On election day, area residents learned Estes Park Health was ready to publicly discuss details surrounding the partnership agreement between UCHealth and Estes Park Health.
Two days later, when a special meeting to discuss the issues was held, nearly 100 people filled the Town Hall Board Room, and another 42 tuned in online to hear the details.
In a choreographed PowerPoint presentation, David Batey, EPH board chair, read the resolution expected to be considered for passage at a second special session dealing with the affiliation arrangement set for next week.
Also attending Thursday night’s meeting were representatives from UCHealth and EPH’s legal representative David Snow from Hall, Render, Killian, Heath and Lyman, the largest health care-focused law firm in the United States with offices in Anchorage, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Raleigh, and Washington, D.C.
Details of the affiliation plan are nearly identical to those revealed in October 2024 when the EPH board first announced it had signed a letter of intent to affiliate with UCHealth, including changing the name of EPH to UCHealth Estes Valley Medical Center.
Items in the resolution include calling for the Park Hospital District, now doing business as EPH, to assign all money received from mill levy taxes and other income to UCHealth who will operate the medical center, creating a hospital board to include representation from both the Park Hospital District Board and the community, retaining EPH employees, and having UCHealth assume Park Hospital District’s outstanding debt.
Also included in the resolution that will be considered for passage next week is UCHealth’s post-closing commitment to
- Invest at least $20 million over 10 years for strategic capital and routine maintenance
- Evaluate providing new services for behavioral health, behavioral telehealth, telehealth programs, and pain management
- Maintain the critical access hospital designation currently held by the Estes Park facility
- Continue the operation of the ambulance service
- and provide financial reports to the Estes Park community showing how the tax revenues have been used.
Details surrounding those items are further defined by accompanying working documents posted in the “About Us” section on the EPH website, including the Integration and Affiliation Agreement and the Health System Operating Lease Agreement.
Community members are invited to ask questions about the agreements and can do so anonymously through the EPH website.
After Batey completed his prepared presentation, individual EPH board members were called upon one by one to laud the agreement before audience members spent about an hour asking questions.
From requesting details such as UC Health’s ability to “take” EPH equipment and use it elsewhere (answer: over the 50-year term of the agreement equipment will be replaced), to more in-depth overview requests such as “how are you going to change culture?” (answer: example provided about various types of training leading to cooperative work environment).
Adopting the resolution to enter into an agreement with UCHealth does not mark the end of the affiliation process. However, it does end negotiations on definitive agreements, including the operating lease and integration and affiliation agreements.
Once the Park Hospital District Board and UCHealth board approve the agreements as provided in the resolution, they will be submitted to the Colorado attorney general for review. This process requires a minimum of 60 days.
In the time between state approval and finalization of the affiliation, which could come in November, Snow said plenty of decisions need to be made by the combined newly elected Park Hospital District board members and remaining board members.
Among the details he mentioned were decisions about new bylaws, service plans, and other integration work.
Facing increasing debt and operations difficulties, voters in the Estes Park area authorized the Park Hospital District board to seek a partnership with another nonprofit healthcare provider in a district election two years ago.
The next special meeting of the EPH board will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 15, in the Town Hall Board Room.
Links to documents and EPH website
Integration and Affiliation Agreement
Health System Operating Lease Agreement
Community members are invited to ask questions anonymously through the EPH website.