Business Excellence Award Winner Spotlight

Nonprofit Program of the Year: Elevated Community Health

Thank you to everyone who joined us at the 2026 Business Excellence Awards!  We're proud to spotlight our winners and share their successes.

Elevated Community Health

Elevated Community Health, formally known as Summit Community Care Clinic, has grown from a small volunteer clinic into one of the region’s most impactful community health organizations. What began in 1993 as a weekly walk-in clinic serving uninsured and underinsured residents has evolved into a Federally Qualified Health Center delivering integrated primary care, dental, and behavioral health services across Summit, Lake, and Park Counties.

Elevated Community Health was founded to address a critical need in the mountain region: accessible healthcare for residents facing financial, geographic, and systemic barriers. While the organization has expanded significantly over the past three decades, its mission has remained consistent – to provide integrated, exceptional, patient-centered care for all, regardless of ability to pay. Although Elevated Community Health offers specialized programs designed to reduce barriers for low-income, uninsured, and underinsured individuals, it is also a healthcare home for the broader community. Elevated Community Health accepts all insurance types and provides high-quality care to all patients, ensuring individuals and families have access to comprehensive healthcare close to home.

Today, Elevated Community Health serves more than 10,400 individuals annually through over 34,000 visits. Its patient population reflects many realities of mountain communities, where high costs of living, seasonal employment, transportation challenges, provider shortages, and rising insurance costs can make routine healthcare difficult to obtain. Nearly half of Elevated Community Health’s patients are uninsured, while many others face coverage gaps that create financial strain.

To respond, Elevated Community Health has built a model centered on access and affordability. Its Care Card program offers a sliding fee scale to help lower-income patients receive care at reduced cost. Elevated Essentials, a membership program, supports individuals and families who do not qualify for traditional assistance but still cannot afford conventional insurance. Elevated Community Health also operates an in-house pharmacy that improves prescription affordability and convenience, while care navigation, interpretation services, and insurance enrollment assistance help patients access the broader healthcare system.

Innovation has also been a hallmark of Elevated Community Health’s recent growth. In 2025, the organization stepped in to preserve the area’s only pediatric dental practice, protecting access for local families who otherwise would have faced long-distance travel for care. Elevated Community Health is now transforming that location into an integrated pediatric office where children can receive primary care and dental services in one setting. Elevated Community Health has also extended services beyond traditional clinic walls. Through school-based health centers across Summit, Lake, and Park Counties, students can access healthcare where they already spend their day – reducing missed class time and easing transportation burdens for families.

Recognition as Nonprofit Program of the Year highlights an organization that has paired steady growth with responsiveness to community needs. From a volunteer-run clinic to a multi-county healthcare provider, Elevated Community Health continues to strengthen health access, support working families, and improve quality of life across Colorado’s rural mountain communities.

Click here to learn more about Elevated Community Health.