Author: Markian Hawryluk
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Rural hospitals are caught in an aging-infrastructure conundrum
Kevin Stansbury, the CEO of Lincoln Community Hospital in the 800-person Colorado town of Hugo, is facing a classic Catch-22: He could boost his rural hospital’s revenues by offering hip replacements and shoulder surgeries, but the 64-year-old hospital needs more money to be able to expand its operating room to do those procedures. “I’ve got…
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Teens with addiction are often left to detox without medication
When Denver Health wanted to open an inpatient opioid detox unit specifically for teens, doctors there searched high and low for a model to copy. They didn’t find one. Teens who land in emergency rooms with an opioid overdose generally receive naloxone to reverse the effects of dangerous drugs in their system and are sent…
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This panel will decide whose medicine to make affordable — a tricky choice.
Catherine Reitzel’s multiple sclerosis medication costs nearly $100,000 a year. Kris Garcia relies on a drug for a blood-clotting disorder that runs $10,000 for a three-day supply. And Mariana Marquez-Farmer would likely die within days without her monthly $300 vial of insulin. At best, a Colorado panel of medical and pharmacy experts seeking to cut…
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As Colorado reels from another school shooting, study finds 1 in 4 teens have quick access to guns
One in 4 Colorado teens reported they could get access to a loaded gun within 24 hours, according to survey results published Monday. Nearly half of those teens said it would take them less than 10 minutes. “That’s a lot of access and those are short periods of time,” said Virginia McCarthy, a doctoral candidate…
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Cash for colonoscopies: Incentives for shopping for health care procedures
State employees in Colorado are being asked to be better consumers when shopping for health care services. And if they choose lower-cost and higher-quality providers, they could get a check in the mail for a portion of the savings. It’s part of an initiative known as the Colorado Purchasing Alliance, through which employers in the…
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Colorado’s psychedelics ballot initiative: 5 things to know
Colorado could become the second state after Oregon to allow the use of certain psychedelic substances that are illegal under federal law. But while Oregon voters in 2020 approved the supervised use of psychedelic mushrooms, the citizen initiative on the Colorado ballot in November goes further. Proposition 122 would allow the personal use of psilocybin…
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Hospices have become big business for private equity firms, raising concerns about end-of-life care
Hospice care, once provided primarily by nonprofit agencies, has seen a remarkable shift over the past decade, with more than two-thirds of hospices nationwide now operating as for-profit entities. The ability to turn a quick profit in caring for people in their last days of life is attracting a new breed of hospice owners: private…
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Sheriffs who denounced Colorado’s red-flag law are now using it
Dolores County Sheriff Don Wilson never expected to use Colorado’s “red-flag” law when it was passed in 2019. He thought the law made it too easy to take a person’s guns away. The statute allows law enforcement officers or private citizens to petition a county court to confiscate firearms temporarily from people who pose an…
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Chasing Progress: Colorado aims to close Hispanic insurance gap
Hispanic residents have long been among the least likely to have health insurance — in Colorado and across the country — in part because of unauthorized immigrants. The state is expanding coverage to some of them, although the change runs up against lingering fears about the use of public benefits. Armando Peniche Rosales has a…
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Physicians are uneasy as Colorado collects providers’ diversity data
Shaunti Meyer, a certified nurse-midwife and medical director at STRIDE Community Health Center locations in the Denver metro area, doesn’t usually disclose her sexual orientation to patients. But at times, it feels appropriate. After telling a transgender patient that she is a lesbian, Meyer learned the woman had recently taken four other trans women, all…