Colorado legislators set aside $7.2 million to fund longer psychiatric hospital stays
The Denver Post » Health News
by Seth Klamann
2h ago
Low-income Coloradans with mental illnesses are poised to receive longer hospital stays after state legislators set aside money to expand a decades-old Medicaid rule. Federal law requires that Medicaid patients hospitalized in psychiatric facilities be discharged after 15 hospital days in a month or the facility doesn’t get paid. The rule was intended to prevent hospitals from warehousing patients, but advocates and psychiatrists say that it instead pushes hundreds of vulnerable Coloradans out of the facilities prematurely and into a cycle of homelessness, incarceration and emergency room visi ..read more
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U.S. tuberculosis cases were at their the highest level in a decade in 2023
The Denver Post » Health News
by Mike Stobbe
14h ago
NEW YORK — The number of U.S. tuberculosis cases in 2023 were the highest in a decade, according to a new government report. Forty states reported an increase in TB, and rates were up among all age groups, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. More than 9,600 cases were reported, a 16% increase from 2022 and the highest since 2013. Cases declined sharply at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, but have been rising since. Most U.S. TB cases are diagnosed in people born in other countries. Experts say the 2023 number is in part a combination of a surge in TB cases inte ..read more
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UCHealth reports half a billion dollars in uncompensated care in 2023
The Denver Post » Health News
by Meg Wingerter
2d ago
UCHealth provided more than half a billion dollars’ worth of uncompensated care in fiscal year 2023, and representatives for the health care system on Tuesday said they expect to spend even more this year. Three factors increased uncompensated care: increased migration to the Denver area, Medicaid unwinding following the COVID-19 public health emergency, and a new state law that allows people with incomes less than 250% of the poverty line to apply for financial aid, said Tom Gronow, president and CEO of the health system’s University of Colorado Hospital. The hospital in Aurora provided the l ..read more
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Unsafe culture permeates Aurora VA’s ICU, staffers allege. The message? “Shut up and do what you’re told.”
The Denver Post » Health News
by Sam Tabachnik
2d ago
On Feb. 20, 2023, a 77-year-old man was admitted to the intensive care unit at Aurora’s Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center for chronic kidney disease. Two weeks later, nurses and doctors grew concerned after learning the man’s significant other, unbeknownst to ICU staff, had been giving him a tincture under his tongue while he slept. The care team didn’t know what was in this remedy. Yet ICU leadership instructed nurses to keep giving it to the patient, telling clinicians that the hospital’s chief of staff, Shilpa Rungta, approved the tincture, internal emails show. “I do not discredit ..read more
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Enbrel drugmaker sues over Colorado’s potential price cap, says prescription drug board is unconstitutional
The Denver Post » Health News
by Meg Wingerter
2d ago
A drugmaker whose product could be the first subjected to a price cap in Colorado is suing to throw out the state board that deemed its medication unaffordable. In February, the Colorado Prescription Drug Affordability Board ruled the arthritis drug Enbrel was unaffordable for patients in the state. It was the first time any state in the country made such a declaration, and set up a months-long process to determine whether the board should set a ceiling on what Colorado patients and pharmacies pay for that drug. Enbrel costs patients and their insurers more than $46,000 per year, the board fou ..read more
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Colorado hospitals no longer required to report newborns who test positive for drugs, working to better support addicted moms
The Denver Post » Health News
by Meg Wingerter
6d ago
Three years after Colorado stopped requiring doctors to report newborns who tested positive for drugs as possible child abuse victims, the number of families referred to child protective services for prenatal drug use is down 25% — but hospitals are still learning how best to support new mothers battling addiction. Previously, if a child tested positive for a controlled substance at birth, the state considered it evidence of abuse. Hospitals weren’t required to test birthing parents or newborns, but many thought they were, or at least that it was a standard part of care, said Amber Johnson, a ..read more
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Judge orders Colorado state agency to turn over public records on hospital profits
The Denver Post » Health News
by Meg Wingerter
1w ago
A Denver District Court judge handed a partial victory to a conservative news organization that sued the state for documents related to hospital profits. Sherrie Peif, who writes for Complete Colorado, sued the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing for emails and other messages about price transparency, hospital profits and related matters in June 2023. Earlier this month, Denver District Court Judge Jill Dorancy determined 29 out of 77 documents that the department withheld should be publicly disclosed, because they didn’t include deliberation on pending legislation or polic ..read more
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Colorado therapist accused of sexually assaulting client may have other victims
The Denver Post » Health News
by Bruce Finley
1w ago
Westminster police have arrested a 48-year-old therapist and charged him with sexual assault, according to an agency announcement this week, and officials believe he may have other victims. Police arrested therapist Trinidad Ruiz and charged him with sexual assault on a client, Westminster Police Department officials announced in a Monday press release. Ruiz was arrested on Jan 3, 2024, at 1162 W. 132nd Place, Westminster police investigator Cheri Spottke said. Related Articles Crime and Public Safety | Opinion: Child sex abuse victims know there should be no time limit for justice in civil ..read more
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As Colorado and other states target disavowed “excited delirium” diagnosis, police groups push back
The Denver Post » Health News
by Renuka Rayasam
1w ago
Following a pivotal year in the movement to discard the term “excited delirium,” momentum is building in Colorado and several other states to ban the discredited medical diagnosis from death certificates, law enforcement training, police incident reports, and civil court testimony. In January, California became the first state to prohibit the medical term from many official proceedings. Colorado legislators on Monday sent a bill to Gov. Jared Polis that, if signed, will ban the use of the term “excited delirium” from police training manuals and reports, as well as autopsy reports. Lawmakers in ..read more
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Colon cancer is increasing in younger Coloradans even as death rate drops for people over 55
The Denver Post » Health News
by Meg Wingerter
1w ago
Kris Koehler could tell something was wrong in the summer of 2013, when he started suffering unexplained abdominal pain and his bowels behaved differently. The Fort Collins resident’s doctor couldn’t initially figure out what was causing it, though, and gave him a list of tests to get if the pain got bad enough that he couldn’t work or exercise. A few months later, the pain was finally bad enough that Koehler went in for the tests — and then to an emergency room later that day. He assumed he’d probably be leaving the hospital without his appendix, but a scan of his abdomen found a tumor in his ..read more
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