Happy Wednesday, Colorado, and welcome to another edition of The Temperature, where no news related to climate or health is too … iffy … for us to spend some time investigating.
To wit, this news release: “Colorado’s Paramedics Crowned Sexiest Uniformed Heroes, Poll Shows.”
Huh?
The poll was purportedly conducted by DatingNews.com (Tagline: “At the heart of the dating industry”), and there are some red flags. Colorado’s second-sexiest uniformed hero, according to this poll? Postal workers. (The poll supposedly surveyed 3,000 people and didn’t allow them to choose firefighters, police officers or military members.)
More detailed scrutiny reveals that Colorado’s purported list is identical to the national list, and also that the site posted news of the poll on April Fools Day (even though the news release didn’t hit my inbox until yesterday). Let’s agree to consider this poll deeply suspect until we can confirm otherwise. Sorry, paramedics.
We have lots of real, verified news to get to today, so let’s make like a postal worker and pull our long socks up.
Reporter
TEMP CHECK
HEALTH
You own the debt? Then it has to be your name on the lawsuit, a new bill says
A new bill up for debate today at the state Capitol takes on a practice that was the subject of a joint Colorado Sun/9News investigation on medical debt lawsuits.
The bill, House Bill 1380, would require that an entity suing to collect a debt actually be the owner of the debt.
The Sun and 9News found that some Colorado health care providers — including UCHealth, the state’s largest provider — sued thousands of patients per year over what they claimed were unpaid bills. But the providers’ involvement in the lawsuits was invisible to the public because the suits were filed in the names of debt-collection companies working for the health care providers.
In addition to shielding the providers’ debt-collection activities from public scrutiny, the practice is confusing to patients, who can struggle to understand who is suing them and why, The Sun and 9News found.
“It’s just incredible to think of thousands of Coloradans who are being hauled into court without knowing who is bringing them into court,” said Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis, a Boulder County Democrat who is one of the bill’s prime sponsors.
It is common practice for hospitals and other medical providers to work with debt-collection companies to pursue patients for money. But some providers like UCHealth go a step further and “assign” the debt to the debt collector without relinquishing ownership of the debt. Based on that, the debt-collection companies put their own names on lawsuits against patients, arguing that they are the proper plaintiff even though the money isn’t owed to them.
Since the publication of the investigation, The Sun and 9News have learned of multiple other hospitals and medical groups in Colorado that engage in the same practice.
A similar effort last year aimed just at medical debt failed as some lawmakers and representatives of the debt-collection lobby argued that requiring hospitals to put their names on lawsuits violates patient privacy. The bill this year is broader, applying to all debt-collection activity in the state, not just medical debt.
Sen. Lisa Cutter, a Littleton Democrat and another prime sponsor of the bill, said she thinks the privacy issues are overblown.
“I thought that the positives of this approach outweighed the very small chance of somebody obtaining that information,” she said.
The bill is scheduled to be heard today, Wednesday, in a House Judiciary Committee starting at 1:30 p.m.
Section by John Ingold | Reporter
MORE HEALTH NEWS
CLIMATE
Carbon: Want the bad news first, or the good?
419.3
parts per million of carbon dioxide detected in 2023 global atmosphere
In the world of carbon worries these days, you can’t ask for a good news/bad news breakdown.
You can only get a bad news/less-bad news option.
The bad news: The world’s levels of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases continue to rise, rather than the leveling off and reversal Earth needs if we want to avoid the most calamitous impacts of climate change, according to the latest measure from NOAA’s Global Monitoring Lab in Boulder.
The slightly less-bad followup? They’re not rising at the record-setting jumps recorded in some recent years by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
But don’t let the full breath of relief out just yet. NOAA admonished the nonrecord increases “were in line with the steep increases observed during the past decade.”
NOAA’s 2023 measurements, recently released, put the global surface concentration of carbon dioxide at 419.3 parts per million, up 2.8 ppm from 2022’s measurement. NOAA said 2023 was the 12th straight year global CO2 increased by more than 2 ppm, the longest stretch in 65 years of monitoring.
“Atmospheric CO2 is now more than 50% higher than pre-industrial levels,” NOAA’s update said.
To put the 419.3 total in perspective, the climate change-fighting organization founded by Bill McKibben and others was named 350.org in 2007, for the estimate of where carbon dioxide buildup needed to stop in order to prevent overheating, ruinous storm events and other impacts from warming. But planetary measurements long ago breached that target, and have only soared since.
We followed up with NOAA’s crack research and communications teams in Boulder, and added in some perspective on global warming’s impact on Colorado. Read more here in today’s ColoradoSun.com.
Section by Michael Booth | Reporter
MORE CLIMATE NEWS
CHART OF THE WEEK
U.S. power utilities are adding huge numbers of generating plants in 2024, no doubt to help fuel artificial intelligence, crypto mining, EV charging and legalized marijuana home grows. What a country! There is an optimistic take on this startling growth — by far most of it will come from renewable solar energy, and utility scale battery storage to help smooth that renewable energy over a full day of consumer demand. Solar and batteries will make up 81% of the new power added this year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. And yes, there’s a small slice of the 2024 pie for nuclear, if you can believe it. While no new nuclear plants are expected to start from scratch for perhaps decades to come, Georgia plans to light up the fourth unit of an (over budget) existing nuclear plant.
Section by Michael Booth | Reporter
HEAT MAP
CLIMATE
HEALTH
Hey, that’s it for us this week. Thanks for reading all the way through and for supporting quality local journalism. Not all good-looking heroes wear uniforms. (Or maybe you do; we don’t know your life, we just appreciate you.)
Till next week.
— John & Michael
Corrections & Clarifications
Notice something wrong? The Colorado Sun has an ethical responsibility to fix all factual errors. Request a correction by emailing corrections@coloradosun.com.
