Bank of America Lied to Homeowners and Rewarded Foreclosures, Former Employees Say | ProPublica
Bank of America employees regularly lied to homeowners seeking loan modifications, denied their applications for made-up reasons, and were rewarded for sending homeowners to foreclosure, according to sworn statements by former bank employees.

ICIJ Releases Offshore Leaks Database Revealing Names Behind Secret Companies, Trusts | ICIJ
Readers can search information about the ownership of more than 100,000 offshore entities in tax havens and discover the networks around them.

County commissioner voted for contracts tied to wife's law firm | The Star Tribune
Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin ...

"Eight California hospitals — including four in the Los Angeles area — are among the institutions paying the maximum fine under a new Medicare program designed to reduce high patient readmission rates. Under the 2010 federal Affordable Care Act, the federal government has started fining hospitals with high readmissions rates as much as 1 percent of the money that Medicare would normally reimburse them. Working to reduce runaway costs, Medicare is now penalizing hospitals across California and nationwide for patients who must be admitted again within 30 days," according to an investigation by KPCC.

Medicare Drug Program Fails to Monitor Prescribers, Putting Seniors and Disabled at Risk | ProPublica and The Washington Post
"Prescription data obtained by ProPublica shows widespread use of antipsychotics, narcotics and other drugs dangerous for older adults, but Medicare officials say it's not their job to look for unsafe prescribing or weed out doctors with troubled backgrounds." Also published this weekend is a database of Medicare's prescription drug program.

Beyond Payday Loans | Marketplace and ProPublica
"A near billion dollar company, World Finance is the largest of an often-overlooked breed of high-cost lender: installment lenders. Ranging from a few hundred ...

"In lawsuits and disciplinary records, state and federal authorities cite a number of reasons that doctors prescribe improperly. Some run mills where patients get prescriptions if they pay cash for a visit. Others have relationships with drug companies that influence what they prescribe. Regulators say some doctors choose inappropriate medications under pressure from families or facilities. Research also shows that doctors often don't keep up with the latest studies and drug warnings. ProPublica's examination of Part D data from 2007 through 2010 showed that, in many cases, Medicare failed to act against providers who have been suspended or ...

"Maple Grove surgeon Joseph Pietrafitta has been sued at least six times for malpractice, leading to $1.2 million in settlements for former patients. The Minnesota Board of Medical Practice also has cited some of the lawsuits in ordering Pietrafitta to take corrective action for “inappropriate” conduct. In 2010, no conventional insurance carrier would give him malpractice coverage, court records show. That could have put him out of business, but Pietrafitta got coverage from the ­Minnesota Joint Underwriting Association (MJUA), the insurer of last resort. The MJUA was created by the Legislature in 1976 to provide liability insurance to doctors ...

The contract company hired to provide medical care to Arizona prisoners failed to treat an inmate and that may have led to his death, according to a report from KPNX-(NBC) Phoenix. The medical provider was already under fire and this is the latest example of a systemic problem in Arizona prisons. The investigation led to complaints being filed with the Arizona Board of Nursing against the nurse in question in this story and several other nurses. Wexford Health said that it was confident the company and its employees acted appropriately.

A Statesman analysis of deaths at state mental health hospitals reveals the deaths are rarely investigated outside the hospital, doctors are regularly cleared of improper care and deaths in state prisons get more scrutiny than those in state hospitals. Read the full investigation here.

Taken for a Ride: Temp Agencies and ‘Raiteros’ in Immigrant Chicago | ProPublica and Marketplace
“Some of America's best-known companies and largest temp agencies benefit from — and tacitly collaborate with — an underworld of labor brokers, known as raiteros, who charge workers fees, pushing their pay below minimum wage.”

Problems keep proliferating at discredited private foster care agency | Los Angeles Times
“A decade after L.A. County auditors delivered a harsh assessment of Teens Happy Homes, probe finds that children were repeatedly harmed in recent years and dubious financial practices grew.”

Mortgage Mess | NBC Bay Area
“Tens of thousands of Bay ...

"A highly paid psychiatrist working in state mental health hospitals engaged in a pattern of false billing claims while collecting more than $430,000 in payments beyond his base salary over three years, according to investigative documents obtained by the Star Tribune." Read the Star Tribune's full investigation here.

"Over the past five years, Nevada's primary state psychiatric hospital has put hundreds of mentally ill patients on Greyhound buses and sent them to cities and towns across America," according to an investigation by The Sacramento Bee.