Health
Civilian contractors must fight for care from insurers
“Civilian workers who suffered devastating injuries while supporting the U.S. war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan have come home to a grinding battle for basic medical care, artificial limbs, psychological counseling and other services,” according to a joint investigation by ABC News, the Los Angeles Times and ProPublica. The report says serious claims are routinely…
Read MoreRecession impacts diabetics’ health
An Associated Press investigation found that many diabetics are reducing or forgoing doctor visits, medications and testing due to financial pressures. Business writer Linda A. Johnson reports that, “People with other health problems also are cutting back on care amid the recession, but diabetics who don’t closely monitor and control the chronic disease risk particularly…
Read MorePsych hospital mixes up patient meds
Medication errors raise questions about patient safety at a New Jersey psychiatric hospital, according to an Asbury Park Press report by Jean Mikle. A review of hundreds of pages of Ancora medication safety and error reports by the Press found troubling patterns of mistakes and omissions at the facility, which has about 600 patients. The…
Read MoreFlorida ‘Pill Mills’ thrive
A two-part series in The Miami Herald explains how Florida storefront clinics exploit the market for narcotic painkillers. Scott Hiassen reports, “Experts blame these clinics for a startling rise in prescription-drug overdose deaths in Florida, including a 107 percent jump in oxycodone deaths in two years….Yet, regulators and police can’t control the problem — handcuffed,…
Read MoreLead poisoning remains a risk for Chicago children
Matthew Hendrickson wrote a three-part series showing how Chicago children continue to be harmed by lead poisoning at alarming rates because of bureaucratic missteps — from kids being screened late to frustrated inspectors not having correct street addresses when tracking down those most at risk. Hendrickson also tested soil samples and found troubling amounts of…
Read MoreJuvenile center supervisor used staff doctor to get painkillers
A 10-month investigation by producer Lauren Sweeney and reporter Melissa Yeager at WINK-Fort Meyers helped change policy at Florida’s Department of Juvenile Justice. A worker at a juvenile justice center for kids with drug abuse and mental problems blew the whistle on his supervisor for obtaining a prescription for powerful painkillers from the staff doctor. Two separate…
Read MoreContaminated properties ignored for more than a decade
Sharon Coolidge of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports that a “review of city health records found that 55 of the 268 properties identified as having lead hazards have been on the city’s books since before 1999. Yet the properties have not been cleaned and the owners have not been prosecuted.” Families have continued to move into…
Read MoreSalon.com launches series examining Army suicides
Mark Benjamin and Michael de Yoanna of Salon.com have launched “Coming Home,” a weeklong series that “focuses on preventable deaths at Fort Carson, a U.S. Army post in Colorado, among troops who have returned from combat tours in Iraq.” The series comes soon after the U.S. Army announced that January showed the highest soldier suicide rate…
Read MoreDocuments detail complaints that FDA managers are too lenient with industry
Internal Food and Drug Administration documents indicate that an FDA official overruled agency scientists and approved the sale of an imaging device for breast cancer after receiving a phone call from a Connecticut congressman. The legislator’s call and its effect on what is supposed to be a science-based approval process is only one of many…
Read MoreMaryland hospitals sue over unpaid bills while collecting surplus funds
An eight-month investigation by Fred Schulte and James Drew of The Baltimore Sun found that over the past five years some of Maryland’s 46 nonprofit hospitals have received millions of surplus dollars from the government even as they sued tens of thousands of patients over unpaid bills. Many of these suits have been filed against patients in…
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