I recently joined 12 health care leaders from across Western Colorado for a roundtable discussion hosted by Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

The federal agency administers Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and federal health insurance marketplace known as HealthCare.gov. The CMS also works to advance health equity, improve outcomes and expand affordable care and coverage.

Brooks-LaSure has made it a priority to travel across the nation to hear from health care leaders who work with both CMS and patients. Her goal is to help all eligible Americans enroll in programs for which they qualify, understand their coverage and use it to improve their health.

She spent her time in Western Colorado on better understanding how to support innovation, address health equity, explore opportunities for partnerships and identify barriers that hinder innovation in rural and underserved areas.

I encouraged Brooks-LaSure to prepare to encounter the unexpected. Despite the mostly rural setting on the Western Slope, we are unexpectedly collaborative, innovative and sophisticated. This ingenuity comes as no surprise to residents and leaders who work together to help our communities.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, CMS was no different. The agency had to quickly innovate and pivot to allow for telehealth visits in light of clinic closures. This allowed health care access to continue and proved beneficial to many patients.

The roundtable participants urged CMS to continue to allow payment for telehealth and home health services, which are even more important in rural communities where access is limited.

The digital divide remains a reality in rural areas, and many patients don’t have strong enough broadband to support video streaming in addition to virtual voice calls. We encouraged Brooks-LaSure to continue to allow audio-only visits to reach the most underserved patients. 

We also strongly encouraged the administrator to bring Medicaid into focus. Most of the roundtable participants stressed efforts to reach patients with the most needs for access and health resources. We expressed how important we believe Medicaid is as a vehicle to bolster health equity and outcomes.

But availability and accessibility doesn’t always result in use of Medicare, Medicaid or marketplace offerings. Several roundtable participants expressed their concerns about numerous patients who enroll, but don’t know how to use their benefits.

I shared the Monument Health approach, which invites people into the health care system.  At Monument Health, we strive to connect every member with a primary care provider. If a member doesn’t already have a primary care home, we reach out to them to invite them in. 

This allows us to connect with our members, get to know them and their health care needs and find primary care homes that offer a good fit. This is just one way we help them understand and navigate their care. If we could extend this work to more Medicaid participants — and financially incentivize providers to engage in it — we could make a meaningful difference.

Within this context, we encouraged Brooks-LaSure to consider extending Medicare programs that reward population health work to also support Medicaid participants. 

CMS is committed through its Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation to test and create new models of care, explore innovation and work closely with regional offices to understand health care trends and local data. Still, gaps in care exist. Access and health equity remain barriers to care, especially in rural areas. 

CMS works to identify those gaps, innovate and make sure everyone who’s eligible receives care and understands how to navigate it.

Brooks-LaSure hosted a productive conversation and truly listened to understand where gaps in care exist, where opportunities for innovation lie and how to promote health equity and access in rural Colorado. 

It was an honor to participate in the discussion. It affirms to me that Monument Health, along with our partners, improve the health of our community.