2009 John R. Moran, Jr. Grantee Leadership Award Recipient

Steven Poole, MD
Founder and Director, Colorado Children’s Healthcare Access Program

The Colorado Trust announced the Colorado Children's Healthcare Access Program (CCHAP) as the recipient of its 2009 John R. Moran, Jr. Grantee Leadership Award. The annual award of $25,000 is made in recognition of exemplary leadership by a current grantee of The Colorado Trust, and is being used by CCHAP to support its ongoing work.

With CCHAP support, the percentage of Front Range pediatricians and family doctors who care for publicly insured children has increased over the past three years from 20% to 90%, serving some 60,000 low-income children.

Preliminary results show that pediatric and family medical practices participating in CCHAP have cut in half the emergency room visits of the publicly insured children they see, and have achieved other costs savings with an increased focus on well-child visits and preventive care. These savings are used to provide higher reimbursements to doctors, making it possible for them to see increasing numbers of children covered by Medicaid and CHP+. Additionally, CCHAP has linked the participating practices to an array of services for families provided by 30 community-based organizations, for example, mental health counseling, social services, transportation, case management and an immunization reminder system.

Having achieved these significant results – higher immunization rates, more preventive care visits, and decreased emergency care visits and hospitalization rates – CCHAP is now focused on helping family practices across the remainder of the state to enroll and serve eligible children.