As Colorado Public Radio’s Eric Whitney and The Denver Post’s Michael Booth reported earlier this month, a study in the current edition of the journal Health Affairs shows that nationwide about one-third of office-based primary care physicians are not taking on new Medicaid patients, and the rate for Colorado is in line with this national average. This phenomenon is certain to receive a great deal of attention as healthcare and payment reform progress at the national and state levels. The WellPower has a role in this too.

The WellPower is dedicated to providing primary care to our consumers, a majority of whom are Medicaid recipients. Part of our strategy in building the Recovery Center was to increase our primary care capacity by incorporating five exam rooms into a dedicated integrated care wing. With generous grant funding from the Colorado Health Foundation and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), we are currently partnering with Colorado Access, the University of Colorado Hospital Department of Family Medicine and Denver Health to deliver primary care in this space. Another integrated care initiative led by Denver Health and funded by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation will soon come online. And we are currently exploring the possibility of bringing in Bruner Family Medicine Center (part of Exempla St. Joseph Hospital) to provide primary care services.

Along with our partners, we are continuously seeking to innovate and promote more effective care solutions that increase patient satisfaction and improve public health at lower cost. And as we innovate around methods of care delivery and payment arrangements, we are both adapting to and informing the continuing evolution of healthcare and payment reform.

We’ll continue to post updates and commentary on the evolving state of healthcare. For more information about healthcare integration and Medicare/Medicaid reform, please visit the websites of the Center for Integrated Health Solutions (http://www.integration.samhsa.gov/) and the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (http://www.innovations.cms.gov/).