One week after the Estes Park Health board of directors announced it had signed a letter of intent to become a partner of UCHealth, some details of the transfer were released.
Prior to the board’s regular monthly meeting, which was devoted solely to discussing the decision, a one-page summary showing some details of the plan was passed out to those attending the meeting in person, although its contents were not discussed during the session.
One thing area residents could anticipate is a name change for EPH. Once the transaction is complete, it is possible the facility could be renamed UCHealth Estes Valley Medical Center.
As previously announced, the transaction, which can, in some ways be equated to a real estate transfer, is expected to close late spring or early summer 2025. Some details of the deal still have to be negotiated, and once those undisclosed items are agreed upon, the Colorado Attorney General must be notified of the transfer 60 days prior to closing to allow that state office time to review the package but cannot block or modify it beyond existing Colorado antitrust laws.
Because the voters authorized transfer of “all or any portion of the District’s revenues” to an agreement to an ownership, operation and maintenance of the hospital, the summary states that “proceeds from the District’s mill levy and assessments will be assigned to UCHealth and will continue to be used to support Hospital and/or ambulance operations and patient care in the Park Hospital District consistent with historical practice.”
According to the district’s $64,891,706 draft 2025 budget the anticipated mill levy in the coming year will be $4,306,368. What portion of that will be assigned to UCHealth under the partnership transfer is unknown. None of the details supporting the line items on the one-page budget have been made available to the pubic.
The document also says the hospital board will include representation from both the district and the community.
All employees are expected to be extended an offer of employment with UCHealth at their current compensation, subject to pre-employment screening.
The summary of the letter of intent also says UC Health will commit to providing $20 million for strategic and routine capital over 10 years, evaluate the provision of new services for behavioral health, behavioral telehealth, telehealth, and outpatient-based urology and surgery, maintain the critical access hospital status of the hospital under the Medicare program or other similar status that mees community health care needs, and make available to the district a summary of UCHealth’s use of its assigned district’s tax revenues for the benefit of the hospital.
During Wednesday’s meeting, David Batey, EPH board chair was clear that there are more details of the partnership to be settled and that those will remain confidential.
“As we go along, there’ll be meetings like this,” Batey said. “This is not the last meeting. This is the first of many meetings going on in the future. As there are significant developments, we will make sure that everyone knows what they are to the degree that we can talk about them. Again, a lot of this is confidential.”
During his formal presentation about the decision to seek a partnership with UCHealth, Batey explained that the organization and EPH have shared values in both put patients first, have developed trust by working together over many years, has quality and excellent experience in clinical excellence, has the financial strength the Estes Park organization desires and will benefit the community, patients and employes.
Speaking on behalf of UCHealth, Dan Weaver, vice president of communications for UCHealth, provided an overview of the Colorado-owned non-profit health system that is separate from the University of Colorado. The 501(c)(3) organization operates 14 hospitals, has more than 200 locations in the region, had 2.7 million patients in 2022, employs 34,000 individuals and 6,000 physicians and affiliated partners.
UC Health offers services throughout Northern Colorado including more than a dozen clinics, such as Estes Park’s Timberline Medical on Stanley Avenue is a UCHealth clinic, Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Medical Center of the Rockies and Longs Peak Hospital in Longmont. The system is the largest provider of Medicaid services in the state.
Following Weaver’s presentation all EPH board members expressed their appreciation for staff and advisors’ assistance in the time, energy and expertise expended during the negotiation period. They also thanked the public for their patience.
When the meeting was opened to comments, Bill Brown, who is an Estes Park trustee, complimented the board for having chosen the right partner to work with, but urged the board to develop more transparency in their dealings with the public in the coming months, particularly given the number of concerns voiced by residents who he said have lost trust in the board.
“It’s obvious the problems are internal with a toxic work environment.” He went on to say that the board’s “commitment to secrecy” was further exemplified by reported difficulties in reviewing the one-page draft budget for 2025. “I encourage you to figure out how to be more transparent to the community, because the community is very upset.”
Brown’s comments were contradicted by three additional speakers, one who pointed to Brown being married to the editor of the Estes Valley Voice, and Wendy Rigby, EPH’s marketing and communication specialist, said she doesn’t believe EPH has a toxic work environment.
One retired employee of the Intermountain Health system said she understood the complexities of confidentiality that boards face and Dr. Bridgett Dunn let the board and Weaver know how pleased the physicians at EPH are with the decision to become partners.
When asked what primary challenges UCHealth will face in partnering with EPH, Weaver said, “communicating with employees always is a priority. It will take three to five months,” to fully integrate the UCHealth information.
One question left unanswered for further discussion was the role of the EPH Foundation. That, the caller was told would take a few conversations with the foundation in the coming weeks.