Category: Trends In Health Care - Part 6

‘Man Therapy’ goes global

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon The pseudo therapist is the ultimate manly man: part Ron Burgundy, part Dr. Phil, and part Burt Reynolds. Meet Dr. Rich Mahogany, the hilarious, irreverent online doc who uses dark humor to combat the deadly serious topic of male depression and suicide. Dr. M, as his creators affectionately call him, teaches breathing exercises complete with the F-word so you can deal with your SOB boss and that 105-year-old lady doing 7 in the fast lane. His idea of yoga is the seventh-inning stretch. He cleans his desk with a leaf blower, counts a long spell on…

‘Man Therapy’ goes global

Opinion: Colorado health care consumers celebrate legislative victories

By Debra Judy The Colorado Consumer Health Initiative is celebrating the end of the Colorado legislature because the takeaway is Colorado health care consumers win big this session! For all of us, getting the care we need, when we need it isnt too much to ask. So we were delighted that Colorados legislators and Gov. John Hickenlooper really took this idea to heart this year as they helped move toward barrier-free access to quality and affordable health care for all Coloradans. Sponsored by Rep. Beth McCann and Sen. Irene Aguilar, the bill to modernize stop-loss health insurance is an important…

Opinion: Making sense of variation in health care pricing

By Phil Kalin For those of us who have been in health care for a while, Medicares recent release of hospital data identifying substantial variation between prices charged and actual payments isnt news. Nor is the fact that charges for similar services by one hospital can be vastly different from those of the one down the road. Health insiders have known for years that the amounts charged by hospitals have little or no relationship to what is actually paid. Making the data public for the first time, however, does give us an opportunity to review Medicare payments alongside amounts being…

Opinion: The ethical slippery slope of assisted suicide

By Dr. Anthony Vigil While New Mexico and other states are grappling with the question of whether to allow doctors to write prescriptions for drugs that terminally ill patients can take to commit suicide, countries such as Belgium and The Netherlands are pushing the envelope in distressing ways. For those who claim there is no evidence of a slippery slope in abuse of physician-assisted suicide once implemented, I offer several problems presented by the Belgium and Netherlands experiments. In these countries, it is legal for physicians to directly euthanize patients. For example, within the last 10 years, several patients who…

Despite outrage, health exchange wants additional $125 million

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Despite outrage from some lawmakers who called review of Colorados health exchange a mockery, a bid for an additional $125 million in federal dollars is likely to move forward by next week. I would anticipate that we will sign off on this, said Sen. Irene Aguilar, D-Denver. This (federal) money exists. If we dont take it, were going to have citizens picking up the costs for their premiums. Our goal is to have the most successful exchange in the country and this is part of that. Related: Governor adds deputy to health exchange board Mediator to…

How Netflix is making us fat

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Im blaming Francis Underwood. The soulless snake responsible for all evil in the nations Capitol on the Netflix hit, House of Cards, turned me into a couch potato this winter. Oh, and those Crawley sisters on Downton Abbey also messed up my metabolism. I was late to that party, so my daughter and I binged on three seasons of love, war and class intrigue, galloping from the sinking of the Titanic through World War I to the Roaring Twenties in a matter of weeks. Im a health writer so I try to monitor my wellness in…

Hidden gun injuries âroutineâ among children

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon The horror of 20 children being shot to death at Sandy Hook Elementary School shocked the nation and the world. But Colorado researchers who initially set out to study playground accidents found that gun violence is harming children every day. Very few people know about these gun injuries because federal law has prohibited funding for research on gun accidents and fatalities. The Colorado researchers combed through every single injury over an eight-year period at Denvers two primary trauma hospitals that serve children, Denver Health and Childrens Hospital Colorado. They expected to find information about playground injuries…

Opinion: Growth in senior population requires attention to health care needs

By Denali Johnson Colorado has one of the fastest growing aging populations in the U.S. Currently, one in nine Coloradans is a senior citizen. By the year 2030, that will increase to about one in five. While Colorado historically has had one of the smallest percentages of seniors, our annual growth rate is now 3 percent above the national average. The increasing number and percent of older adults in Colorado presents new opportunities and challenges to communities across the state. With the baby boomer generation aging, a larger number of active older adults will be available to contribute to the…

‘Risks’ loom for health exchange technology

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon As Colorados health exchange managers sprint toward an October 1 launch, a top manager warned board members on Monday that a recent decision to build a new eligibility IT system poses the greatest risk of delay and could undermine the quality of the online health marketplace. Adele Work, who is leading implementation for the exchange, made a presentation about key implementation risks during a technology update for the board. No. 1 on that list of risks is the new decision to divide one planned IT system into two. The report to the board said that IT…