The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "health care" ...
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Critical Condition
The story is a revealing look at three American famliesa s they struggledwith their health insurers over coverage of expensive, but potentially life-saving treatment.
Tags: health care; health insurers; insurance
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Consumer Medical Investigations
CBS explored bogus health plans, one of the biggest consumer fraud issues to emerge from the economic recession.
Tags: medical care; haggling; consumer fraud; health care
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"Lifesaving Drugs, Deadly Consequences"
This investigative piece looks at worker safety issues that affect "the nation's healthcare providers." Health care employees are often put in harms way by handling drugs that are meant to save the "lives of cancer patients," but can be "human carcinogens," too. This report shows that regulation on exposure to these types of drugs in the workplace is weak.
Tags: FOIA; health insurance; Occupational Safety and Health Administration; cancer; OSHA; drugs; chemotherapy
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Deadly Neglect
The Tribune investigates the Chicago care facility with the worst safety record in Illinois. There were 13 deaths due to neglect or unexplained causes and countless illnesses that went ignored.
Tags: Alden Village North; disabilities; health; care; safety
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Brain Wars: How the Military is Failing Its Wounded
NPR and ProPublica investigated to see whether the government had kept its promise to improve health care for soldiers with brain injuries. The stories reveal that the military was not diagnosing most of the brain injuries and those that were diagnosed were not being recorded in the soldier's medical records.
Tags: brain injury; military; soldier; traumatic brain injury; diagnose
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Home or Nursing Home: America's Empty Promise to Give the Elderly and Disabled a Choice
"A new legal right gives the elderly and young people with disabilities in the Medicaid program the right to get their long-term health care at home, not in a nursing home. But the NPR investigation found that thise new right to choose one's care at home is largely denied to those who want it."
Tags: nursing home; elder care; disabled; long-term care; medical care; community-based care; Department of Health and Human Services; American with Disabilities Act; Olmstead Decision
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"Insurer Targeted HIV Patients to Drop Coverage"
In this four-month investigation, reporter Murray Waas reveals that the prominent insurance company WellPoint was targeting "policyholders recently diagnosed with breast cancer for the wrongful and sometimes illegal termination of their health insurance." Waas interviews several women whose insurance policies were terminated based on "flimsy or questionable evidence." Similarly, the insurance company Fortis was found to be targeting recently diagnosed HIV patients.
Tags: cancer; HIV; breast cancer; Fortis; WellPoint; insurance; United Health Care; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Obama
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Dialysis: High Costs and Hidden Perils
The series examines the country's poor system of dialysis care that supports almost 400,000 Americans. One in four patients will die within 12 months of starting dialysis treatment in the U.S. The reporter shows how patients are often treated in unsafe and unsanitary conditions, exposing them to hepatitis and other diseases.
Tags: dialysis; health care; health; unsafe; unsanitary
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"Brain Wars: How the Military Is Failing Its Wounded"
NPR and ProPublica teamed up to investigate the "medical system for America's troops and veterans." Brain damage caused by "shock waves" from roadside bombs have become the "signature wounds" of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The military promised to improve the health care for this type of injury, but reporters found a lack of diagnosis and treatment for the brain damage, as well as "bureaucratic indifference."
Tags: Iraq; Afghanistan; roadside bombs; military; Walter Reed Army Medical Center; TBI; brain injury; Fort Bliss; Pentagon; Building 805
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Medicating the Military
The stories looked at the nature and scope of the use of prescription drugs in the military community, with a focus on psychiatric medications and painkillers. The reporting found that use of psychiatric medications has risen dramatically in the past several years and some doctors suggest it may be a factor in the military's suicide epidemic of recent years. Reporters found that many psychiatric drugs - including powerful anti-convulsants and anti-psychotic medications - were being used "off label", or in ways not formally approved by the FDA. Reporters found that many troops were taking up to 10 medications at a time in so-called drug cocktails that experts say are untested and unproven in these combinations. Reporters also found that deaths caused by accidental drug overdoses had tripled during the past several years and that the Army's specialty care units were quietly conducting internal investigations and making significant changes to hospital protocols to reduce risk of accidental deaths. Finally, they found that psychiatric drug usage was also up significantly among military children.
Tags: Military; Army; Veteran; Health; Wellness; Medicine; Drugs; Pain killers; Psychiatric Medication; Mental Health; Suicide; Depression; Military Children; Hospital; Prescription