Relationship with the Colorado Board of Medical Examiners (BME)

The Colorado Physician Health Program (CPHP) is a nonprofit organization, independent of other medical organizations including the Colorado Board of Medical Examiners and the government. CPHP is governed by the Colorado Peer Assistance Act and is contracted through the State Board of Medical Examiners Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies to provide the peer assistance services to licensed physicians and physician assistants in the State of Colorado.

CPHP receives referrals from a wide variety of referral sources and the BME is one of those sources. The BME only knows an average of 20% of all cases at CPHP. The cases that are known to the BME are primarily referred by the BME to CPHP for evaluation.

"Safe Haven": Confidentiality of Health Matters upon Application/Reapplication

Physicians and Physician Assistants who are applying or reapplying for a Colorado Medical License or Colorado Physician Assistant License have the opportunity to allow certain medical and/or psychiatric matters to remain unknown to the Colorado Board of Medical Examiners under specific conditions.

There are questions in the application and reapplication for licensure that pertain to one’s medical/psychiatric health. These questions are related to matters like substance use, mental health disorders and cognitive matters. The choices available in answering these questions, are to answer "Yes" and acknowledge that one has a medical or psychiatric condition or to answer "No", denying that conditions like this exist.

If a person is "Known to CPHP", meaning that CPHP has been informed of the health matter/s, the applicant has attended an initial appointment with CPHP for the behavior or condition and there is compliance with all of CPHP’s requirements for evaluation, treatment, and/or monitoring, the applicant may answer "No" to this question. This allows certain personal health matters to remain unknown to the Colorado Board of Medical Examiners.

This "safe-haven" is a significant benefit to Colorado applicants and re-applicants. This provision encourages individuals to proactively seek and receive the healthcare they need, confidentially, while receiving enough oversight from CPHP that the Colorado Board of Medical Examiners can be comfortable patient safety is ensured in the absence of knowing the applicant’s personal healthcare information.

This "safe-haven" only applies to your application with the Colorado Medical Board (BME), not hospital/credentials applications or to other state applications for medical licensure.

This "safe-haven" does not apply to any legal issues, only to one’s medical/psychiatric health.