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Colorado Springs Labor Day Lift Off introducing new events to combat rising costs

Colorado Springs Labor Day Lift Off introducing new events to combat rising costs

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) – This year, the Colorado Springs Labor Day Lift Off will run from Saturday Sept. 3 to Monday Sept. 5 in Memorial Park with brand new events.

An event called “balloons, bites, and brews” will be offered on the field at Memorial Park during Saturday and Sunday afternoon. From 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., there will be discounted items from vendors and a beer garden. There is also a 5k run being offered on Sunday, Sept. 4, and registration for that event is open now. Lastly, the event now provides an exclusive opportunity called “The Lift Off Lounge”. This provides the public with the chance to buy a $115 ticket that allows them access to the sponsors’ tent and includes food, drinks and VIP parking.

Labor Day Lift Off is an event free to the public, but this has become harder to sustain amidst rising costs.

“It’s one of the very few balloon events that’s for United States if not the world. And it’s been very well supported by the city of Colorado Springs and our committee, however the rising costs just overall for everybody and everybody’s daily life, it’s taking a toll on the event,” says Scott Appelman, Managing Partner of Hot Apple Productions. “There’s a lot that goes into this you know, obviously we have to host the 75 balloons that are going to be here so we have propane, hotels, hospitality, pilot packs to get everyone up here.”

Appelman cites these rising costs as a primary reason for the new events this year.

“We’re trying to add more products that will help drive revenue for the event, to help sustain this event on the long-term, so we can make sure that we’re keeping it the way that it’s been for the last 46 years,” Appelman states.

Labor Day Lift Off will also see the return of some balloon shape favorites, as Yoda and Darth Vader will be set to the skies again this year. New balloon shapes will also be introduced, including a pig named “Crispy Bacon”.

An estimated $9.4 million impact on the local economy for 2022 is expected for this year’s Labor Day Lift Off in Colorado Springs. That’s an estimated $2.5 million more than 2019 – which was the best year for the Labor Day Lift Off.

Copyright 2022 KKTV. All rights reserved.

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Proposed ordinance would up security costs for local events – KXLY

Proposed ordinance would up security costs for local events - KXLY


Proposed ordinance would up security costs for local events – KXLY










































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Clinical, Economic Burden of Corneal Adverse Events in MM Is Low Compared With Total All-Cause Costs

Clinical, Economic Burden of Corneal Adverse Events in MM Is Low Compared With Total All-Cause Costs

Researchers concluded that incident corneal adverse events in patients with multiple myeloma (MM) carry a low clinical and economic burden compared with total all-cause costs and MM-related per-patient-per-month costs.

Although corneal adverse events (AEs) were observed in about 12% of patients with multiple myeloma (MM) treated with anticancer therapies, the clinical and economic burden of treating corneal AEs was low compared with total all-cause or MM-related per-patient-per-month (PPPM) costs, investigators concluded.

“As the current treatment landscape includes newer treatments, better understanding of these targeted treatments and their level of resource utilization is important. Therefore, further research and real-world evidence are warranted to assess the relationship between corneal AEs and MM treatment and to explore costs associated with specific treatments,” the investigators wrote.

In addition, the real-world retrospective cohort study, published in the Journal of Medical Economics, found that the majority of incident corneal AEs reported were mostly treated in outpatient care centers by ophthalmologists rather than by a hematologist or oncologist.

With increased use of novel anticancer therapies, adverse effects on patients’ eyes have become more common. However, given the novelty of many of these agents, oncologists may not be very familiar with the potential ophthalmologic AEs associated with targeted anticancer therapies. Knowing that AEs can affect patient quality of life and increase economic burden on the health care system, there remains a need to assess the incidence and extent of the burden of managing corneal AEs and related symptoms among patients receiving MM therapies.

The investigators collected information from the IQVIA PharMetrics Plus database, which contains adjudicated health insurance claims data from US commercial insurance plans. The evaluation period lasted between January 1, 2011, and December 31, 2017. Adults with newly diagnosed MM and adults with lymphatic or hematopoietic malignant neoplasm were included in the analysis. The index period, defined as the date that a patient first received a novel MM therapy, was from January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2016.

Within the index period, 2120 patients with MM and 26,923 patients with hematologic malignant neoplasm were identified and enrolled into the MM cohort and the hematology cohort.

Among the MM cohort, 248 (11.7%) patients had at least 1 incident of corneal AEs after initial onset of MM therapy. Also, 7.4% of the hematology cohort experienced at least 1 corneal AE after therapy onset. The most commonly reported corneal AEs in the MM cohort were dry eye (6.1%), keratopathy or keratitis (2.5%), blurred vision or decreased acuity (3.4%), and photophobia (0.2%).

For the patients with MM who reported a corneal AE, the overall median PPPM cost for a corneal AE was $27, representing less than 1% of the median all-cause costs during the follow-up period. The median total all-cause PPPM cost was $17,286 and the median MM-related PPPM cost was $13,851. The investigators noted that the costs were primarily driven by outpatient care, as most of the patients visited an outpatient facility for their AEs.

Emergency department visits, which cost a median PPPM of $66, and hospitalizations, which cost a median PPPM of $16, were rate. Reports for blurred vision and decreased acuity were associated with the highest PPPM cost compared with other corneal AEs, costing a median PPPM of $41.

The use of a 12-month washout period to identify newly treated patients, lack of generalizability to the general MM population or to patients with MM older than 65 years who are enrolled in Medicare, and lack of information on comorbidities were listed as study limitations. Additionally, there may be a potential underreporting of corneal AEs because older patients have a higher risk of dry eye syndrome.

Reference

Wang F, Sansbury L, Ferrante S, et al. Incidence of corneal adverse events in patients with multiple myeloma and their clinical and economic impact: a real-world retrospective cohort study. J Med Econ. 2022:25(1):182-192. doi:10.1080/13696998.2022.2029088