Colorado Checkup: February 2024

Death and Redemption in an American Prison
By Markian Hawryluk
More than a quarter century after an inmate helped start a hospice program in one of the nation’s most notorious prisons, he is trying to spread the idea.

The Powerful Constraints on Medical Care in Catholic Hospitals Across America
By Rachana Pradhan and Hannah Recht
The expansion of Catholic hospitals nationwide leaves patients at the mercy of the church’s religious directives, which are often at odds with accepted medical standards.

States Target Health Insurers’ ‘Prior Authorization’ Red Tape
By Bram Sable-Smith
Doctors, patients, and hospitals have railed for years about the prior authorization processes that health insurers use to decide whether they’ll pay for patients’ drugs or medical procedures. The Biden administration announced a crackdown in January, but some state lawmakers are looking to go further.

GoFundMe Has Become a Health Care Utility
By Elisabeth Rosenthal
Resorting to crowdfunding to pay medical bills has become so routine, in some cases health professionals recommend it.

Cities Know That the Way Police Respond to Mental Crisis Calls Must Change. But How?
By Nicole Leonard, WHYY and Kate Wolffe, CapRadio and Simone Popperl
Cities are experimenting with new ways to meet the rapidly increasing demand for behavioral health crisis intervention, at a time when incidents of police shooting and killing people in mental health crisis have become painfully familiar.

Colorado Moves to Connect Agricultural Workers With Mental Health Resources
By Vignesh Ramachandran
Advocates say two bills under consideration could help migrant communities but that more needs to be done.

Possibility of Wildlife-to-Human Crossover Heightens Concern About Chronic Wasting Disease
By Jim Robbins
A response is ramping up to a potential spillover of the neurological disease to humans from deer, elk, and other animals.