As leaders of Denver’s Jewish community began to talk about the need for a new hospital, one that could serve the city’s growing population and where doctors of all faiths would be afforded privileges, the Second World War appeared headed toward its bloody conclusion. Two men whose lives would figure significantly in the hospital’s creation […]
hospitals
Posted inCrime and Courts, Health, News
Colorado doctor challenges her firing from Centura Health over assisted suicide
A Colorado doctor fired after tying to help a terminally ill man obtain drugs to end his life has filed an updated lawsuit that challenges her firing by a Christian hospital company. In the case against Centura Health filed Monday, Dr. Barbara Morris alleges it retaliated against her in violation of Colorado’s assisted suicide law […]
Posted inBusiness, Health, News, Politics and Government
In a plan to set hospital prices, Colorado could see the mother of all health care battles
Colorado hospitals and state regulators may be about to launch into the biggest health care fight the state has seen in decades, over a detail in the newly announced plan for a public health insurance option. The plan would let Colorado officials limit what hospitals can charge to people who have coverage through the public […]
Posted inBusiness, Health, News
Denver-area hospitals made a record $2 billion in profits in 2018, according to a new report
For 25 years, health care analyst Allan Baumgarten has been studying the hospital market in Colorado, and his new report will show something it never has before: Denver-area hospitals surged past the $2 billion mark in profits in 2018. The 27 metro-area hospitals Baumgarten includes in his report made just over $2 billion in pre-tax […]
Posted inHealth, News, Politics and Government
Centura Health sets off national challenge to aid-in-dying laws after firing a Colorado doctor
By JoNel Aleccia, Kaiser Health News A Christian-run health system in Colorado has fired a veteran doctor who went to court to fight for the right of her patient to use the state’s medical aid-in-dying law, citing religious doctrine that describes “assisted suicide” as “intrinsically evil.” Centura Health Corp. this week abruptly terminated Dr. Barbara […]
Posted inHealth, News
How much does an ER visit cost in Colorado? It depends on where you go.
Take a deep breath and imagine an unpleasant scenario: It’s late at night, your kid is really sick and you need to go to the emergency room. How much are you going to be charged just to walk through the door? The answer, according to a new analysis by a Colorado nonprofit, varies widely depending […]
Posted inColoradans, Health, News
In rural Colorado, emergency medical services struggle to keep money-losing ambulances rolling
When flames shot from the third-story balcony of a downtown Frisco condo this spring, a firefighter riding in an ambulance got there first, zipping a block over from patrol on Main Street, scoping a plan of attack and attaching the first hose the moment a full fire engine arrived. In tiny Holyoke, population 2,215, when […]
Posted inBusiness, Health, News, Politics and Government
How much do you pay for hospital services in Colorado? Likely many times more than what Medicare does.
Across Colorado, hospitals regularly charge patients with private insurance three or four times what Medicare pays for the same services, according to a groundbreaking new study from the RAND Corp. that will likely further increase pressure on hospitals in the state to lower their prices. The RAND study looked at hospital prices in 25 states […]
Posted inHealth, News, Politics and Government
Gov. Polis signs Colorado hospital health care cost transparency bill into law
By James Anderson, The Associated Press Colorado hospitals will have to report annual spending under a transparency law signed Thursday by Gov. Jared Polis. The bipartisan effort is part of Polis’ goal to reduce health care costs and raise both price transparency and hospital efficiency in a state where rural residents often pay some of […]
Posted inHealth, News, Politics and Government
Can Colorado fix high health insurance premiums by forcing hospitals to charge some people less?
Imagine for a moment that you are a 60-year-old making $50,000 a year, living in Glenwood Springs and buying your own health insurance. (Or maybe you don’t have to imagine because you are that person.) Sorry to say it, but you, my friend, are in one of the worst jams in the American health care […]