Latest news with #Harms
CBS News
24-04-2025
- Health
- CBS News
Some Colorado lawmakers craft plan to provide millions to providers that serve under, uninsured
Rural healthcare in Colorado is on life support. The Colorado Hospital Association says half of the state's rural hospitals are operating in the red, and two behavioral health facilities and two obstetrics programs in rural Colorado recently announced they're shutting their doors. A new study by the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform finds that 10 rural hospitals here are so cash-strapped, they're in danger of closing. Located on the western edge of the San Luis Valley, Rio Grande Hospital serves one of Colorado's poorest communities. A total of 70% of its patients are on Medicare and Medicaid, meaning the hospital loses money on seven in ten patients who walk through its doors. CBS "We have to be sustainable, and it's been tough the last few years," says CEO Arlene Harms. The hospital and its four primary care clinics have been operating in the red for years. With just eight providers at the hospital to serve 10,000 patients, Harms says, staff members wear many hats, "If somebody is needed in the ER, several of us go back there and several are in the executive staff... so we all do a lot to make it work but we all love what we do." It goes beyond caring for the sick. Employees raised money for a Community Wellness Center last year that includes exercise equipment, a meditation room, and a greenhouse. But it's the health of the hospital that keeps Harms up at night, "I often times feel forgotten just because we're so far away from the metro (area)." As the financial health of rural providers worsens, state lawmakers are stepping in. "We have legislators on both sides of the aisle saying, 'Look, we're going to do something about this. We hear you loud and clear,'" says Senator Kyle Mullica, an emergency room nurse from Adams County. He's sponsoring a bill to provide at least $60 million over the next three years for primary care and behavioral health providers that are considered "safety net providers" because they serve a large number of uninsured and underinsured. The money will come from interest on the state's Unclaimed Property Trust Fund. The Rio Grande Hospital Wellness Center Rio Grande Hospital Mullica says he's also secured close to $40 million from philanthropists and is hoping for some matching federal dollars, bringing the total to over $100 million. Mullica's co-sponsor is Senator Barb Kirkmeyer, who's a Republican. The bill passed its first two committees unanimously. "We're hearing from those providers saying this is what we need. We don't need it in a year, we don't need this in two years, we need this now. Not doing something is not an option," said Mullica. Rio Grande Hospital clinics are among those in danger of closing. Like many rural hospitals, it is one of the top employers in its community, so the local economy also depends on its survival. Under the bill, an enterprise will disperse the money based on how many low-income patients a provider serves. Harms says the funding is a lifeline for those who serve the state's most vulnerable lives, "This bill gives me hope for all of us in the rural health care market." Rio Grande Hospital was just named one of the top critical care hospitals in the country.
Associated Press
21-04-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Rubic Management Launches All-in-One Business Automation Platform for Entrepreneurs
Systemize, automate, and scale — Rubic simplifies business growth for small business owners and solo entrepreneurs. United States, April 21, 2025 -- Running a business today often means juggling multiple tools, manually following up with leads, and constantly switching between platforms just to stay organized. Rubic Management, a newly launched all-in-one business automation platform, is now making it possible to simplify every aspect of business operations in one unified system. Designed specifically for small businesses, Rubic consolidates the most critical tools — CRM, email and SMS marketing automation, online booking, digital business cards, workflow automation software, and more — into a single, intuitive, and cost-effective platform. 'I created Rubic because I was tired of duct-taping 10 different platforms together,' says Zac Harms, Founder and CEO. 'This platform is built by business owners, for business owners. It's not just software — it's a lifestyle shift.' Entrepreneurs Need More Than Features — They Need Systems As highlighted on Rubic's homepage, most small business owners operate with disconnected tools, inconsistent follow-up processes, and constant overwhelm due to complex tech stacks. This platform goes beyond features. It introduces automated systems that drive business growth while giving users back valuable time and mental bandwidth. From Frustration to Foundation Rubic's origin is rooted in personal experience. After working with 7- and 8-figure businesses and managing his own ventures, Harms discovered that scaling without streamlined systems was nearly impossible. The Rubic About page outlines this journey — and how years of frustration led to a platform built specifically to eliminate operational friction, reduce costs, and give entrepreneurs real leverage through automation. What Rubic Does: Business Automation Made Simple Rubic replaces more than 10 standalone tools with one cohesive platform. The Features page outlines key offerings such as: Each feature is designed with simplicity and usability in mind, allowing business owners to create systems without needing a team or technical knowledge. Onboarding That Delivers Real Support New users receive a personalized 2-hour onboarding call with a Rubic specialist to configure their platform, connect systems, and begin automating core processes. After onboarding, users complete a guided business assessment, which generates a tailored step-by-step launch plan and checklist — helping new customers go live quickly with confidence. This removes common technology barriers and enables business owners to implement proven systems without delay. A Message from the Founder 'Our goal is to give entrepreneurs more time, not just more tools,' Harms explains. 'That's why we offer real support, pre-built systems, and automation that's ready to launch in minutes.' How Rubic Compares to Traditional Stacks Rubic simplifies tech stacks that often include ClickFunnels, Calendly, GoHighLevel, HubSpot, and other individual platforms. With Rubic, these fragmented systems are replaced by one connected solution. The Pricing & Comparison page shows how Rubic's Centurion Plan offers more integrated features and better support — all at a fraction of the cost. This eliminates tool fatigue and improves operational efficiency for service-based businesses, consultants, coaches, and agencies alike. A Look Inside the Platform Rubic's full product demo showcases how automation works in real time, including: This demo provides a behind-the-scenes view of how Rubic improves lead follow-up, customer experience, and sales operations. View the full walkthrough at: About Rubic Management Rubic Management is an all-in-one business automation platform designed to help entrepreneurs simplify, systemize, and scale. With integrated tools like CRM, email marketing, automation workflows, branded scheduling, and a powerful customer experience engine, Rubic helps small business owners operate more efficiently and grow confidently — without the tech overwhelm. Contact Info: Name: Zac Harms Email: Send Email Organization: Rubic Management Website: Release ID: 89158080 In the event of encountering any errors, concerns, or inconsistencies within the content shared in this press release, we kindly request that you immediately contact us at [email protected] (it is important to note that this email is the authorized channel for such matters, sending multiple emails to multiple addresses does not necessarily help expedite your request). Our dedicated team will be readily accessible to address your feedback within 8 hours and take appropriate measures to rectify any identified issues or facilitate press release takedowns. Ensuring accuracy and reliability are central to our commitment.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
State Senate panels pass bills to explore changes at Iowa medical schools
Des Moines University students celebrated Match Day on March 21, 2025, when they learned where they'll serve medical residencies. Des Moines University would, along with the University of Iowa, explore three-year degree programs under proposed legislation. (Photo by Brooklyn Draisey/Iowa Capital Dispatch) Two Iowa Senate subcommittees have moved ahead House-sent bills aimed at making changes to Iowa's medical schools to increase opportunities for Iowa students and accelerate their learning. House File 386, which received signatures from subcommittee members Wednesday morning, would direct the University of Iowa and Des Moines University to conduct a study into potentially shrinking the timeline of some four-year programs to three years. Keith Saunders, chief government relations officer for the Iowa Board of Regents, said during the meeting the board is generally supportive of the bill but called the term 'three year medical school' a 'misnomer,' as other shortened medical programs have done so through accelerated degrees. Generally accelerated medical degree programs have worked in the area of family medicine, Saunders said, which is where the UI would focus its research. 'We're happy to do the study, happy to provide a feasibility study,' Saunders said. 'And again, we're committed to doing everything possible to get as many health care workers into the workforce as possible.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Des Moines University is registered as monitoring the bill, lobbyist Threase Harms said, but the university has requested it be removed from the legislation. As an institution with no undergraduate programs or residencies, Harms said it would be very difficult to accelerate the university's programming, especially with the knowledge that DMU did try to implement three-year programs in the 1980s without success. 'DMU is graduating the most family practice medicine doctors in the country,' Harms said. 'We pride ourselves on that, and we have them all throughout the state of Iowa, but we just feel like the three-year escalation doesn't fit with our current structure, and it doesn't ensure that those doctors are prepared to go out and deliver those services.' Each of the subcommittee members said they would move the bill forward with plans to introduce an amendment. Sen. Mike Zimmer, D-DeWitt, said he was in favor of removing DMU after hearing Harms' remarks, but Sen. Mike Klimesh, R-Spillville, said he wasn't sure if taking the university out was the best idea and it is important to think about potential cost-saving measures of shorter degree programs. Sen. David Rowley, R-Spirit Lake, said he wants to encourage collaboration while working on the bill. 'We've got to be curious and have curiosity to find out how we could do this better, and I think that takes collaboration, working together with all of us in this room, to find some options or some opportunities out there,' Rowley said. House File 516, which passed a Senate subcommittee Tuesday, would have the Iowa Board of Regents implement a policy requiring the UI doctor of medicine program and college of dentistry enroll cohorts made up of at least 80% resident students or students who attended an Iowa college or university prior to applying. Saunders said the programs currently have between 70% and 75% resident students enrolled, and the board is supportive of initiatives that will keep more health care professionals in the state. Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, D-West Des Moines, said during discussion she has concerns about the bill potentially pushing away students who want to study, and stay, in Iowa. 'I'm willing to sign off on it, but just because somebody didn't grow up here or go to college here doesn't mean they don't have a lot to offer to Iowa,' Trone Garriott said. Klimesh said he understands where Trone Garriott was coming from in her remarks, but he looks at the legislation as a way to ensure UI medical programs have the best state retention possible. However, he said he plans to introduce an amendment to the bill that would add additional criteria for qualifying students, like those who maybe didn't grow up in the state but know what rural Iowa is like based on their own upbringing in a neighboring state. 'To be perfectly honest, when I've asked folks what the definition of Iowan is, I get air quotes around it sometimes, so I'm not even sure what that is,' Klimesh said. 'Maybe defining what an Iowan is and adding additional frameworks might be beneficial.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Goodwill unveils program to help young neurodivergent adults
PEORIA, Ill (WMBD) — Goodwill Industries of Central Illinois unveiled its new employment program to help young adults who are neurodivergent find jobs. The new program, Beyond Barriers, took about two years to put together. Now the program will help these individuals find support like resume and cover letter building, mock interviews, job search assistance and more. Lori Johnson, the director of program services with Goodwill Industries of Central Illinois, said, 'Our mission at Goodwill is to transform the donations we receive into life and job skills and education services for those in our community in need. And by that, we will help our community prosper.' According to Austyn Harms, the Beyond Barriers program manager, the goal of the program is to help employers and the organization's clients find the best fit. She said Beyond Barriers will help 'anyone that is willing and motivated to find employment.' Harms said, 'Some of our clients have never had any type of work experience. They've never done any type of volunteer work. So really, they're starting from the very beginning with their employment journey.' She added, 'Things that are very common to us are not so common to some of the clients, like leaving an interview and shaking a hand and making that direct eye contact that employers look for those types of things, but not everyone knows to necessarily do that.' Breaking Barriers connects with many organizations and schools in the area to help young adults overcome roadblocks, gain the skills they need, and receive support. This way, the organization can help young adults with autism and other neurodivergencies navigate the next step in their lives. 'The most important takeaway is just that everyone is capable of learning and capable of getting all opportunities,' Harms added. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
New European
07-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New European
Caught in a Eurovision controversy
Eurovison's slogan is United By Music. Given that an estimated 163 million people watched the 2024 broadcast, it seems fair enough. This year's contest, in Basel in mid-May, will mark 70 years since the European Broadcasting Union set up the committee that devised the song contest, intending it to promote cultural understanding and peaceful cooperation in a continent still recovering from the destruction and animosities of WWII. Yet among the harmony, there can be discord. Just ask Chris Harms. Harms, singer with Hamburg goth/metal rockers Lord of the Lost, knows what it is like to be caught up in a Eurovision controversy. While overtly political songs or nationalistic statements have been banned from the start, rows have still managed to erupt over Israel (which joined the EBU in 1973), over the Balkan conflict, over a border dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan and more recently over Ukraine and Russia. The Lost of Germany reacts during the voting following performances of the final of the Eurovision Song contest 2023. Photo: OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images Harms's band, who will tour the UK later in the year, were the German entry in 2023. That was the year Liverpool played host on behalf of Ukraine, who had won the previous year but were unable to stage it at home in the wake of the invasion, for which Russia was banned. Even for a seasoned musician who says he had 'played 1,000 shows before that already, been on tours in more than 40 countries' the experience was a blur. 'I still feel like I haven't really processed all of it,' he tells me, 'because it was one of the most intense times in our career.' Harms, who recently released a surprisingly different solo album, 1980, talks about the numbers – hundreds of interviews over two weeks on Merseyside, 55 seconds for the changeover between acts, 100 people rushing on and off stage at a time and 20 cameras recording it all. But what he can't avoid is what happened to Lord of the Lost and their song, Blood & Glitter. It all started, he says, with the Grand Final Flag Parade, first introduced in 2013, in which the competitors walk out on stage one after the other, holding their national colours. At the 2023 contest, waving flags was never likely to be a completely neutral gesture, and the fervently anti-nationalist Lord of the Lost's solution was not to carry one at all. Harms says, 'We said in many interviews over the years, 'you will never see us going somewhere waving our national flag'. We thought that running around with this sheet would just look stupid. I totally despise nationalism in general. Germany Entry Lord of the Lost performs on stage during The Eurovision Song Contest 2023 Grand Final. Photo:'I myself am very happy that I was born here, I feel very privileged, but I cannot be proud at being German. There are so many people waving the flag for the wrong reasons. The people you usually see on the street waving the flag are the people you don't wanna see wave any flag. 'Then for the [official Eurovision] TikTok reel where everybody was waving their flag, we said, 'We can wave the St Pauli flag from our football team, because it's the skull and bones, it looks beautiful, we can wave the white flag for peace, you know, or a pride flag'. They said 'Yeah, we have a pride flag', so we did that.'' Lord of the Lost had enjoyed a good fortnight in Liverpool – visiting a local school to play music with pupils and answer questions, and doing an acoustic show at the Cavern Club – but this was the start of a bad night. When the final votes were counted, Sweden's Loreen was top with 583 points. Germany were some way behind, with 18. They finished rock bottom, even beaten by the UK. What was to follow was even worse. While the band were accustomed to playing 50,000-seat stadiums supporting Iron Maiden, exposure to a live television audience of 167 million was in another category completely, gaining them a significant number of new fans worldwide, yet simultaneously exposing them to a whole new level of scrutiny and abuse, including death threats. 'After Eurovision,' says Chris, 'the amount of hate comments from German right wing people about the flag and stuff, it was so intense, we had to block them all, and I needed to clear my mind about that. It took me a while to understand that when someone writes something about you in a hate comment, it doesn't say anything about you but it says everything about these people.' Once the fury had died down, Lord of the Lost decided that there had been so many good things about their Eurovision week that they decided to travel to 2024 host city Malmö and perform a show of their own the night before the Grand Final. Echoing the belief of the competition's founders that music can be a unifying force, Chris states that the band would happily do it all over again. 'If you just go there because of the contest and you lose the sense of musicality and the art and the togetherness, it doesn't mean a thing,' he says. 'We would still enjoy it even if we'd go last again.' Chris Harms' solo album, 1980, is out now, and Lord of the Lost will tour the UK in October and November
