{"id":21595,"date":"2020-02-26T11:49:15","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T18:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/?p=63367"},"modified":"2020-02-26T11:49:15","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T18:49:15","slug":"centura-health-backs-out-of-southwest-colorado-community-health-alliance-raising-concerns-about-partnership-with-peak-health-in-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/centura-health-backs-out-of-southwest-colorado-community-health-alliance-raising-concerns-about-partnership-with-peak-health-in-summit\/","title":{"rendered":"Centura Health backs out of Southwest Colorado community health alliance raising concerns about partnership with Peak Health in Summit"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Peak Health Alliance CEO Tamara Pogue speaks during a Colorado health care forum discussion Feb. 21 at the Summit County Community and Senior Center in Frisco. <\/strong>
Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

FRISCO \u2014 Centura Health, the largest health care provider in Colorado and owner of St. Anthony Summit Medical Center, has backed out of participating in a community health care alliance in southwest Colorado and instead will offer its own discounted plan that promises 20% savings from previous offerings. <\/p>\n

Centura made the announcement with a paid advertisement in the most recent weekend edition of The Durango Herald<\/a>. The move effectively means Centura is dropping out of negotiations to collaborate with Southwest Health Alliance, an offshoot of Summit County\u2019s Peak Health Alliance operating under Peak\u2019s guidance, to negotiate rates with insurers and provide plans directly to consumers. <\/p>\n

Centura owns and operates Mercy Regional Medical Center, one of Durango and southwest Colorado\u2019s largest and most technologically advanced hospitals. In a news release announcing the departure from negotiations, Centura officials said there was no single solution that worked for all Colorado communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cReal solutions don\u2019t come in third-party packages,\u201d the Centura advertisement said. \u201cWe learned some valuable lessons last year in Summit County.\u201d <\/p>\n

The ad went on to subtly criticize the intermediary negotiation model on which Peak Health is based. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Centura offers major price discounts, it doesn\u2019t always correspondingly translate to reductions in insurance premiums for individuals and businesses,\u201d the ad states. \u201cThese third-party \u2018solutions\u2019 can also significantly and unnecessarily narrow consumers\u2019 choices for health care while completely eliminating necessary competition in the marketplace.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the move in Durango has no immediate impact in Summit, where Centura has a commitment with Peak Health through next year, it does have Peak Health worried that the health provider might use the same tactic in Summit during next year\u2019s negotiations, making its own agreements with insurance carriers and offering its own discounted health plan while cutting Peak Health and the broader community out of the process.<\/p>\n

Peak Health CEO Tamara Pogue said she is concerned about how Centura went about the split, saying Southwest Health Alliance had been working with Centura for three months on a deal and that the announcement came at the last minute, just when the state would require Southwest Health Alliance to submit its rates for 2021 approval.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were aware we would have to have the fee negotiations and rate schedules wrapped up this week,\u201d Pogue said. \u201cThey made the decision seemingly last minute and didn\u2019t give us many options moving forward. I have to tell you that the folks down there (at Southwest Health Alliance) are very angry about this lack of transparency and accountability in the system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pogue said she believes state politics \u2014 particularly the push by Gov. Jared Polis\u2019 administration to introduce a public health insurance option in the state \u2014 had a part to play in Centura\u2019s departure from negotiations with Southwest Health Alliance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey made these deals behind closed doors that don\u2019t create transparency or empower communities,\u201d Pogue said. \u201cI believe (Centura) has a significant amount of anger at the Polis administration on the public option proposals and they are using this maneuver to express their feelings. Publicly, Centura has been so supportive of the community alliance model, and that makes this seem completely out of character.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monique DiGiorgio is director of the Local First Foundation, a Durango-based community foundation instrumental in building the Southwest Health Alliance. She said her group was \u201cblindsided\u201d by Centura\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to believe that they came to the negotiating table with us in good faith,\u201d DiGiorgio said. \u201cIt seemed to epitomize what\u2019s missing from health care in general, which is truth, transparency and honesty.\u201d<\/p>\n

DiGiorgio said she and others with the Southwest Health Alliance were \u201cappalled\u201d by the way Centura conducted negotiations. She had choice words directed toward the health care giant and Mercy Regional Medical Center, where Southwest Health Alliance supporters planned to protest during a Tuesday forum Centura was conducting with hospital doctors and staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst, shame on you for calling yourself a community hospital when you take orders from Centura\u2019s corporate offices and take the community out of the picture,\u201d DiGiorgio said. \u201cSecond, we think you really made the wrong decision. We do applaud taking 20% off of prices, which remains to be seen, but you should also be staying at the table with Southwest Health Alliance for the next two days.\u201d<\/p>\n

DiGiorgio said she remained optimistic Centura leaders would change their minds and return to the negotiating table. In the meantime, she said the alliance will continue negotiations with other providers in the area, including the regional anchor hospital, Animas Surgical Hospital.<\/p>\n

As far as Summit, Pogue said she fears Centura will do the same thing in Summit next year or in the years to come, creating its own deals with carriers like Rocky Mountain Health Plans and Bright Health while cutting Peak Health Alliance out of the picture.<\/p>\n

Pogue admitted Centura has expressed its continued commitment to Peak Health in Summit. She also said the fact that only 13% of St. Anthony\u2019s business comes from locals makes it less likely that Centura would back out of Peak health in favor of its own plan because business would continue to roll in.<\/p>\n

Centura Director of Communications Wendy Forbes provided a statement from Centura that aimed to tamp down concerns Centura would pull out of Peak Health in the coming years, saying Centura was committed to innovative solutions that fit best for individual communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cCentura Health and St. Anthony Summit Medical Center are committed to our partnership with Peak Health Alliance in Summit County which spans through 2020 and 2021,\u201d the statement said. \u201cWe were the first and are still the only Peak partner in the state of Colorado. We will always support real, viable, and sustainable solutions that put savings directly into the pockets of our neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Sky-Hi News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peak Health Alliance CEO Tamara Pogue speaks during a Colorado health care forum discussion Feb. 21 at the Summit County Community and Senior Center in Frisco. Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com FRISCO \u2014 Centura Health, the largest health care provider in Colorado and owner of St. Anthony Summit Medical Center, has backed out of participating in […]<\/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":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21595","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 18:25:56","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":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21595\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}