A Reason To Celebrate Today: 50 Years of Home Care Association in Colorado

Posted: March 2, 2020

Today marks the 50th anniversary of Colorado's home care association, which was incorporated March 2, 1970, as the Colorado Association of Home Health Agencies, or CAHHA. The association, now the Home Care & Hospice Association of Colorado, will officially celebrate the anniversary in May with a reception at its annual conference.

The original incorporators were Maxine Southwell, then of Loveland; Sister M. Judith Kuhn, then of Canon City, and Charles H. Dowding, Boulder. The first registered agent was Margaret D. Lewis, Denver.

Southwell, who died in 2005, was director of nursing for the Larimer County Health Department. Kuhn, who died in 2015, served as Chief Executive Officer of Canon City’s St. Thomas More Hospital. Dr. Dowding, who died in 2004, chaired the Colorado Health & Environmental Council. Lewis, executive director of the Visiting Nurse Association of the Denver Area Inc., died in 2000.

In 1996, CAHHA members voted to change the name of their association to Home Care Association of Colorado. And the name changed again five weeks ago following the association’s merger with the Hospice & Palliative Care Association of the Rockies.

Through the years, Home Care & Hospice Association of Colorado has served its provider members through economic booms and busts, a variety of payment models, improved care, deeper training, technological advances, changing standards and the advent of state home-care licensure. Volunteer leaders remain at the core of the HHAC today, serving as the association’s board of directors and committees, through which they develop strategy, establish governance and report to the members at large.

The association’s leaders today enjoy more resources — they are are supported by contract staff including lobbyists, an attorney and an association management company. But the mission today still mirrors that of our founders: to raise quality standards, provide a vehicle for exchange of information and collaboration between provider agencies, interpret objectives for state and federal agencies, and promote inclusion of coverage for home health benefits.

Congratulations HHAC on the 50th anniversary of your incorporation — we look forward to the next 50 years!