Earlier this year, the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) made the determination that the contract to provide physician peer-assistance mental health services (currently delivered by Colorado Physician Health Program or CPHP) would be changed to a new vendor that will require physicians entering the program to sign a Release of Information form prior to undergoing evaluation. This means that the access to confidential counseling for the hundreds of physicians who voluntarily access the program every year will be dissolved.

Later this month, the Colorado Medical Board will address the issue. Unfortunately, some have stated that this issue is unimportant to physicians and that the average physician is not impacted by this erosion of privacy.

We, the undersigned, believe that preserving access to confidential counseling for Colorado physicians is a critical patient safety concern, and will negatively impact the practice of medicine in Colorado. We ask the Colorado Medical Board to take all actions necessary to ensure this access is preserved regardless of who the providing vendor may be.