2025 CHAS Finds Seamless Care Begins with Care Coordination

March 19, 2026

April 23, 2026

A person’s health care is often fragmented among many providers. Good care coordination is increasingly essential to achieve access to care.

In 2025, over 3.6 million Coloradans reported getting all the care coordination help they needed. Yet approximately 557,000 Coloradans who needed help coordinating care did not get the help they needed, and another 1.4 million said they didn’t need help coordinating care.

Patients may receive care coordination support from their doctor’s office or through other organizations, like other service providers or Regional Accountable Entities, which serve as regional health plans for Health First Colorado (Colorado’s Medicaid program). Care coordination strategies aim to improve patient outcomes and reduce unnecessary health care utilization and spending. By reducing duplication, fragmentation, and gaps in care, these strategies increase patient satisfaction, engagement, and empowerment. Colorado has many initiatives, such as community care hubs and the Colorado Social Health Information Exchange, focused on connecting health care providers with social services like food and housing programs.

The 2025 CHAS highlights four findings into the 3.6 million Coloradans who received some form of care coordination in 2025:

Most insured Coloradans received the care coordination they needed.
Coloradans who need culturally responsive care and those with health-related social needs did not receive care coordination at the same rate as others.
Coloradans who received care coordination faced fewer insurance-related and other barriers to needed health care.
Those who received care coordination had a better impression of the health care system.

Insured Coloradans Are Getting Needed Care Coordination

More than 4 million, or 74.4% of Coloradans, indicated they needed care coordination. Care coordination was accessible to most, with 86.7% of those who needed it saying they got the help they needed coordinating care. But it primarily benefitted insured Coloradans.

Coloradans enrolled in public insurance like Medicare and Medicaid were more likely to indicate that they needed care coordination (87.0% and 78.2% respectively) and the most likely to receive needed care coordination (see Figures 1 and 2). Public insurance programs often use specific models, like managed care for Medicare and the Accountable Care Collaborative for Medicaid, that make care coordination both more common and more accessible. A strong majority of privately insured Coloradans also received the care coordination they needed, although a slightly smaller proportion of them said they needed it. These Coloradans may be accessing care coordination directly through their doctor’s office, rather than through an intermediary like the Accountable Care Collaborative.

In contrast to insured Coloradans, just over half of uninsured Coloradans said they needed care coordination (52.8%), which is not a surprise given that uninsured Coloradans access care less regularly than insured Coloradans. However, uninsured Coloradans who did need care coordination got it at a far lower rate, which may be due to primarily accessing acute care rather than preventive care.

Care Coordination Still Leaves Some Coloradans Behind

While most Coloradans received needed care coordination, some did not. For example, Coloradans who require culturally responsive care due to their language, race, religion, culture, gender identity, or other personal characteristics were less likely to receive needed care coordination than other Coloradans (see Figure 3).

Coloradans with health-related social needs frequently do not get the care coordination they need.

Only half of people with food and housing needs received care coordination, with many unaware that care coordination can address those needs. About 50% of Coloradans who were food insecure and 54.4% of those who struggled to pay their rent or mortgage received care coordination. However, not all people struggling with these health-related social needs may realize that care coordination can help them access food and housing services. About half of those with food and housing needs who did not receive care coordination services responded that the question did not apply to them, which may indicate they were unaware that care coordination services were available or did not believe they needed them. These data suggest there may be opportunities to address unmet health-related social needs through care coordination.

Coloradans receiving care coordination report fewer barriers to care.

Across all Coloradans, insured or not, people who received needed care coordination were more likely to have improved access to care. For example, both insured and uninsured people who received needed care coordination experienced better care access compared with those who did not receive needed care coordination:

Insured Coloradans

Visited a doctor in the past 12 months (92.4% vs. 85.9%)
Had a usual source of care (92.1% vs. 75.3%)
Got needed mental health care (90.6% vs. 69.1%)
Visited a dentist in the past year (78.4% vs. 63.7%)

Uninsured Coloradans

Had a usual source of care (64.5% vs. 51.6%)
Visited a dentist in the past year (62.2% vs. 33.4%)

Insured and uninsured Coloradans who received care coordination were also much less likely to experience common barriers to care (see Figure 4).

There are a few reasons why Coloradans who receive care coordination have better access to care. These Coloradans may already be more engaged in the health care system to begin with, and thus also receive coordination as part of that engagement. However, care coordination may support a better experience overall given how consistently it is associated with reduced barriers across different insurance types. Even uninsured Coloradans, who may be accessing care less regularly or more haphazardly, seem to be able to access care more easily if they’ve also engaged in care coordination.

Spotlight on the Accountable Care Collaborative

The Accountable Care Collaborative (ACC) is Colorado’s delivery system for Health First Colorado, Colorado’s Medicaid Program. Medicaid enrollees in Colorado are assigned to a Regional Accountable Entity (RAE), which serves as that person’s regional health insurance plan. Medicaid members can work with their RAE to understand in-network providers who accept Medicaid. RAEs are also responsible for ensuring that members who need care coordination receive it. Across the state, most Medicaid enrollees who need care coordination are getting it.

Medicaid enrollees who received care coordination reported better access to care than those who did not. This included fewer barriers to care such as:

Inability to get an appointment when needed (23.4% with care coordination vs. 55.2% without)
Were told their doctor’s office wasn’t accepting their insurance (16.1% with care coordination vs. 39.9% without)
Were told their office wasn’t accepting new patients (12.7% with care coordination vs. 30.4% without)
Didn’t have a way to get there (5.6% with care coordination vs. 21.2% without)

Medicaid enrollees who received help coordinating care were also more likely to have a regular source of care (86.5% vs. 71.0%), receive needed mental health care (88.1% vs. 62.8%), and oral health care (70.7% vs. 53.4%).

Care Coordination Improves Coloradans’ Outlook on Health Care

Finally, Coloradans who received care coordination were more than twice as likely to believe the health care system is working for them or their family than those who did not. This is true among those with private insurance, public insurance, and even among the uninsured (see Figure 6). Navigating the health care system places a significant burden on many Coloradans, and these data suggest that care coordination can help alleviate that burden.

Conclusion

The health care system is complex, and Coloradans often face barriers to accessing needed care; care coordination is one tool to lower these barriers. Data from the 2025 CHAS show that Coloradans are generally receiving needed care coordination services and are benefitting from doing so. Many other Coloradans, including those experiencing food insecurity or housing instability, or who need additional cultural considerations, might benefit from receiving these services.