Health
Medicaid fails to provide reliable non-emergency medical transportation, state report finds
The state department that administers Colorado’s Medicaid program failed to provide proper oversight of its contracted transportation service, and didn’t report incidents that could have involved mistreatment of at-risk adults, according to audit results published Monday. Some of the 32 unreported incidents potentially involved drivers “not safely securing (Medicaid) recipients into vehicles, resulting in recipients […]
Drug affordability board must stand with patients, not Big Pharma
As a patient advocate and a father of three, I’ve had the recent opportunity to share my story with Colorado’s elected officials about my struggle to afford prescription drugs at press conferences and legislative hearings. As a result, I’m thrilled that my family and I are celebrating a big win here in Colorado — the […]
Huge uptick in pandemic ‘air rage’ hits flight attendants
Flight attendants have been subject to unprecedented harassment over masks and more during the pandemic, and a U.S. House panel on Thursday heard the raw details of those “air rage” incidents. While there’s no hard data, the leader of the flight attendants’ union said the most aggression appears to occur in Southern states where there’s […]
Pay raise for home health providers relies on federal money and ‘compliance reviews’
State lawmakers voted this week to approve a complex plan that would boost pay for frontline workers who care for aging adults and people with disabilities. The plan stems from legislation passed earlier this year that included a directive to the state’s Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, or HCPF, which runs Colorado’s Medicaid […]
Human composting is coming to Denver
A dead person is transformed from human remains into soil in 30 days through a process often referred to as human composting — and it’s now legal in Colorado. Natural organic reduction — the formal term for human composting — is legal only in three states: Colorado, Oregon and Washington. Washington in 2019 became the […]
Here’s where Colorado representatives stand on the Women’s Health Protection Act
All four Democratic members of the U.S. House from Colorado — Jason Crow, Diana DeGette, Joe Neguse and Ed Perlmutter — are co-sponsoring the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2021, which would protect a woman’s right to get an abortion, and would prohibit states from creating bans or medically unnecessary restrictions on abortions. Newsline reached out […]
Orphaned, infected, in crisis: How the pandemic is traumatizing kids
WASHINGTON — The coronavirus pandemic has brought heartbreaking consequences for millions of U.S. children, even as most avoided serious illness themselves, pediatric experts told Congress on Wednesday. Take, for instance, a young girl from Tennessee named Sophia, whose story was relayed by Dr. Margaret Rush, president of Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University. Within […]
U.S. Supreme Court schedules Dec. 1 oral arguments in major abortion case
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Dec. 1 in a case that threatens to overturn decades of abortion protections established under the landmark 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade. The upcoming case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, stems from a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks. It […]
Texas is the rule, not the exception: The constitutional right to abortion is under attack
Right now, the constitutional right to abortion care may as well not exist in Texas, the second-largest state in the nation. Texas passed the most restrictive abortion ban in the nation, effectively deputizing anti-abortion vigilantes to enforce it. It took effect Sept. 1. Both the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court […]
Gov. Polis calls on FDA to review positive Pfizer vaccine data for kids 5 to 11
Following Monday’s announcement from drug companies Pfizer and BioNTech that their COVID-19 vaccine appears safe and effective for 5- to 11-year-olds, Gov. Jared Polis called on federal regulators to expedite the approval process. “Given that the country is currently experiencing a pandemic, the (Food and Drug Administration) should cancel their weekend plans and postpone other […]
1 in 99 people in Colorado estimated to be infectious with COVID-19
Colorado is currently in its fifth wave of the coronavirus pandemic, with 1 in 99 people in the state estimated to be infectious with COVID-19, according to a statewide modeling report released by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Colorado School of Public Health. The report estimates 70% of the Colorado […]
Coloradans rank housing, cost of living among top concerns, survey finds
When faced with a list of societal ills, ranging from COVID-19 to political divisions, Coloradans who responded to a recent survey ranked the cost of housing as the most worrying. According to the Colorado Health Foundation’s annual Pulse poll, 82% of respondents thought housing costs represented an “extremely serious” or “very serious” problem. The cost […]