Our Work
The telehealth bill is maintaining momentum. It passed the Senate on second reading tjhis morning, putting it on track to be the first significant piece of health care legislation to pass during the 2015 session.
New research by the Colorado Health Institute (CHI), “Filling the Dental Gap: Can Colorado Meet the Growing Need?”, finds a wide gap between the demand for oral health care by Medicaid enrollees and the supply of oral health providers in the state.
Three of CHI’s senior staffers — Amy Downs, Deb Goeken and Jeff Bontrager — escaped the winter storm this weekend. Unfortunately for them, they escaped to Toronto, which is under an “extreme cold warning,” with wind chill forecasts of minus 40 degrees Celsius.
Telehealth allows doctors to move at the speed of light, seeing patients all across our far-flung state at the touch of a button. A telehealth measure, House Bill 1029, isn’t exactly moving at light speed, but in legislative terms, it’s flying fast.
Alice Rivlin, a public policy icon and still the smartest person in the room at 83, talked about Obamacare from a unique perspective last week at AcademyHealth’s annual National Health Policy Conference.
President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget contains several health care-related proposals, including several aimed at reducing Medicare spending. But with Republicans in control of both chambers of Congress, how much of the White House spending plan survives remains to be seen.
Love was in the air at the Colorado Health Institute last week. On Twitter, hundreds of health policy wonks nationwide participated in #HealthPolicyValentines to celebrate Valentine’s Day with a nerdy twist. CHI, of course, couldn’t resist joining in the nerdy fun.
Legislators turned to Medicaid provider rates, always a tough policy topic, this week.
More than half of Coloradans without a high school diploma reported their oral health as fair or poor – the two lowest choices – in 2013.
The Colorado Health Institute team is entering this week with momentum from last week’s launch of the 2015 Colorado Health Report Card, produced in partnership with the Colorado Health Foundation.