Author: SETH KLAMANN The Gazette

Emergency room visits for substance-use issues and anxiety jumped during the first 18 months of the pandemic, an analysis of Colorado Medicaid data found, despite overall volumes in ERs across the state dropping. The findings, released last week by the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, further illustrate the breadth of the pandemic’s…

Animals in at least two Sedgwick County cattle herds have died of anthrax, the Colorado State Veterinarian’s Office confirmed Tuesday, the first such cases in a decade. The first case was identified on July 23, after a producer had seven cattle deaths, the state said in a news release. A second case, from a separate…

Nearly half of Jon Samet’s tenure as the dean of the Colorado School of Public Health has been spent battling COVID-19, from modeling the virus’s spread to advising state and local leaders; he even found time to keep a regular blog with his thoughts on the situation.  Now, at the tail end of his time…

A major drug manufacturer has reached a $233 million settlement with a coalition of states, including Colorado, for underpaying Medicaid rebates for more than seven years, the attorney general’s office announced Tuesday. Colorado will directly net $2.9 million in the settlement, and nearly $3 million more will go to the federal government for its share…

Colorado’s pandemic picture has improved over the past two weeks, as key metrics have declined after reaching peaks well below previous surges. The state is reporting fewer COVID-19 cases on average every day now than it has since the end of May, a welcome reprieve from a spike that began in early April and climbed…