PSD leaps into unknown with experimental contracts

FORT COLLINS – Earlier this summer, the Poudre School District, Poudre Valley Hospital and two Fort Collins physician groups, United Physicians of Northern Colorado and Fort Collins IPA, inked a landmark agreement to contract among themselves to deliver health-care benefits to school-district employees.

Landmark because it is the first such agreement among a self-insured employer, the hospital and local providers in Fort Collins, the agreement is the subject of intense speculation and scrutiny. Some suggest it is destined to fail, and some believe it could reshape the way in which health care is managed and delivered in Northern Colorado.

Under the agreement,…