February 2012
1 post
Why journalists need to write about bad doctors
Two recent stories (in the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the Chicago Tribune) should remind journalists, particularly those who cover health, why it’s so important to keep an eye out on the regulators who oversee doctors.
The Star Tribune series, written by Glenn Howatt and Richard Meryhew, found shocking ineptitude by Minnesota’s Board of Medical Practice. Specifically:
Since 2000,...
January 2012
1 post
#healthnewsgems are back
With sincere apologies for a long stretch without posts, I’m relaunching #healthnewsgems, health stories worthy of recognition from the past week. Here are some of worthwhile reads that caught my eye:
The Prescription Epidemic by Carol Smith @invw: http://invw.org/prescription-epidemic
What We Give Up for Health Care, Zeke Emanuel’s take in @nytimes: http://nyti.ms/x2jnNz
Rx for...
December 2011
1 post
McDonald's has found a away around SF's Happy Meal...
SF last year became the first city in the US to ban toy giveaways with fast food children’s meals. McDonald’s has figured out a way around it: Charge 10 cents for the toy, the AP reports.
November 2011
7 posts
Last week's #healthnewsgems
Here are the health stories worthy of recognition from last week. Am I missing something? Let me know.
Tragic Tale @bill_coffin’s tragic tale of a writer’s brain injury http://j.mp/v8m6dC h/t @ddiamond
Wal-Mart Plans Ambitious Expansion Into Medical Care, by @julie_appleby and Sarah Varney @nprnews http://n.pr/vitPZr
Test for Hospital Budgets: Are the Patients Pleased?, by @jordanrau...
A story worth replicating: How Illinois doesn't...
I was impressed by an investigation in the Chicago Tribune earlier this month that found that Illinois regulators didn’t look into 85% of hospital complaints received last year.
Reporter Megan Twohey wrote:
A patient at Harrisburg Medical Center complained to the state that a bacterial infection spreading through the hospital had already killed one person and that nurses and doctors did...
Two terrific editorials this weekend on the...
Kudos to the Sacramento Bee and Kansas City Star for outstanding editorials on the new regulations imposed by the federal government on the National Practitioner Data Bank’s Public Use File.
The Sacramento Bee: The Obama administration came into office promising openness. Now, the administration has positioned itself on the side of protecting the privacy of doctors who maim patients.
It...
National Practitioner Data Bank: Back in the news
The federal government’s doctor discipline database was back in the news in a big way this week, with officials deciding to restore access to the Public Use File of the National Practitioner Data Bank—with unworkable restrictions.
As readers of this tumblr know, this has been a big issue for me personally and for AHCJ, of which I am board president. The government removed the public...
Last week's #healthnewsgems
After a two-week hiatus, here are last week’s #healthnewsgems. I appreciate the nominations.
With Vaccines, Bill Gates Changes The World Again by @matthewherper ow.ly/7mCoZ
Safety concerns raised after back-to-back patient killings at Perkins ow.ly/7mCFo By @scottmcalvert & Justin Fenton
Analysis: Corporate defendants rack up wins in “test” trials by @moira0101 ow.ly/7mES9 h/t...
On the cusp of major changes in drug marketing?
The U.S. may well be on the verge of a major shift in how drugs are marketed—the most significant shift since direct-to-consumer advertising began.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday how drug companies are “mounting a legal campaign to overturn longstanding U.S. regulations prohibiting them from pitching medicines for uses not listed on the bottle.” This would be a...
October 2011
23 posts
Under the media microscope: charity care provided...
(Image: Flickr: IITA Image Library)
Three recent newspaper reports have investigated nonprofit hospitals and the charity care they provide in their communities (as well as their high executive salaries).
Des Moines Register: Hospitals avoid taxes despite little free care
Scores of Iowa hospitals are exempt from most taxes because they’re classified as charities, but some spend less than 1...
Worthy investigations
(Flickr image by chrisjohnbeckett)
I love reading great health investigations, so last weekend was really satisfying.
Terri Langford at the Houston Chronicle had a wonderfully detailed piece on how private ambulances in Harris County, Tex., have taken Medicare and taxpayers for a ride. Here are her findings:
The unabated growth of this enormous EMS industry - 397 companies in Harris County...
A Medicare trifecta--three stories on the...
(image: stopmedicarefraudla.org)
Amid the loud political din about health reform, it’s refreshing to read serious health policy stories. By luck, there were three interesting stories about Medicare this past weekend:
Dr. H. Gilbert Welch, a professor of medicine at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times, in which he lays...
Another public hospital in trouble with... →
Trying to understand Jerry Brown's veto of Calif....
[Minor updates throughout] California Gov. Jerry Brown last week vetoed a bill that would have extended the life of California’s nursing board and allowed the board to hire sworn investigators to look into misconduct.
The reason Brown gave [PDF] is that the investigators’ pensions would be large, which “makes no sense fiscally and flies in the face of much needed pension ...
Last week's #healthnewsgems
As I compile each week’s list of #healthnewsgems, I am reminded how much quality health care reporting is out there. Just yesterday, I read three strong health investigations that will surely be part of the bunch I put together at the end of this week. Have a recommendation? Email me or tweet it with #healthnewsgems.
Last week’s choices:
Children die as dangers are ignored, by...
Should you care about those conflicts of interest?
(ProPublica graphic)
Conflicts of interest between doctors and the pharmaceutical/medical device industry have been the subject of reams of stories, including many in our Dollars for Docs series.
Add two important ones this week. The first, from Cardiobrief, talks about the rampant ties between members of the National Lipid Association’s guideline writing panels and the companies who...
Anecdotes battle with science (this time, on...
That didn’t take long. After the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force gave a thumbs down to routine PSA tests to screen for prostate cancer in healthy men, the anecdotes have come out in force. (NYT story on the recommendation)
Understandably, we’ve heard well-intentioned stories about men whose cancer may not have been diagnosed but for the PSA test. Take this blog post by Josh...
Incredible outpouring on National Practitioner...
(Image: NPDB website)
The past week has brought a slew of news on—and interest in—AHCJ’s quest to restore access to the Public Use File of the National Practitioner Data Bank. This file has been instrumental for reporters writing about lax oversight of troubled doctors. Among the highlights:
I appeared on the radio program On the Media to discuss the issue and why journalists...
New York's Medicaid program: Responsive to poor or...
(Image: WSJ graphic)
Today, the Wall Street Journal’s Greater New York section had an interesting story about New York’s Medicaid program, saying it was on track to hit 5 million enrollees this month.
As many people know, New York spends more on Medicaid than any state in the nation (including the larger states of California and Texas).
Advocates certainly think this is a good...
Last week's #healthnewsgems
Here’s a rundown of last week’s #healthnewsgems, including stories on cancer screening, Oklahoma’s health care system and an unhealthy dose of fraud and abuse. Let me know what you think and please feel free to nominate health stories worthy of recognition.
Disease-mongering du jour: heart disease in young women. Red competing with pink? By @garyschwitzer ow.ly/6SOQp
To screen or not to...
On your mark, get set, shop--for a new Medicare...
Open enrollment season is about to open for Medicare plans and there’s plenty of reasons to go shopping if you or a relative have Medicare. Reuters explains why. I wrote a first-person in 2007 for the Los Angeles Times about helping my mother pick a Medicare supplemental policy that was right for her.
King/Drew Redux: Forcing poor patients into bad...
When I read Ashish Jha’s new study about the poor quality of some hospitals caring for the elderly and poor, I kept coming back to the former King/Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Jha, an outstanding Harvard University researcher, found that “The nation’s 178 “worst” hospitals—the lowest-quality, highest-cost institutions—care for more than twice...
Stop the retaliation
(This post has been updated.)
Last month, I wrote about two hospitals that sued two newspapers—one in Minnesota, the other in California. Since then, Bill Heisel, a blogger at Reporting on Health, has started a series called Slap aimed at publicizing such incidents of retaliation.
Today, Bill writes about a lawsuit against the LA Times for its coverage of controversial marketing of lap...
West Nile seems off to a late start
(Image: Globe and Mail)
For a while this summer, I was wondering if West Nile virus was a thing of the past. The answer became clear in recent days: No! I’ve seen more reports of illnesses and deaths across the country, including the first deaths in California. Some examples:
Bakersfield Californian: Local men suffer state’s first West Nile deaths
Hattiesburg American: 4th West...
Supreme Court's first case of the term: Health...
(Image: Supreme Court website)
Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court opened its 2011-12 term with a case on who can legally challenge cuts to Medicaid payments. The case will surely be eclipsed by bigger health care cases this term (the fate of health care reform), but it is important in its own right. If the court rules against patients and doctors, some providers say they may leave en masse from...
Former Practitioner Data Banks official says HRSA... →
Last week's #healthnewsgems
Here’s a rundown of last week’s #healthnewsgems. Let me know what you think and please feel free to nominate health stories worthy of recognition.
Personal Best http://ow.ly/6MuWI By @Atul_Gawande, nominated by @ddiamond
Are Groupon discounts for medical treatments illegal? http://ow.ly/6MuZ8 By @SShealthwriter, nominated by @ddiamond
@wheisel’s interview with KC Star’s Alan Bavley...
The hospital patients no one wants
(NY Times image)
I’ve been impressed lately with good coverage about patients who linger in the hospital and rack up staggering bills despite the fact that this is likely bad for the patient and very bad for the health care system. The New York Times was the latest last weekend with a story about a man who spent 19 months in the hospital and rang up a $1.4 million bill.
Reporter John...
Bringing sanity to the debate about Christie's...
I couldn’t turn anywhere (in the news media) these last few days without reading about whether Chris Christie’s weight would/could/should impact his possible run for president.
If the columns denouncing Christie’s weight by Eugene Robinson in the Washington Post and Michael Kinsley at Bloomberg View were meant as shameless pageview generators, they probably worked.
But they...
September 2011
65 posts
1 tag
“The Wall Street Journal revised its website privacy policy on Tuesday to allow...”
– So, I, for one, am completely disgusted by this. You’ll remember the Wall Street Journal from such hits as the What They Know series about violations of online privacy, which the paper put up for numerous journalism awards; it won a Loeb award for that coverage, actually, as well as recognition...
Is junk food cheaper? Even this health reporter...
The mantra has been repeated so often that even this health reporter believed it: Junk food is cheaper than healthy food. As a result, it was said, lower-income folks had diets that were less healthy. Now, thanks to Sunday’s NYT, I learned it was a myth. The graphic below tells the story:
Death of Oakland woman killed by nursing mistake... →
Last week's #healthnewsgems
Here’s a rundown of last week’s #healthnewsgems. Let me know what you think and please feel free to nominate health stories worthy of recognition.
The dangers of cherry-picking evidence by @bengoldacre http://ow.ly/6Esfp
California nurses’ strike shows perils of pack journalism by @crauber http://ow.ly/6Es9w
‘Alarm fatigue’ a factor in 2d death by @GlobeLizK http://ow.ly/6EscB
How reporters have...
Continued coverage of HRSA's decision to take down...
Our fight to restore access to the Public Use File of the National Practitioner Data Bank continues to draw coverage:
Med Page Today: Data on Bad Docs Now a Little Less Available
American Medical News: HHS removes public access to National Practitioner Data Bank
Technorati: Database of Dangerous Doctors Gets Yanked from Public Eye
Kansas City Star: Reopen National Practitioner Data Bank...
Breast feeding vs. formula: What role do hospitals...
The AP has a story that asks if hospitals are complicit in encouraging new mothers to use formula rather than breastfeed.
Quoted in the story: “I don’t think hospitals are the right place to market anything and I don’t think hospitals should be marketing a product that is nutritionally inferior to breast milk,” said study author Anne Merewood, an associate pediatrics...
When hospitals fight nursing unions, patient...
A couple years back, my colleague Tracy Weber and I documented huge flaws in the nation’s system of providing temporary nursing help at hospitals. Backgrounds weren’t checked, and troubled nurses were able to move from job to job. We wrote:
A joint investigation with the Los Angeles Times found dozens of instances in which staffing agencies skimped on background checks or ignored...
“The court file on this surgeon provided a compelling story in itself, but...”
– Kansas City Star reporter Alan Bavley, explaining how the Public Use File of the National Practitioner Data Bank helped him write his outstanding story about lax oversight of doctors in Kansas.
More journalism groups join effort to restore... →
Two hospitals sue two newspapers. Sheesh
Perhaps this happens all the time but it strikes me as odd. In the past two days, there have been two stories about hospitals suing newspapers.
The first: St. Luke’s Hospital in Duluth and its CEO sued the Duluth News Tribune and its reporters, “accusing the newspaper of defamation in its reporting about neurosurgeon Stefan Konasiewicz,” the newspaper reported.
From the...
Last week's #healthnewsgems
(Photo AFP/Getty in WSJ): W61.11XA: A code for injuries related to macaws.
In case you missed last week’s #healthnewsgems, here they are in one place. Let me know if you see health stories worthy of recognition.
How the FDA Is Sleeping Through the Xanax Epidemic by @jim_edwards http://bit.ly/rbOJ3P
Lack of training can be deadly in cosmetic surgery by @JayneODonnell @usatoday...
Don't be shy. Ask your doctor questions
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has launched a campaign to get patients more involved in their medical care. This can only be a good thing. The Wall Street Journal wrote about it today. And for the curious, here are 10 questions to get you started:
What is the test for?
How many times have you done this procedure?
When will I get the results?
Why do I need this treatment?
Are there...
All natural? Don't believe the hype
(WSJ graphic)
The Wall Street Journal weighs in this morning with a story about possibly dubious claims on food packaging that proclaim they are “all natural.” Lawyers are taking aim at some products that lawyers say make false claims.
For it’s part, the FDA says it has better things to do with its time. The story says:
“A spokeswoman for the FDA, Siobhan DeLancey,...
Sac Bee Part II: Woman's death raises questions... →
Nursing home negligence taken to next level:...
(Photo by Bryan Patrick, Sacramento Bee)
This is a must-read story for those who pay attention to nursing home care. The Sacramento Bee’s Marjie Lundstrom describes how nursing homes have altered patient medical records to hide serious conditions and care that was not given. The Bee identified nearly 150 cases of alleged chart falsifications. This is powerful stuff:
“Phantom...
What happens to doctors named in fraud/kickback...
The answer: Nothing.
Drug and device companies have paid out $6.5 billion since 2008 settling lawsuits alleging fraud and kickbacks. Tracy Weber and I report on more than 75 doctors named in those suits. Not one has faced discipline from his/her medical board, criminal charges or action to prohibit him/her from billing Medicare.
The story ran on ProPublica’s site and in the Washington...