{"id":794668,"date":"2019-04-09T17:12:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-09T23:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/lt-gov-dianne-primavera-visits-summit-county-to-learn-about-peak-health-alliance\/"},"modified":"2019-04-09T17:12:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-09T23:12:00","slug":"lt-gov-dianne-primavera-visits-summit-county-to-learn-about-peak-health-alliance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/lt-gov-dianne-primavera-visits-summit-county-to-learn-about-peak-health-alliance\/","title":{"rendered":"Lt.Gov. Dianne Primavera visits Summit County to learn about Peak Health Alliance"},"content":{"rendered":"
Colorado Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera speaks to the Summit County Board of County Commissioners at the old county courthouse, Tuesday, April 9, in Breckenridge. Primavera and Gov. Polis are working on a roadmap to healthcare savings, with Summit’s Peak Health Alliance playing a role.<\/strong>
Hugh Carey \/ hcarey@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gov. Jared Polis introduced last week a \u201croadmap\u201d to reducing health care costs in Colorado. The broad plan involves utilizing several legislative and community-based approaches to attack the problem from different directions.<\/p>\n

One such tactic is for consumers to negotiate down the cost of health insurance, and the governor is using Summit County\u2019s own Peak Health Alliance as the premier example of communities taking bargaining power into their own hands.<\/p>\n

Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera, who heads the governor\u2019s new Office of Saving People Money on Health Care, visited Summit on Tuesday to learn about Peak Health Alliance and observe the county\u2019s approach to administering health care.<\/p>\n

Primavera was on hand at the Board of County Commissioners\u2019 regular work session Tuesday, where she was given a short primer on the alliance and what it intends to achieve.<\/p>\n

The alliance is a pilot program that may serve as a model for other rural and resort communities in Colorado after it goes live next year. It is the state\u2019s first county-based health care collaborative which uses the collective bargaining power of self-insured employers and their employees to drive down costs, both with providers and insurers.<\/p>\n

Last month, Peak negotiated a contract to make Centura Health, which owns St. Anthony Summit Medical Center, the alliance\u2019s primary health service provider, and is working on other contracts based on negotiated health care fee schedules to cap costs above what Peak considers reasonable for the average Summit resident.<\/p>\n

Polis threw his support behind SB 19-004, which would clean up language in existing state laws and would allow the Peak Health Alliance and similar community-based to operate unhindered. That bill is sponsored by state Sen. Kerry Donavan (D-Vail) with Rep. Dylan Roberts (D-Avon) and Summit\u2019s own Julie McCluskie (D-Dillon) introducing the bill in the house.<\/p>\n

In the information packet explaining his healthcare roadmap, the governor\u2019s office specifically noted the Peak Health Alliance as the way forward on negotiating down health insurance costs.<\/p>\n

\u201c[W]e are supporting the Summit County Peak Health Alliance, which enables consumers to collectively negotiate their health insurance plans, and will bring its successes to the rest of the state,\u201d the informational packet reads.<\/p>\n

After the presentation on Peak, Primavera said she was impressed by the unique collaborative and how it was formed out of community-based problem-solving.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing, and it\u2019s a great example of democracy in action,\u201d Primavera told the Summit Daily. \u201cTo be able to come together and create this, and get these ideas to elected officials, it sets a great example for the rest of the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tamara Drangstveit, a member of Peak Health Alliance\u2019s executive committee and executive director of the Family and Intercultural Resource Center, appreciated the support the state is showing the pilot program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are grateful we have support from Gov. Polis and Lt. Gov. Primavera,\u201d Drangstveit said. \u201cThere is no question that we would not have been able to be as far along as we are without their support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Primavera next visited the Summit Community Care Clinic in Frisco, a frontline health center that provides care for insured and uninsured alike. Primavera noted that integrating different kinds of health care was a key part of the governor\u2019s roadmap, and the clinic is among the few facilities in the High Country that provides physical, behavioral and dental care to Summit residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Care Clinic was honored to host the Lieutenant Governor and share our successes and challenges as a community health center,\u201d said Summit Community Care Clinic CEO Helen Royal. \u201cWe look forward to further conversations as she and the Governor work on implementing their healthcare roadmap.\u201d<\/p>\n

Primavera\u2019s last stop in Summit before visiting Leadville was the Family and Intercultural Resource Center, which helps Summit\u2019s working families apply for health care coverage and other benefits. Drangstveit was on hand with several clients who offered testimonials on the ways FIRC helped them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked about the different issues we have out here, like the high cost of health care, shortages in housing; we spent a lot of time talking about mental health challenges in the community,\u201d Drangstveit said. \u201cShe definitely listened, and I think our clients got the sense she understood their struggles.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Peak Health Alliance will continue negotiating provider and insurance contracts and is still scheduled to go live in January 2020. SB 19-004 will get a hearing in the state legislature next week.<\/p>\n

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

Colorado Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera speaks to the Summit County Board of County Commissioners at the old county courthouse, Tuesday, April 9, in Breckenridge. Primavera and Gov. Polis are working on a roadmap to healthcare savings, with Summit’s Peak Health Alliance playing a role.Hugh Carey \/ hcarey@summitdaily.com Gov. Jared Polis introduced last week a \u201croadmap\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-794668","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 12:05:48","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":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794668\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}