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New Federal Rule Ends Medicaid Funding for Some Youth Gender Treatments in Colorado
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

New Federal Rule Ends Medicaid Funding for Some Youth Gender Treatments in Colorado

By John Ingold | The Colorado Sun The new rule blocks federal dollars from being spent on the care. The change will affect hundreds of transgender youth in Colorado. Colorado will suspend Medicaid coverage for hormone therapy and other gender-affirming care for transgender youth due to a new federal rule, the state agency that oversees the program said. The rule, finalized earlier this month, blocks federal funds from being used to pay for the care for youth. Specifically, the rule applies to coverage for people under 18 who are covered by Medicaid and people under 19 who are covered by a companion program called CHIP, which in Colorado is known as CHP+. The rule affects coverage for hormone therapy and puberty blockers, as well as other procedures. It do...
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Prescription Drug Prices Post Sharpest Decline in More Than 60 Years
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The Washington Post, Approved, National

Prescription Drug Prices Post Sharpest Decline in More Than 60 Years

By Steve Thompson, Federica Cocco and Christopher Rowland | The Washington Post While overall medical costs continued to rise, prescription drug prices fell by 3.1 percent in the year ending in July, the steepest annual decline since 1963. Prescription drug prices recorded the biggest year-over-year drop in more than 60 years in July, a startling reduction experts chalked up to an array of factors, including more generics and discount GLP-1 weight-loss drugs. While overall costs for medical services continued to rise, prices for medicinal drugs fell 2.7 percent over the 12 months ending in July, the largest annual drop on record, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Wednesday. Prescription drugs, part of the medicinal drug category, fell by 3.1 perce...
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Federal Fraud Task Force Targets Billing Practices Behind Pediatric Gender Treatments
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Daily Wire, Approved, National

Federal Fraud Task Force Targets Billing Practices Behind Pediatric Gender Treatments

By Mary Margaret Olohan | The Daily Wire Vice President JD Vance’s Fraud Task Force is referring a number of hospitals and clinics to the Justice Department and the HHS Inspector General for possible violations of federal law. Those hospitals have billed millions of dollars in insurance claims for puberty blockers for children, according to a new Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) report. Now the Trump administration is investigating. HHS released “Wolves in White Coats: How Doctors and Hospitals Pushed and Profited from the Fraud of ‘Gender Medicine'” on Thursday morning. The report examines insurance coding, financial incentives, and the “provision” of transgender medical procedures for minors, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries....
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Colorado Built a Taxpayer-Funded System to Transition Children While Sidelining Parents
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The Federalist, Approved, State

Colorado Built a Taxpayer-Funded System to Transition Children While Sidelining Parents

By Breccan F. Thies | Commentary, The Federalist Colorado medical students are taught that children as young as 18 months old can ‘distinguish between gender identities,’ and by six years old, ‘develop his or her own gender identity.’ Colorado has been using taxpayer dollars to groom children into believing they are “transgender” and point them to mutilation surgeries, emphasizing that many do not need parental consent. According to a new report from Do No Harm, Colorado spends millions of dollars on government programs, social media influencer campaigns, and medical school curriculums all aimed at convincing children they are a different gender, pointing them toward medicalization, and bullying the parents who do not want to destroy their children. Colorad...
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Colorado Lawmakers Grapple With Strict Rules for $200 Million Rural Health Program
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Lawmakers Grapple With Strict Rules for $200 Million Rural Health Program

By: Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics Members of the Colorado legislature’s new Commission on Medicaid raised concerns Wednesday about the federal Rural Health Transformation Program created under H.R. 1. The bipartisan, bicameral commission, created in the last legislative session to guide implementation of Medicaid changes under H.R. 1, met Wednesday to begin shaping its recommendations. Cristen Bates, deputy Medicaid director at the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, told members that Colorado is slated to receive $200 million in federal funding each year for the next five years to support rural health care initiatives. CMS requires states to apply for the Rural Health Transformation Program by November, with awards expected by year’s...
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Medical Watchdog Urges AMA and Major Groups to Reject Transgender Surgeries for Minors
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The Daily Signal, Approved, National

Medical Watchdog Urges AMA and Major Groups to Reject Transgender Surgeries for Minors

By Tyler O’Neil | The Daily Signal FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The medical watchdog group Do No Harm is calling on 10 major medical associations to explicitly condemn transgender genital surgeries on minors. “Professional medical societies that endorse so-called gender-affirming care in minors bear tremendous responsibility for the harm done to American children in the name of gender ideology,” Dr. Kurt Miceli, a psychiatrist and chief medical officer at Do No Harm, told the Daily Signal in a statement on the letters. Do No Harm sent ten largely identical open letters Wednesday morning, addressing the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Medical Asso...
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Children’s Hospital Denies Violating Court Order In Colorado Gender Care Lawsuit
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Children’s Hospital Denies Violating Court Order In Colorado Gender Care Lawsuit

By: John Ingold | The Colorado Sun The hospital is accused of violating an order stemming from the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling that it resume prescriptions for transgender youth. Children’s Hospital Colorado on Monday pleaded not guilty to allegations it has violated a court order to resume gender-affirming care for transgender youth. The plea came during a brief hearing in Denver District Court, during which Judge Ericka F. H. Englert scheduled a multiday trial in mid-September to determine whether Children’s should be held in contempt. Children’s is being sued by four transgender youth and their families who say the hospital discriminated against them when it stopped writing prescriptions to patients under the age of 18 for the purposes of gender-affirmi...
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Colorado Health Care Costs Keep Climbing Despite Growing State Subsidies
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado Health Care Costs Keep Climbing Despite Growing State Subsidies

By: Nash Herman | Commentary, Complete Colorado In economics, it is well understood that the larger a business becomes, the more cheaply it can produce goods or services due to lower relative fixed costs, more technical know-how, and increased specialization.  Why then is Colorado’s largest industry in terms of employment–health care–only becoming more expensive?  Subsidies inflate costs Let’s back up. In 1990, Colorado’s largest industry by employment was retail, which also dominated most of the rest of the country’s employment as well, along with manufacturing.  Along the way retail and manufactured goods became cheaper for consumers, as expected, relative to inflation.  READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT COMPLETE COLORADO ...
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Medicaid Commission Begins Review as Colorado Spending Continues to Climb
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Medicaid Commission Begins Review as Colorado Spending Continues to Climb

By: Nash Herman | Complete Colorado Colorado’s interim Commission on Medicaid has begun meeting to address the explosive growth of the state’s health care spending.  Related concerns are also on the table, such as the management of the Department of Healthcare Policy and Financing (HCPF) and fraud, waste, and abuse.  Are legislators attacking these problems from the correct angles? Let’s find out.  Faulty premises The most recent Commission meeting raised questions about the government’s priorities in addressing Medicaid and the state budget.  A recurring theme of discussion —nothing new, yet one that actually exacerbates the very problem the Commission is attempting to address — is the idea that the health care fun...
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Colorado Families Warn Medicaid Caregiver Caps Will Hurt Disabled Children
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Colorado Public Radio, Approved, State

Colorado Families Warn Medicaid Caregiver Caps Will Hurt Disabled Children

By: John Daley | CPR News With the budget in crisis, state lawmakers capped the number of hours a week a person providing care to someone else, often a family member, can be reimbursed. A series of phased in cuts started taking effect this month and impacted families expressed deep apprehension about what the coming months will bring. “Disproportionate, unfair, insensitive,” were among the words Kelly Lyons had for the change. The deadline comes with the state Medicaid program under intense scrutiny, as a new commission, set up by the legislature starts its work and a new governor will be elected in November and take office next January. She lives in Castle Rock and cares for a 16-year-old daughter, Kendall, who she said was diagnosed with an an...
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