Markian Hawryluk

Lincoln Community Hospital in Hugo, Colorado, opened in 1959. The aging facility needs to expand, but it’s getting harder to access capital for new construction. | LINCOLN HEALTH

Rural hospitals are caught in an aging-infrastructure conundrum

Across the country, an increase in costs amid lower payments from insurance plans is making it harder for small hospitals to fund capital improvement projects, even as financing is becoming harder to get

Jan 14

Lalit Bajaj, an emergency medicine doctor at Children’s Hospital Colorado, with fellow emergency physician Julia Fuzak Freeman. To reduce unnecessary X-rays and antibiotics, Bajaj and his colleagues implemented new protocols in 2015 to educate parents on bronchiolitis, how to manage symptoms until kids get better, and why imaging or medication is unlikely to help. | AUSTIN DAY/CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL COLORADO

Why it’s so tough to reduce unnecessary medical care

The U.S. spends huge amounts of money on health care that does little or nothing to help patients, and may even harm them

Nov 14, 2023

STEFAN SCHWEIHOFER/PIXABAY

At least 1.7M Americans use health sharing arrangements, despite lack of protections

The number of people who use plans agreeing to pay one another’s medical bills is higher than previously realized

Jun 15, 2023

A mix of colorful pills spread out on a counter.

FREESTOCKS/UNSPLASH

This panel will decide whose medicine to make affordable. Its choice will be tricky.

Colorado, like Maryland, is setting up a regulatory system that goes beyond what Oregon does to curb the soaring cost of prescription drugs

May 25, 2023

ADAM SATRIA/UNSPLASH

States step in as telehealth and clinic patients get blindsided by hospital fees

States, including Washington, have implemented or are considering limits on facility fees that blindside millions of Americans who didn’t set foot inside a hospital

Apr 6, 2023

FREESTOCKS/UNSPLASH

Pharmacies Face Extra Audit Burdens That Threaten Their Existence

Pharmacy benefit managers switched to virtual audits during the pandemic, which increased reviews, payment denials and their profits.

Aug 6, 2021

Walden, Colorado has no hospital or pharmacy./Kyle Spradley/KHN

How One Rural Town Without a Pharmacy Is Crowdsourcing to Get Meds

With large pharmacy chains buying up independent drugstores and increasingly controlling the supply chain, small towns have had difficulty attracting a pharmacy.

Jul 1, 2021