INSURANCE

What is SelectHealth and when will it launch?

Intermountain is a new player in Colorado’s health care market. Last year, it merged with SCL Health, giving it a presence in Colorado for the rst time. SelectHealth is Intermountain’s insurance arm — and, like Intermountain and UCHealth, it is nonpro t.

SelectHealth hopes to have plans available for sale in Colorado at the end of this year for coverage that would begin in 2024. It intends to session.

Environmental groups frustrated by the Polis administration’s lack of progress toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions and dangerous ozone hailed parts of the bill as doubling down on climate goals they say most Coloradans already support.

“It’s a really important bill,” said Heidi Leathwood, climate policy analyst for 350 Colorado.

Directives to the Public Employees Retirement Association “start the conversation on the state not sinking more of people’s retirement money into fossil fuel projects — investments that don’t t with our climate goals and are already losing money for investors,” Leathwood said. 350 Colorado also supports bumping the 2050 greenhouse gas reduction goal to 100% from the current 90%, in line with international climate science recommendations.

With state o cials acknowledging in late 2022 they were not on schedule o er Medicare Advantage plans, as well as insurance in the state’s individual insurance market, including via the Connect for Health Colorado insurance exchange. to meet 2025 greenhouse gas reductions of 26%, delineating new intermediate targets before 2050 is “the best way to ensure we get there,” she said.

UCHealth’s Cancro said SelectHealth won’t sell insurance in every Colorado county. Instead, it will launch in around 16 to 18 counties, he said. ose will mostly be along the Front Range, to match UCHealth’s and Intermountain’s footprints for their health systems.

First, though, SelectHealth must receive approval from the state’s Division of Insurance. e division is reviewing SelectHealth’s application and will announce a decision later this year.

“We’re falling behind when it comes to meeting our current goals. We need more investment,” Hansen said. e federal In ation Reduction Act puts real money behind changes needed to make climate goals, he added.

“ at has drastically lowered the price of climate tech across the spectrum,” he said. “So I think we really need state policy that’s going to accelerate and take advantage of that federal action.”

Hansen is one of dozens of candidates who have declared themselves for Denver’s spring mayoral race.

Lynn Granger, Midwest and Mountain West region director for the American Petroleum Institute, said the trade group is “generally supportive” of many elements of the bill, including a provision giving the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission authority to regulate injection wells for carbon sequestration. API said it is concerned, however, about one measure “which appears to compel PERA to divest from its energy investments.”

“Colorado remains an irreplaceable foundation of American energy security, and we are con dent that the nal iteration of this e ort can coexist with that reality,” Granger said.

Hansen’s Senate Bill 16 is co-sponsored by Democratic Reps. Karen

“ e DOI is just learning about this joint venture, and we will need to further analyze what it entails and what impact it will have on the state’s health insurance market,” Colorado Insurance Commissioner Michael Conway said in a statement. “But, this announcement is a clear indication that Colorado continues to be a place where health insurance companies want to come to, and that they want to do business in our individual health insurance market.”

Despite the obvious inside connection, leaders of UCHealth and Intermountain said SelectHealth won’t be getting a sweetheart deal when it contracts with the new clinically integrated network, or CIN, as

McCormick, Longmont, and Emily Sirota, Denver.

Some key measures of the multifaceted bill:

• Sets new greenhouse gas reduction goals of 65% from 2005 benchmark levels by 2035, 80% by 2040, 90% by 2045 and 100% in 2050. e state’s current greenhouse gas reduction targets from a 2019 law are set at 26% in 2025, 50% by 2030, and 90% by 2050.

• Requires the PERA board by June 1, 2024, to adopt proxy voting procedures that “ensure that the board’s voting decisions align with, and are supportive of, the statewide greenhouse gas emission reduction goals.”

• Adds wastewater thermal energy to the de nition of “clean heat resource.” Wastewater pipes can transfer their heat to clean water pipes that circulate to heat or cool ambient air in nearby buildings. A utility could include wastewater energy in its clean heat plan led with the Public Utilities Commission. Gives the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission authority over injection wells used for sequestration of greenhouse gasses, in part to give state authorities “primacy” over federal rules for the Safe Drinking Water Act.

• Requires local governments to expedite review of land use applications involving the renovation, rebuilding or reconditioning transmission lines.

• Beginning in 2024, insurance the executives refer to it.

“ e CIN will treat SelectHealth just like all payers here,” Mark Korth, Intermountain Healthcare’s regional president, said in a statement. “Any plan that aligns with the CIN’s goals of ensuring a better patient experience and health outcomes while lowering costs will be considered a valuable partner.” is story is from e Colorado Sun, a journalist-owned news outlet based in Denver and covering the state. For more, and to support e Colorado Sun, visit coloradosun.com. e Colorado Sun is a partner in the Colorado News Conservancy, owner of Colorado Community Media.

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