips with a problem that pervades the Rocky Mountain West.

The state suicide rate has remained mostly flat since 1990, except for a brief dip around 1999, as Colorado developed its first strategy to combat the problem.  According to statistics from 2006, the latest year national data are available, Colorado's rate of 15.1 per 100,000 population still well exceeded the overall U.S. rate of just less than 11. Other Mountain West states such as Wyoming, Montana, Nevada and New Mexico dwarfed even that with rates at 19 or higher.  The most recent compilation of state numbers put Colorado's rate at 15.8 in 2008 — and marked the second year in a row that total suicides eclipsed 800.

About a decade into renewed emphasis on prevention, those numbers tell Jeanne Rohner that Colorado still has a long way to go.

"But they also say to me that we don't know where we'd be if we hadn't put together all the programs," said Rohner, president and CEO of nonprofit Mental Health America of Colorado. "That's the difficult thing about suicide. You don't know the numbers that you've prevented."

One number Colorado does know: the calls to the national suicide prevention hotline (800-273-8255) that originate within the state and get routed to operators in Pueblo. From only 318 in 2000, the volume rose steadily to 7,457 in 2008.

To read the complete article, visit the Denver Post website.  To find out more about Colorado's mental health efforts, consider attending the National Association for Rural Mental Health annual conference--click here for more information.