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 "long-term care" ...
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HBO: NCAA Head Games
Five years into football’s concussions crisis, one group of athletes may be in more danger than any other: college football players. That’s because while leagues from the NFL down to Pop Warner have sharply reduced contact in practice to limit the amount of hits to the head, the NCAA has yet to mandate any rules. A six-month Real Sports investigation found that, over the course of a year, the average college football player is exposed to 70% more hits to the head than an NFL player. All these hits can add up and make it harder for the brain to function and do the work of being a student. In other words, young men going to college purportedly to improve their minds are often doing precisely the opposite—they are damaging them. Once these athletes leave college they’re on their own to deal with the potential consequences. The NFL provides long-term medical care for its football players. The NCAA does not.
Tags: broadcast; college football; athletes; concussions; health; NFL; NCAA; medical care
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"Disposable Soldiers"
Reporter Joshua Kors exposes the story of Sergeant Chuck Luther who was severely injured by "mortar fire while serving in Iraq." His injury took the form of intense headaches that caused his vision to black out. He was asked to sign documents that claimed he had a "pre-existing condition," and when he refused, he was locked in a closet for more than "a month, with armed guards enforcing sleep deprivation." Finally, Luther signed the documents, which stripped him of disability benefits and long-term medical care.
Tags: Iraq; disability; fraud; Camp Taji; U.S. Army; Fort Hood; medical care; pre-existing condition
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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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Beaten Down: Fear and Violence in Canada's Nursing Homes; Off Limits
"Beaten Down" takes a look at how seniors are being poorly treated in nursing homes and that violence had increased significantly from 2003 to 2006. There were found to be increases in all types of violence: resident to resident, staff to resident, and resident to staff. In the "Off-Limits" series, prescription medication sales data for a 24-month period were examined after Health Canada warned doctors about prescribing medication that carried an increased risk of heart attack.
Tags: Long Term Care Medical Directors Association of Canada; Ontario; British Columbia; senior citizen; elderly; abuse; mistreatment; rest home;
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Aging Sex Offenders Pose Problems
The authors used several actual incidents of abusive behavior in North Dakota nursing homes to illustrate that the state has no appropriate housing option for aging or disabled sex offenders after they have been released from incarceration. The investigation looked at what the long-term care industry and state regulators are doing about such incidents, as well as what they believe should be done.
Tags: sex offenders; pension; long term care; Department of Human Services; nursing homes; sexual abuse
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Out in the Cold: Challenging the eviction of a family member from a long-term care facility can be a tough, but necessary, battle.
According to the article, "With an estimated 2.5 million Americans now residing in nursing homes or assisted-living centers, more and more families are learning a hard lesson: A move to a long-term care facility isn't always forever. For reasons that are sometimes sound and perfectly legal--and sometimes capricious and unwarranted--providers can initiate what the industry calls an 'involuntary transfer or discharge' to move residents from their quarters."
Tags: assisted-living; nursing homes; long-term care; elderly; older; aging; health care; costs; money
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Unexpected rate rises jot elders insure for long-term care: Two purveyors in particular implied stable premiums but boosted them often
Insurance companies sold long-term care packages for elderly people that included a number of benefits and the promise that rates would never change. But The Wall Street Journal uncovered files that show that two of the main companies -Conseco and Penn Treaty- are asking their clients to pay increases of 8 to 40 percent. Some people have had to drop their insurance because they can't afford it anymore.
Tags: health insurance; elderly; long-term care; Conseco; Penn Treaty
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Nursing home health: a diagnosis
The nursing home crisis in this country is considerably worse in Virginia, where they rank 47th per capita in the nation in Medicaid funding. Sizemore focused on the worst homes and their inspection reports to illustrate the severity of the problem.
Tags: nursing home; health care; elderly; assisted living; medicare; Medicaid; FOI; long-term care
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Life's Last Chapter: How Well Will We Care?
According to the author, "Tens of millions of Americans are living healthy, active lives well into their 70s, 80s and beyond...Yet, inevitably, many of these same Americans will endure a slow, merciless decline. Three-quarters of Americans today die after lengthy struggles with chronic illness -- cancer, dementia, arthritis, heart disease, osteoporosis...." This series of articles focuses on the state of elderly care today...what is working, and what isn't.
Tags: elderly; old; disability; nursing homes; aging; care; long-term care; chronic illness; doctors
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How will you pay for your old age? Long term care insurance is one option -- an expensive one. Do you need it?
Half of all women and a third of all men who are now 65 will spend their last years in a nursing home at a cost of $40,000 a year. If you are poor or if the cost of care impoverishes you, Medicaid pays. But those who hope to leave something to a spouse or to children and grandchildren cannot fall back on welfare. They must look instead to private insurers.
Tags: Retirement; nursing homes; private insurers; elderly; Medicaid