{"id":25494,"date":"2019-06-16T13:04:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-16T19:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/kaiser-permanente-leaving-frisco-and-vail\/"},"modified":"2019-06-16T13:04:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-16T19:04:00","slug":"kaiser-permanente-leaving-frisco-and-vail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/local-news\/kaiser-permanente-leaving-frisco-and-vail\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaiser Permanente leaving Frisco and Vail"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
In 2015 Kaiser Permanente Colorado’s Brent Bowman said the healthcare\/health insurance company was making a 10-year commitment to Eagle and Summit counties. Kaiser confirmed Thursday that the group is pulling out of Eagle and Summit counties at the end of the year.<\/strong>
Daily file photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

VAIL \u2014 Colorado\u2019s High Country will have one less health insurance and health care option by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

Kaiser Permanente Colorado is pulling out of Summit and Eagle counties, the health care provider confirmed Thursday.<\/p>\n

Kaiser partially blamed hospitals in Eagle and Summit counties, saying they have been \u201cunreasonably opposed to contracting with us,\u201d a marked shift from the 10-year commitment Kaiser made four years ago when it said those contracts might not matter. Kaiser also pointed fingers at Front Range hospitals for its troubles there. The Colorado Hospital Association countered that Kaiser is responsible for its own problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cKaiser Permanente Colorado began serving the mountain communities nearly four years ago with the goal of increasing access to high-quality, affordable health care,\u201d Amy L. Whited, director of communications, community health and engagement for Kaiser Permanente Colorado said in a statement. \u201cUnfortunately, we have been a very small player in a challenging market, and hospitals in the community have been unreasonably opposed to contracting with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The local hospitals are St. Anthony\u2019s Summit Medical Center in Frisco and Vail Health Hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were surprised to hear the news,\u201d said Michael Holton with Vail Health. \u201cOur goal is to provide the highest quality of care close to home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without hospital contracts, Kaiser has not been able to secure a \u201csustainable level of membership,\u201d Whited said.<\/p>\n

Kaiser serves approximately 4,400 members in Summit and Eagle counties, less than 5 percent of the Eagle\/Summit County market and less than 1 percent of Kaiser\u2019s total membership in Colorado, Whited said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are committed to minimizing the disruption for our members and assisting with the transition of their care and coverage,\u201d Whited said.<\/p>\n

\u201910-year proposition\u2019<\/p>\n

Ironically, Brent Bowman, Kaiser\u2019s executive director for regional strategy, said four years ago when the company opened in Eagle and Summit counties that, while not having a hospital contract would be a challenge, Kaiser was in it for the long haul.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to commit to a 10-year proposition,\u201d Bowman said at the time.<\/p>\n

Kaiser\u2019s four-year foray into Colorado\u2019s resort region ends when it closes the Edwards and Frisco offices on Dec. 27.<\/p>\n

Kaiser\u2019s troubles are not limited to the High Country. Colorado\u2019s largest health insurer laid off 400 people over the past eight months.<\/p>\n

Kaiser\u2019s High Country conundrum<\/p>\n

Part of Kaiser\u2019s High Country conundrum is competition or the lack of it, explained Bethe Wright of the Wright Insurance Co.<\/p>\n

In Denver, and along Colorado\u2019s more densely populated Front Range, health insurance providers can negotiate with hospitals and doctors for discounts as high as 50% on some procedures. In the High Country, that discount rarely tops 10 percent, numbers that are readily available from a patient\u2019s billing statement, Wright said.<\/p>\n

Besides opening medical clinics in Edwards and Frisco, Kaiser was among the first to offer online access to doctors. Kaiser had even offered to transport patients to Denver for medical procedures at a Kaiser facility, put them in a hotel and bring them home \u2014 if it was less expensive than the procedure would cost locally, a business method Kaiser has used successfully in other places.<\/p>\n

The good news is that this year\u2019s state legislation might provide some relief in 2020.<\/p>\n

The Vail Symposium and Vail Valley Partnership co-hosted a Vail Valley Business Forum on Thursday, \u201cHealing What Ails Us \u2026 Affordable Healthcare In Our Community.\u201d In the hour-and-a-half forum, health care executives and elected officials discussed how the private and public sectors are tackling the issue of skyrocketing health care and health insurance costs.<\/p>\n

In Summit County, the Peak Health Alliance is scheduled for next year and could mean health insurance rates drop by 20%.<\/p>\n

Vail Health CEO Will Cook said the hospital and other Eagle County entities are working to roll out some solutions in 2021.<\/p>\n

In the meantime the Vail Valley Partnership rolled out its One Valley Healthcare Program late last year. It\u2019s not insurance, but covers preventive care and other options for employers, employees and sole-proprietors who are VVP members.<\/p>\n

Kaiser\u2019s departure leaves Anthem\/Blue Cross as the only individual health insurance carrier left in Eagle County, while Summit also has Bright Health, a co-op, in addition to Anthem.<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2015 Kaiser Permanente Colorado’s Brent Bowman said the healthcare\/health insurance company was making a 10-year commitment to Eagle and Summit counties. Kaiser confirmed Thursday that the group is pulling out of Eagle and Summit counties at the end of the year.Daily file photo VAIL \u2014 Colorado\u2019s High Country will have one less health insurance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-25494","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-12 02:44:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIFT - The LIFT FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25494\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}