By Diane Carman Listening to the candidates vying for the Republican presidential nomination might lead your average health care consumer to think the system is on the verge of collapse. While the Affordable Care Act is not yet fully implemented and remains in large part unproven, some health care systems around the country are demonstrating the potential for significant improvements in cost control, access to care and better outcomes. They also are acting as testing grounds for such health care reform concepts as medical homes, virtual health care, electronic medical records, integrated behavioral health care and revenue pooling across care…
Category: Trends In Health Care - Part 12
By Bob Semro Prescription drugs are a big part of the monthly budget for many seniors on Medicare, and provisions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are working to lower those costs. In 2011, 3.6 million Medicare recipients nationwide saved $2.1 billion in prescription drug costs, according to estimates released last week by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In Colorado, 39,746 Medicare recipients saved $22.8 million on prescription drugs, or $579 per person on average, according to these estimates. HHS projects these savings will increase over time totaling nearly $4,200 for the average Medicare recipient by 2020….
By Diane Carman Despite the spirited testimony of seven opponents to routine circumcision, the Senate Health and Human Services Committee Thursday voted 6 to 3 to restore Medicaid funding for the procedure. A change in the long bill, the budget document developed by the Joint Budget Committee, dropped funding for the procedure last year, making Colorado one of 18 states to defund circumcision under Medicaid. Senate Bill 90, introduced by Sen. Joyce Foster, D-Denver, would restore the funding, estimated at $186,500 annually. Foster told the committee that the bill was about disease prevention, fairness and social justice. More important, she…
By Diane Carman When the Colorado Springs City Council voted 9 to 0 last weekto endorse a proposed lease agreement between the University of Colorado Hospital and city-owned Memorial Health System, it moved the Rocky Mountain region one step closer to a tectonic change in the landscape of health care. If Colorado Springs voters approve the plan, the University of Colorado Hospital (which is affiliated with the university, but is an independent legal and financial entity) will assume administration of the nonprofit Memorial Hospital. That would be one more step in the long-term drive to expand the University of Colorado…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon The U.S. Supreme Court will hear an unprecedented five hours of oral arguments on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act early next year and should rule by next summer in the midst of the 2012 presidential campaign. Colorado is one of 25 states that have joined Florida and the National Federation of Independent Business in challenging the Affordable Care Act. The justices could invalidate the most controversial part of the law, the individual mandate, which requires all individuals to buy health insurance. Legal scholars and lower court judges have opposing views on whether the individual…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon More than 5,200 people are on a waiting list to receive primary care through Denver Health, and across Colorado at least 20,000 more low-income patients are waiting to receive care. In Denver, the waiting list at the citys safety net health system began in 2008 when the economy started its freefall. At its peak, Denver Health had 7,200 patients on its waiting list. About 80 percent of those waiting for care in Denver have no health insurance while the rest have either Medicaid, Medicare or private health insurance. The reality is that there are more patients…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon WESTMINSTER Exam room No. 1 at Westminster Medical Clinic is a striking departure from the classic, sterile rooms in a typical doctors office. The walls are pale lavender. Soft light from a lamp washes over a plush couch and easy chair. Candles and a CD player sit on a bookshelf next to wellness and self-help books along with the bible of the American Psychiatric Association, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Yet, this oasis is a place within the walls of a busy primary care practice where doctors can lead a patient, giving them…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon The young sisters come to the doctors office proudly carrying pink and purple water bottles clinking with ice and etched with the logo that says Get Fit. The medical assistant checks their height, weight and blood pressure, then walks Gabby, 9, and Laila, 6, into the exam room past a medical tray. There are no vials with shots or medical tools. Instead, the tray is filled with shiny red apples, the first sign that this is a very different kind of doctors appointment. Welcome to cutting-edge care in the escalating war on child obesity. The girls…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon AURORA The dinner plates at the Veleasquez home were as colorful as a Cezanne painting. On this Saturday evening, the family was dining on pink grilled salmon, baked purple potatoes, yellow Colorado sweet corn and a mlange of steamed vegetables: carrots, green beans and cauliflower. Dessert was bright orange sweet potatoes, fresh from the grill. There was no butter sauce or sour cream to drench on anything. Instead green limes garnished each plate and Karla, 8, was squeezing them on her purple potato to add extra zest. This kind of healthy, nutrient-packed meal is the norm…
By Bob Semro July 30, 1965, was a milestone in American history. On that day, the Social Security Act of 1965 was signed into law. That legislation, implemented a year later (45 years ago), introduced two new programs, Medicare and Medicaid. We take them for granted now, often without realizing how much they have achieved and how much we rely on them. In 1964, before the implementation of Medicare, 49 percent of Americans 65 years and older had no health care coverage and 30 percent of seniors lived below the poverty line. The average life expectancy in the United States…