UC Health recently announced plans to form a joint venture with Intermountain Healthcare to establish a large clinically integrated network (CIN) in Colorado.  The stated intent of this joint venture is to accelerate the transition to value-based care and introduce new health insurance options.

Monument Health has fielded questions about what this means to our organization and Western Colorado.  Monument Health also operates a CIN, organized as a joint venture between Primary Care Partners and St. Mary’s Medical Center — now a part of Intermountain Health.

Monument Health has grown into one of the largest CINs in Colorado with a robust number of partnerships with insurance companies and employer groups to support 75,000 patients. Many of these relationships are advanced in terms of their levels of sophistication and have proven valuable in improving health outcomes and effectiveness while reducing the cost of care. Monument Health has forged the path toward value-based care across Western Colorado and serves as a model for this type of work statewide.

As a standalone entity operated by an independent board of directors, Monument Health isn’t a part of the proposed joint venture. But as the new joint venture develops, we will look at ways to partner. This partnership could take many potential forms, giving us a variety of options and ways to make this effective.

Monument Health will continue to strive to serve our local communities here in Western Colorado. Population health is local and requires strong local engagement with providers, employers and patients to achieve desired results.

I believe there could be many potential benefits to Western Colorado via partnerships with this new CIN.  One of the biggest benefits is the size and scale it offers, which could allow us to partner in deeper and more meaningful ways with insurance companies. Insurance is all about risk. Taking on significant risk becomes easier the larger the population. Our self-insured employer groups know this fact quite well. If we can spread risk across larger populations, we can more meaningfully engage in cost reduction efforts in partnership with insurance companies and pass along those savings to patients and employers.

Another possible benefit could be access to a larger network of providers, particularly around specialties that have longer wait times here or require travel. Our goal is to keep care local whenever possible. But when travel becomes necessary for highly specialized care, we want to ensure our patients are taken care of and transitioned seamlessly. That is an area we will explore.

The addition of another insurance option could also bring big benefits to the Western Slope. We look forward to learning more about Intermountain’s health plan, SelectHealth, and how that could operate in tandem with the new joint venture. Monument Health would welcome partnership with SelectHealth, as we have with many other payers willing to engage with us in value-based care work.

The type of work I’m describing upends the traditional paradigm of health care. CINs provide the framework and accountability to align the competing interests of providers, hospitals and insurance companies around the same goals focused on prevention and reducing the overall cost of care, which results in improved outcomes at lower prices. Without CINs, these competing interests wouldn’t have the incentive or, quite frankly, the ability to change their business models. Doctors wouldn’t be able to shift from caring for high volumes of patients at what’s referred to as a “churn and burn” pace with fees for services, and insurance companies would continue to push for as few visits and subsequent claims as possible. We envision a different future for health care and work to promote it. I believe this new joint venture CIN will share similar goals and aspirations.

The work we’ve accomplished in Western Colorado didn’t happen overnight. It was accomplished through consistency and local relationships. As Intermountain and UC Health begin this journey, we’re excited to support their efforts and share lessons learned. I look forward to exploring opportunities with this new entity to broaden the population we serve while increasing the resources and data available to Monument Health. With a broader population, risk can be spread and more effective health outcomes achieved.

In the meantime, Monument Health will continue to charge onward in our mission to promote a healthy population and preventive care while lowering costs. We will continue to explore local growth opportunities and prioritize our relationships with local employers The future is bright for us and Western Colorado.