People who purchase their health insurance on the Individual Marketplace in Summit and Grand Counties may remember the Peak Health Alliance. While Peak-sponsored plans were available in 2021 and 2022, they disappeared in 2023.

“Our old health insurance partner, Bright Health, went out of business before 2023,” explains Rich Cimino, Peak’s new Executive Director. “We had to use all of 2023 to put our network back together with a new insurance partner. This time we chose another Colorado nonprofit, Denver Health Medical Plan (DHMP). They share our goal of working to make health insurance more affordable.”

For 2024 Peak once again sponsored plans, now called the Elevate Health Plans by DHMP. “We partner very well with Denver Health Medical Plan,” Cimino says. “They have offered health insurance since 1997. They have a healthy financial picture and are expanding into more and more counties across Colorado.”

That said, some people have expressed concern or even confusion about Denver Health Medical Plan. Is it part of the Denver Health Hospital system in Denver, which was founded in 1860 and is now 164 years old? As Cimino explains, “The Denver Health Hospital is a separate nonprofit from the health insurance company. In 1997, they formed the Denver Health Medical Plan. They have different CEOs, different staff and they are separate operations. Their insurance company is now 27 years old; they are well established.”

There is another reason Peak chose Denver Health Medical Plan as their partner. As many High Country residents remember, another health insurance company, Friday Health Plans, went out of business in 2023. The Colorado Division of Insurance announced in July that customers had until August 31^st to choose a new company.

That change could potentially cost customers thousands of dollars because typically a new health insurance company will not honor the deductible payments made under the previous plan. Only two companies in Colorado honored the deductible payments that Friday customers had already paid: Kaiser Permanente and Denver Health Medical Plan.

“Denver Health Medical Plan was only in four counties in 2023, so while it was awesome that they were helping Friday’s former customers, most people in Colorado couldn’t switch to them. With Peak’s help, Denver Health Medical Plan has expanded into nine new counties in 2024, including Grand and Summit,” Cimino explained.

While the primary focus of Peak Health Alliance is serving the customer, Peak also seeks to support providers, including hospitals, doctors and therapists. “We strive to get more people insured, and to encourage our members to seek medical care locally rather than travel to Denver or other far-away places. If we reduce the uninsured rate and reduce medical outmigration, local hospitals and doctors will see more patients. This is important because rural health care is a tough business. We want to send more business to local providers.”

Peak is planning for a long-term presence in the Central Mountains and Western Colorado. Most of the preparation for 2025 is complete, and work has already begun for 2026. “The mission to improve health care is a daunting task. I often joke to friends that our motto could be ‘Fixing health care a nickel at a time.’ We know this is going to take a while! I just want our customers to know when they chose an Elevate plan, they support two nonprofits fighting to improve health care, little by little, year after year.”