By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon An experiment to ensure that complex Medicaid patients have a regular doctor and care coordinators who can help them stay healthy has saved Colorado an estimated $20 million in its first year, according to a new report from Colorados Medicaid managers. Were very happy that its moving in the right direction, said Laurel Karabatsos, director of health programs for the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF). So far, about 20 percent of Colorados more than 600,000 Medicaid clients are enrolled in the program called the Accountable Care Collaborative (ACC). Our goal over the…
Category: Health and Wellness - Part 10
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon An MRI on your knee in Colorado could cost as little as $297 or as much as $1,261 depending on where you get it, according to the first release of health data from a powerful new tool aimed at improving health, bringing down costs and improving the quality of care. On Thursday, Colorado became the 12th state in the nation to unveil an All Payer Claims Database (APCD) with the debut of www.cohealthdata.org managed by the Center for Improving Value in Health Care (CIVHC). So far, the database includes about 40 percent of health data from…
By Cathy Alderman Women pay attention: your health is on the ballot this fall. In every race, voters will choose either to continue moving forward towards equality or to wind the clock back on womens health. We have the choice between candidates who support a womans right to access birth control and candidates who oppose it and in many cases want to ban abortion out-right with no exceptions for rape or incest. Your vote is more important than ever. Who you elect will steer our state down the path they think is best. Womens access to affordable health care is…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon The woman is missing most of her teeth, but grins like a 6-year-old at a birthday party. Unsteady on her feet, the 48-year-old homeless woman nonetheless proudly describes the meaning of the famous Emanuel Martinez mural outside Denvers La Alma Recreation Center. The young Chicano man is the future. The Indian is our past, says Gina Marie Crespin, who grew up in the Lincoln Park area and now spends her days in the neighborhood park. The eagle is power, Crespin says, pointing to the center of the mural where the soaring birds wings spread to form…
By Rebecca Jones of www.EducationNewsColorado.org Its not like the Sanford School is overrun with drugs and alcohol. Its more like its overrun with nothing to do. The school, in the community of Sanford in rural Conejos County in southeastern Colorado, is many miles from the amenities of larger places and, other than sports, extracurricular activities for its 350 students are limited. Resources for its teachers are limited as well. Its exactly the kind of place where Elaine Belansky, a University of Colorado Denver assistant professor in community and behavior health, could find fertile ground for testing a project designed to…
By Gosia Kung People want to walk when neighborhoods are vibrant, when there is something to see and when sidewalks are full of other people and colorful spaces. WalkDenver brought the first Better Block demonstration to Colorado in June. A brief video now showcases the transformation. (Click here to see it.) The project provides great lessons for how the built environment can promote better health. The Better Block Jefferson Park focused on a potentially forgotten commercial district in northwest Denver near Federal Boulevard and West 25th Avenue. Building on the history of the area as an original streetcar suburb, the…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Policy makers who want to simultaneously boost high school graduation rates and reverse health epidemics from diabetes to obesity should focus intently on helping the youngest children and their families, according to one of the nations leading experts on early child development. Dr. Jack P. Shonkoff, director of Harvard Universitys Center on the Developing Childmet with Colorado policymakers on Thursday and spoke to childrens advocates at the annual luncheon for the Colorado Childrens Campaign. His message was clear. Intervene early. Intervene now. And pool your resources. Early experiences shape the development of the brain and affect…
By Mary Winter DENVER Holli Wiseman remembers when nurses were expected to be seen, not heard. In the late 1970s, shortly after shed graduated nursing school and was working at Porter Hospital, Wiseman says a doctor screamed at her: Dont give the patient any information unless the doctor says to! Wisemans faux pas? Shed taken time to explain blood pressure readings to a man in her care. Wiseman laughs at the memory. Today, of course, doctors depend on you to give patients information, says Wiseman, a clinical nurse specialist with the Visiting Nurse Association in Denver. Teaching is a major…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon The MacArthur Foundation has honored a Colorado doctor with a $500,000 genius grant for his work to help chronically ill older adults stay well. University of Colorado School of Medicine geriatrician, Dr. Eric Coleman, has won the prestigious MacArthur fellowshipfor creating the concept of low cost transition coaches. The coaches provide relatively simple support to chronically ill older adults and their caregivers for a month after hospitals release the patient. His program is called Care Transitions Intervention. The issue is critically important because hospital readmissions are costing taxpayers an estimated $17.5 billion dollars a year. Studies…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon COLORADO SPRINGS The relationship is on the rocks. Long divided into opposing cultures, doctors, who focus on the body, are trying to work side-by-side with behavioral health experts who try to heal patients minds. In a grand Colorado experiment called Advancing Care Together, 11 pilot sites are participating in a $4 million four-year experiment to bring these disparate worlds together. And some are pining for a divorce. Or at least they want a proper wedding that includes electronic medical records that actually talk to each other. If we want it, weve got a put a ring…