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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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Colorado Medicaid Freezes Payments to Home Health Agency Facing Fraud Investigation
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Medicaid Freezes Payments to Home Health Agency Facing Fraud Investigation

By: David Migoya | Colorado Politics The agency overseeing Colorado’s federal Medicaid program has suspended an Aurora home-health agency that is the focus of an investigation into an enterprise that lured dozens of homeless people with promises of free housing and cash and reaped tens of millions of dollars in Medicaid reimbursements. Officials said it has stopped paying Medicaid claims filed by On Going Home Health Care pending the outcome of its inquiry into “The Program,” an elaborate and intertwined confederation of businesses that provided shelter, money and prescriptions to homeless participants in return for billing the federal program for administering the drugs. The Program was the center of a Denver Gazette investigation last month that exposed how On Going ...
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Colorado Wins FDA Approval To Import Lower Cost Drugs From Canada
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DENVER7, Approved, State

Colorado Wins FDA Approval To Import Lower Cost Drugs From Canada

By Jaclyn Allen | Denver7 Governor: program could save Coloradans up to $46 million over three years. DENVER — Colorado has won federal approval to import lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada, a move Gov. Jared Polis says could save residents as much as 60% on certain medications. “This is a big step in the fight to push back against big pharma and bring lower-cost prescription drugs to Coloradans,” Polis told Denver7's Jaclyn Allen in an interview Monday. “It ain’t over yet, but it’s a big step.” The U.S. Food and Drug Administration signed off on Colorado’s application after years of back-and-forth between the state and federal officials. Polis said the push began with legislation he signed in 2019 authorizing the Department of Health Care Policy...
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Children’s Hospital Restores Gender Care Services but Doctors Decline to Provide Treatment
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Children’s Hospital Restores Gender Care Services but Doctors Decline to Provide Treatment

By Jennifer Brown | The Colorado Sun Children’s Hospital Colorado was forced to resume gender-affirming care through a court order, but the doctors who work there won’t do it. Children’s Hospital Colorado said Monday that it was resuming gender-affirming care for transgender youth after it was forced to do so by a court order, but that none of its doctors are willing to actually provide the care.  The announcement means the hospital is complying with the court order and yet, transgender kids and teens will not get care from the doctors who work at Children’s TRUE Center for Gender Diversity, a clinic that provides prescriptions for hormone therapy and puberty blockers. The Aurora hospital does not perform gender-affirming surgeries for patients under 18 and never has...
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Oz Warns Millions Of Obamacare Enrollments ‘May Not Be Legit’
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Breitbart, Approved, National

Oz Warns Millions Of Obamacare Enrollments ‘May Not Be Legit’

By Nick Gilbertson | Breitbart News As many as 35 percent of enrollments in the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare,” might “not be legit,” according to the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Dr. Mehmet Oz. Oz laid out the eyebrow-raising projection during Tuesday’s White House press briefing while filling in for press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who is out on maternity leave. https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/2061869210574143620?s=20 When asked about expired Obamacare subsidies and whether there are any policy adjustments he would like to see, Oz emphasized that the number of people on Obamacare has more than doubled over the last decade. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT BREITBART NEWS
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