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Axis Health gains a $541,000 grant

Heath

Since 2013, more Coloradans than ever have health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, but the challenge in rural areas such as Southwest Colorado is providing access to health-care services for preventive and primary care for all these newly insured residents.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced more than $101 million in grants to health centers, including more than $541,000 to Southwest Colorado Mental Health Center, now doing business as Axis Health. Axis has clinics in Cortez and Pagosa Springs as well as running La Plata Integrated Health, the Crossroads at Grandview for crisis-level psychiatric care and detox patients, and the Columbine Center in Bodo Industrial Park.

The money will be used to create a Cortez Integrated Health along the lines of La Plata Integrated Health, Axis Chief Operating Officer Shelly Burke said.

“We’re operating on a limited scope there, with a much smaller clinic that includes both primary care and mental-health services,” she said. “This will allow us to increase our services, because they have the same problem recruiting primary-care physicians as we do over here.”

The problem with recruiting primary-care physicians isn’t just the cost of doing business here, she said.

“There are so few primary-care physicians coming into the market,” Burke said, “because most physicians are specializing now.”

The increase in capacity in Cortez is sorely needed, said Bern Heath, CEO of Axis Health.

“We have as high a population of Medicaid patients in Montezuma County as we do in La Plata County,” he said. “That’s numbers, not percentage. Because Montezuma County has half the population, that means twice the percentage of Medicaid patients. And reimbursement for Medicaid services is pitiful.”

Fortunately, he said, health centers receive a higher reimbursement than private physicians. It’s as difficult in Montezuma County as it is in La Plata County to find physicians who will accept Medicare, as well, so the Cortez Integrated Health will help fill that void, too.

“It’s important for people to understand that this is not a free clinic,” Heath said. “We have a sliding scale based on ability to pay, and we determine what constitutes an ability to pay.”

La Plata Integrated Health opened in January 2014 after Axis received a similar grant through the federal Health Resources and Services Administration. It currently has about 1,400 patients and a capacity for about 2,000 more, Heath said.

The clock is ticking now – Axis has 120 days to get the center up and running. Fortunately, it’s not facing anything near the $1 million remodel it had to undertake for La Plata Integrated Health. The current clinic in Cortez has ample room to grow at its current location, he said.

abutler@durangoherald.com



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