Clinic adds provider, plans chronic-care program and expands care coordination

Weston County Health Services staff updated the board on clinic operations, new providers and plans for a chronic-care program aimed at diabetes and hypertension.

Why it matters: the clinic reported growing patient visits that should increase revenue, and leaders said a chronic-care program could both improve care for high-need patients and provide modest reimbursement to the facility.

Staff said Kelly Raymond, a new provider, will begin shadowing on Oct. 6 and start seeing patients around Oct. 8; the provider will split time between Upton and Newcastle clinics. Clinic staff reported 530 patient visits at the clinic in the prior month and said walk-in visits and established-care appointments are climbing. The specialty clinics also reported new patient inflow, including from Colorado.

Staff described a planned chronic-care program to begin in January that will target diabetes and hypertension and use monthly 20-minute nurse contacts. One staff speaker described a reimbursement of $40 per qualifying monthly contact and estimated program revenue could scale as patient enrollment grows (examples in discussion ranged from 40 to 200 participants in potential scenarios). The program will use Epic reporting tools to identify eligible patients and track visits.

Staff also reported an initial care-coordination meeting with Mountain-Pacific, and said Mountain-Pacific will help implement coordination services at the clinic. Chart audits and documentation work were described as improving; staff credited help from Nova (a contracted partner mentioned in the meeting) for improving E&M coding and documentation.

The board requested follow-up details on eligibility criteria, projected enrollment, and how the clinic will operationalize monthly nurse contacts and billing. Staff set a tentative target of January for program rollout and said they will return with more implementation details.