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RiNo Walls mural fest Through Saturday. Hot, sunny weather is forecast for this weekend’s Denver Walls mural festival, which makes being outside easy during an event that unites muralists from Denver with a smattering from around the U. S. and the globe. In addition to live painting, the event offers an interactive map that guides you through, scavenger hunt-style (with digital rewards). That’s alongside a free block party and skateboard competition at RiNo ArtPark (closing night, Saturday, Oct.

Colorado hospitals collected an estimated $13.4 billion in facility fees over a recent six-year period, doubling the average cost of care for patients with certain types of insurance, according to a new state report released this week. When patients receive care at a facility owned by a hospital system, whether on the hospital’s campus or elsewhere, their bills typically have at least two parts: professional fees, for the doctors and other providers performing the service, and facility fees, for overhead costs. While they’ve existed since the early 2000s, the fees have become controversial in recent years as health systems have bought up outpatient providers, meaning that patients may have to pay new fees for the same care they’d received before. The 200-page report, compiled by a committee and staff from the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, came up with its cost estimate by using data from 2017 to 2022 on Medicare and commercial insurance payments, which the authors obtained through Colorado’s All-Payer Claims Database. The report estimated total spending on facility fees rose about 10% annually during that time, due to some combination of population growth, hospitals charging higher amounts and more locations charging the fees, among other factors. The authors didn’t quantify how much of that $13.4 billion patients paid out-of-pocket, though they noted the proliferation of high-deductible insurance plans has left people receiving care responsible for an increasing share of costs. On average, facility fees were higher than fees paid to the doctor or other provider who provided the service, nearly doubling costs for care covered by commercial insurance or traditional Medicare, according to the report.

If you’re increasingly disillusioned by the rising cost of going out to eat in metro Denver, you’re not alone. The price tag for dining out increased by 5.7% in July compared to the same month in 2023 because of increased labor and lease costs, according to federal inflation data. But plenty of restaurants are still serving great meals at a price point that won’t cause heartburn. Take Gaia Masala & Burger, which partners Hira Kunwar and Nandalal Nyaupane opened on Boulder’s University Hill in 2019 to offer a low-cost, late-night option for University of Colorado students who wanted to try comforting classics with a twist. Kunwar and Nyaupane have since expanded to Denver, Colorado Springs and Fort Collins while keeping prices low.

Local coffee chain Huckleberry Roasters is taking over a former Starbucks in Denver’s Congress Park and a former Peet’s Coffee in Centennial. The shops at 801 Colorado Blvd. and 6751 S. York St. in the Streets at Southglenn will be the seventh and eighth stores for Huckleberry, which Koan Goedman co-founded in 2011. “We’re motivated to keep growing, but intentionally and mindfully,” he said. Goedman, whose company previously took over a former Starbucks on Larimer Square, said taking over spots that were already coffee shops “makes the interactions we need with the city way easier.” “I can’t overstate how much of a game changer that is for us … You’re talking about something that can take weeks to a couple of months versus a year to years, plural,” he said. The coffee entrepreneur is talking largely about Denver’s permitting process, which many businesses have complained is overly complex and time-consuming.

A Louisville-based company that sought to create a national market for high-end used bicycles, and which raised nearly $100 million from investors, is closing up shop. The Pro’s Closet said in a news release last week that it will cease operations this month. The company did not give a reason for the closure, and CEO Jonathan Czaja did not respond to a Tuesday email.

LA JUNTA, Colo. — Love is in the air on the Colorado plains — the kind that makes your heart beat a bit faster, quickens your step and makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. PHOTOS: In Southern Colorado, the tarantulas are out and about — and looking for love It’s tarantula mating season, when male spiders scurry out of their burrows in search of a mate, and hundreds of arachnophiles flock to the small farming town of La Junta to watch them emerge in droves. Scientists, spider enthusiasts and curious Colorado families piled into buses just before dusk last weekend as tarantulas began to roam the dry, rolling plains.