After serving the Yampa Valley for 25 years as an independent medical practice, the partner-owners of Yampa Valley Medical Associates in Steamboat Springs have decided to join UCHealth starting Oct. 1, according to a Tuesday news release.

Yampa Valley Medical Associates partners — Dr. Brian Harrington, family medicine; Dr. Jennifer Kempers, internal medicine; and Julia von Allmen, certified physician assistant in family medicine — are committed to continuing to caring for patients locally as UCHealth staff starting this fall.

“We are super excited about this transition, and this is a very positive move for primary care in Steamboat Springs,” said Kempers, who joined the practice in 2003.

Yampa Valley Medical Associates will debut the new name of UCHealth Primary Care – Steamboat Springs starting Oct. 1. Officials at UCHealth said all staff at Yampa Valley Medical Associates will be offered positions through UCHealth. Kempers said she expects all the clinic staff will transition to UCHealth, but employees are being given the choice.

“YVMA was founded in 2000 with the goal to provide full-service primary care to patients in the Yampa Valley, and we’ve done that,” Kempers said in the news release. “We’ve watched in recent years how primary care services have shifted across the nation with reimbursement challenges and difficulties recruiting providers and staff. It’s taken time for those changes to reach us locally, but they have.”

Kempers said the practice has an active patient count of more than 7,000 people from across Routt, Moffat, Jackson, Grand and Rio Blanco counties in Colorado, as well as in Carbon County, Wyoming. The independent practice was founded by doctors Mark McCaulley, Lambert Orton and Kevin Borgerding. McCaulley and Orton have retired, and Borgerding works for UCHealth in Craig.

Kempers said the practice has been “fortunate” to partner with the hospital through the years in such areas as serving on medical leadership teams and some physicians working as hospitalists.

Kempers said the primary care practice anticipates benefiting from being part of UCHealth, especially through assistance with recruitment of medical and support staff as well as “great benefits and job security.” The clinic currently is recruiting for two additional physicians who would become UCHealth employees.

The cost of living in the Steamboat Springs area contributed to the partners’ decision, Harrington said.

“Unfortunately, there is inadequate funding for primary care, and we have struggled to recruit providers and retain staff in a community with a high cost of living,” said Harrington, who joined the practice in 2006. “Joining UCHealth provides us the opportunity and resources to continue serving our community with a partner who shares our values.”

Clinic staff who become full-time UCHealth employees, which is 32 hours or more per week, also will be eligible for housing in the UCHealth Creek’s End apartments, said Lindsey Reznicek, YVMC communications manager. Currently the 42-unit apartments are all allocated except for a few bedrooms in shared apartments, and the complex currently provides housing for 96 people including 55 medical center staff and their families, Reznicek said.

“We have been able to recruit employees into the community through Creek’s End,” Reznicek said.

The practice staff will work with UCHealth through the next three months for a coordinated transition, and the two medical systems already utilize the same patient medical records portal, according to the news release. Patients will maintain access to personal health records through the My Health Connection portal.

The physical space for the medical associates’ office is leased from a third party, but officials hope to keep the clinic in the same location.

“We’re excited to welcome YVMA’s providers and staff into the UCHealth family,” said Soniya Fidler, president of YVMC. “Combined, they have over 50 years of primary care experience that is trusted by so many in this community. Patients can continue seeing their primary care team, now with the support and connectivity of UCHealth.”

Fidler said the hospital will be conducting a gap analysis review within the new few weeks to determine if all patients who have in-network insurance coverage at YVMA also will have that same status with UCHealth. Kempers said she expects insurance coverage to maintain status quo.