“UCHealth has not made any changes to insurance plans accepted at Estes Park Health,” Dan Weaver, vice president of Communications for UCHealth said Wednesday.
Weaver’s remarks were made to clarify potential misconceptions created from candid remarks made by an audience member following Tuesday afternoon’s Town Hall meeting hosted by Colorado Rep. Lesley Smith, who represents the Estes Valley in Colorado State House District 49.
At that meeting, Sara Barwinski told the group she had received notification that her insurance coverage through Kaiser Permanente would no longer cover services received at the EPH Physicians Clinic after a pending ownership change from EPH to UCHealth. The affiliation transfer as an independent facility to UCHealth is anticipated to occur Dec. 1.
Barwinski said her coverage would include care in the local emergency room or at the Urgent Care facility.
According to Weaver, “contracts with health insurance providers are generally finalized in the spring and summer for the following year,” Weaver said. “We wouldn’t anticipate any change to insurance coverage for 2026. Coverage for 2026 would be dependent on the contracts EPH worked out earlier this year with insurance companies, he said.
The Kaiser Permanente website shows that the Estes Park Urgent Care Center and Estes Park Medical Center are affiliate locations for Kaiser Permanente services.
Concern expressed at the Tuesday meeting included the belief that negotiations between EPH and UCHealth should have included coverage by Kaiser Permanente because such plans had been included in a similar hospital transfer when UCHealth acquired a similar facility in Steamboat Springs in 2017.
“The statement about promising to continue Kaiser insurance in Steamboat when Yampa Valley Medical Center joined UCHealth is not accurate,” Weaver said, noting that UCHealth’s contracting agent confirmed that Kaiser did not offer a plan at Yampa Valley Medical Center in Steamboat Springs before that facility’s affiliation with UCHealth, and still does not.
The contracting agent said Kaiser Permanente does not offer plans in Routt County.
“We would never be able to promise to remain in-network with a health insurance plan,” Weaver said. “An insurance plan can decide to stop offering a plan in certain locations or to change their network and exclude us. We have no control over the decisions that another company may make,” he said.
Medical insurance accepted at EPH for 2026 will be dependent on contracts established earlier this year.
Those interested in knowing which Medicare Advantage and Connect for Health Colorado plans will be in-network in 2026 at UCHealth can refer to an announcement made earlier this month.
I am pleased that UCHealth has no plans to change insurance coverage. But I need to clarrify some information included in the article.
The reason I raised the concern at the meeting was two-fold. One, I had been receiving requests from UC Health to pre-pay over $270 dollars for my annual physical which is 100% covered by Kaiser. I was again asked to pay it upon check-in. I did not pay it and got it resolved with Financial Services, but I was afraid there might be other patients that would not question it and just pay the bill.
EP Health also could not tell me whether my Kaiser insurance would be accepted in 2026. The Kaiser provider directory does include Estes Park Medical Center as I said at the meeting, but nobody can tell me if that contract includes the physicians at the clinic, as only emergency and mammograms are listed.
When I called Kaiser Member Services they stated that there were no covered doctors within 25 miles of Estes. So, I don’t know if this is a misunderstanding, something that fell between the cracks, a situation that can be corrected, or if Kaiser has indeed changed its network.
This is important information for patients to know during open enrollment as they make decisions about insurance.
My concerns had nothing to do with was UCHealth and Kaiser in Steamboat Springs. I am well aware that Kaiser has never been in Steamboat. What I said was that the Steamboat community had a robust, healthy and transparent process with UCHealth which yielded a contract which seems to be working well.
This contrasted with the lack of transparency and the poor communication that characterized Estes Park’s experience and that I was continuing to experience.
I recognize the value added of UCHealth to our community. I also feel I have gotten excellent care from my primary care doctor and staff at the Physicians Clinic.
Kaiser coverage has also worked very well for me. What has been frustrating is the poor communication and coordination that makes it hard to make decisions at this juncture.
If you, like me, have your primary doctor in Estes and are served by Kaiser elsewhere, don’t pay UCHealth in 2025 and check with Kaiser whether your doctor is covered in 2026 and complain if they are not. Hopefully, this can be resolved, or at least accurate information made available. Sara Barwinski