University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Anschutz

What We Do

Areas of Expertise

For too long, we’ve been operating within a fragmented health care system – one that separates payment from value, individuals from their community, mental health from physical health, and health care from public health and social services. Fragmented systems and disconnected policies lead to clinical, operational, and financial barriers to achieving health and well-being. A coordinated effort in policy and practice to align sectors and integrated care is needed to reduce costs, improve access, and attain equitable health outcomes. We partner with state and local stakeholders and decision makers to transform systems for integrating care. Projects include:

Facilitation of three subcommittees and developing recommendations for the Colorado Behavioral Health Task Force
Provision of technical, adaptive, and leadership assistance to Virginia, Oregon, and Idaho to advance their integrated care efforts
Development of COVID-19, case-based playbook for rural hospitals and rural primary care practices to help them solve a variety of pandemic-related problems they may face, including staffing, supplies, communication, and clinical care challenges

Finance and payment policies drive action. To address the fragmentation within and across sectors that impact health, we must address the siloed payment and financing that perpetuates it. To shift a myopic focus on medical conditions and crises to a broader view of health that encompasses prevention, behavioral health, and social needs; we need a financing approach that prioritizes areas that have historically received inadequate attention. Our work in payment and finance builds on and translates evidence of the integration of funds across sectors and the design of support needed to address all the drivers of health and well-being. Work in this area includes:

Identifying payment policy barriers and facilitators to integrating behavioral health and primary care
Evaluating an alternative payment demonstration project to assess cost savings for integrated care
Synthesizing the evidence of Medicaid innovations to integrate behavioral health and primary care
Identifying the impact of different alternative payment models on the pillars of primary care and the quadruple aim
Amplifying the need for primary care payment reform in light of the COVID-19 pandemic

The delivery of high-quality health care to improve health and well-being depends on a high-quality workforce capable of delivering team-based care. Historical attempts to alleviate workforce shortages have focused primarily on geographic distribution without consideration of other influential factors that contribute to provider shortages. Policies and best practices to improve and expand the health care workforce require focus on geographic distribution, clinical and community settings, provider types required for team-based care, and promoting diversity within the workforce to align with patient characteristics. Additionally, building workforce capacity requires policies aimed to bolster the pipeline and education programs, recruitment and retention with payment reform and burnout prevention, and continuing education opportunities to maximize team-based care.

Conducting mixed methods research to determine political and policy barriers to implementing Graduate Medical Education workforce goals and development of a strategic policy platform and policy products
Developing
core competencies for behavioral health providers working in primary care
Designing and implementing an international virtual learning program for young family physicians to teach advocacy and practice transformation skills
Analyzing state-based workforce of licensed and unlicensed behavioral health providers to meet population needs

We envision the country as a vast mosaic of communities, rich in cultural identity and powerful in their diversity. Community-based policy and research harness diverse cultural assets to achieve greater equity in health and to drive progress that addresses power differentials entrenched in structure and policies, explicitly racism and stigma. Listening to and learning from communities allow us to serve as partners to elevate local policy priorities to inform action. Our work in prevention and well-being takes a broad view on health, occurs in a variety of settings, and is in service to communities that are key to preventing health problems and promoting well-being so that every individua; lead a healthy and fulfilling life. Work in this area includes:

Assisting community collaborative groups to prevent mental, emotional, and behavioral health problems in youth
Convening members of the medical and legal communities to inform local partnerships to address social and legal needs

Health is determined and influenced by far more than health care services. Understanding that social and environmental factors define access, availability, and culturally specific and responsive care; we consider social policies essential lever for improving health and addressing health equity. Projects include:

Partnering with Cleo Parker Robinson Dance to create an Arts Alliance for Health Equity, engaging diverse leaders and organizations to develop arts advocates for health equity to drive public policies that support social and emotional wellbeing and connectedness
Analyzing child welfare agency data and Medicaid data to understand the health care cost and utilization by children and youth in foster care, frequency of foster care placement changes on healthcare cost, and utilization outcomes for foster care youth
Piloting the provision of medical legal services through a telehealth model in two primary care clinical sites, conducting an economic analysis, and evaluating the impact on health equity
Providing information to help medical and mental health providers identify eligible cases, refer asylum seekers to legal services, and access trainings to increase the number of trained clinicians providing medical and mental health forensic examinations Presenting evidence-based opportunities to strengthen gun safety legislation to protect Colorado youth from suicide, homicide, and accidental gun death

Eugene S. Farley, Jr. Health Policy Center

CU Anschutz

Academic Office One

12631 East 17th Avenue

Box F496

Aurora, CO 80045

FarleyHealthPolicyCenter@cuanschutz.edu

303-724-9767

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University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Anschutz

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Schools and Colleges

CU Denver

CU Anschutz Medical Campus

Eugene S. Farley, Jr. Health Policy Center

What We Do

Research

Translate

Educate

Convene

Implement

Areas of Expertise

Eugene S. Farley, Jr. Health Policy Center

CU Anschutz

Academic Office One

What We Do

Research

Translate

Educate

Convene

Implement

Areas of Expertise

System Transformation to Integrate Care

Finance and Payment Policy

Workforce Development

Community-based Prevention & Well-being

Social Policy to Address Disparities

Eugene S. Farley, Jr. Health Policy Center

CU Anschutz

Academic Office One