Increasing Access to Long-Acting Reversible Contraception Yields Significant Results in Colorado

The Colorado Initiative to Reduce Unintended Pregnancy launched in 2008 with the goals of increasing access to Long-Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC) and reducing unintended pregnancy. Programs included Title X expansion, provider trainings, health education and multi-media campaigns.  Data show leading health indicators related to unintended pregnancy have significantly improved by reducing teen fertility, reducing repeat teen births, decreasing abortion rates and decreasing need for WIC services. In 2008, one out of every 170 low-income women, ages 15-24, in Colorado received a LARC method and by 2011 that number changed to one in 15. An estimated $23 million in Medicaid costs were averted in two years of program implementation associated with births expected to occur in 2010-2011.

Through the Initiative, Denver Health, Colorado’s largest safety-net health system, implemented a health education model, removed cost barriers and expanded LARC provider training to increase access for low-income women. In 2011, 12% of Title X family planning patients at Denver Health chose a LARC method during their visit. In 2013 the percentage increased to 19%.  Denver Health outcomes can be attributed to more than 75 providers completing contraceptive implant training, availability of an on-site Title X preceptor - nurse practitioner, expansion of a health education program across 15 school-based health centers and 5 community health centers, and funding to provide no-cost LARC methods to uninsured women. State and local program data demonstrate that increasing access and contraceptive education increases LARC use thus improving health outcomes.