A white Christmas in the mountains has been a boon to the state’s ski areas, giving them a much-needed holiday boost during an economic slide.

After touting freebies and discounts to jump-start business, Colorado’s mountain resorts said heavy snowfall in recent days has gone a long way to entice visitors to the slopes.

“I was sweating bullets in November, so I’m completely grateful for the snow,” said Paul “Bubba” Iudice, owner of Bubbas Boards at Durango’s Purgatory ski area. “There’s no doubt Mother Nature is getting us through this bad economic time.”

The snowboard shop owner said families have been driving up from Texas and other nearby states, sharing the lifts with the locals who frequent the southwestern resort in far greater numbers after storms dump fresh powder.

The white stuff, which could beat last year’s record levels, comes just in time for the week between Christmas and New Year’s — the peak period of the year for Colorado’s winter playgrounds.

Holiday reservations at base lodges are “on par” with last year, according to Durango Mountain Resort spokeswoman Liz Witte.

“The snow is helping to offset the economy … as everyone wants to go on vacation where it’s snowing,” said Silverton Mountain owner Aaron Brill.

The 2008-2009 season has been marked by an unusual number of deals and pass breaks, particularly during the holidays.

Businesses in Vail report that Vail Resorts Inc.’s creation of an unlimited “Epic” ski pass for $579 ($270 for children) has worked to lure both Front Range skiers and out-of-town guests.

Last year’s most comparable pass cost $519 and offered unlimited skiing at Breckenridge and Keystone but only 10 days of skiing at Vail and Beaver Creek.

“A lot of traffic is coming from Denver, but a lot of our guests (from outside the state) are doing two or three trips this year instead of one,” said Troy Goldberg of Troy’s Ski Shop in Vail.

Customers from Mexico, New York and California have told Goldberg they plan to return again for a spring vacation to take advantage of the ski pass.

—Rocky Mountain News

Credit unions new car-loan champs

New-auto sales have fallen hard this year, dropping an unprecedented 37 percent in the 12 months through November.

If credit unions hadn’t stepped into the financing gap left after other lenders backed away, the decline probably would have been much worse in Colorado, auto dealers say.

“Credit unions are holding up the Colorado auto market,” said Tom Wilber, finance director at O’Meara Ford in Northglenn.

In past years, credit unions financed about 20 percent of the vehicles the dealership sold. In recent months, they have funded half or more, Wilber said.

“A lot of people who haven’t used credit unions are starting to use them,” said Jeff Strizich, sales manager with H.M. Brown & Associates.

Most of the loans go through CU Direct Connect in Centennial, which farms out applications from 475 dealerships to 50 credit unions.

—The Denver Post

Doctors encouraged to write electronic prescriptions

WASHINGTON — The push for paperless prescriptions is about to get a boost: Starting in January, doctors who e-prescribe can get bonus pay from Medicare.

For patients, the benefits are obvious — from shorter drugstore waits to increased safety, as pharmacists no longer squint to decipher doctors’ messy handwriting.

But persuading U.S. doctors to ditch their prescription pads for electronic prescribing so far has been a long, uphill battle. Only about 10 percent of doctors are taking the plunge, but Dr. Ted Epperly in Boise, Idaho, is one who’s adopting the technology now.

Still, the movement is gaining steam as Medicare warns that its bonus payments are for a short time only: Holdouts still sticking to paper in 2012 will find their Medicare payments cut.

And continuing the push for medical information technology is a key part of President-elect Barack Obama’s health-reform plans, in hopes that moving to computerized records–not just prescriptions, but all those troublesome paper charts that contribute to medical errors and wasted care–ultimately could save millions of dollars a year.

“We’d never go back,” says Epperly, also president of the American Academy of Family Physicians. Patients “recognize that, ‘Hey, Dr. Epperly’s in the information age, and my safety is better and the quality of care is better.’ “

—Associated Press