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 "Federal Medicaid Program" ...
-
Crooked Teeth
The WFAA-TV investigative series, "Crooked Teeth," reveals a troubling lack of state and federal oversight of the Texas Medicaid orthodontic program, which is designed to help poor children with severely misaligned teeth. The lack of oversight has allowed Texas dentists and their corporations to exploit the health care bureaucracy and garner hundreds of millions of dollars. "Crooked Teeth" also raises questions about other Medicaid reimbursements nationally, including troubling payment policies by one of the nation's largest government contractors.
Tags: orthodontics; Medicaid; teeth; Texas; health care
-
Unapproved Drugs
The government is paying millions for risky medications that have never been reviewed for safety and effectiveness but are still covered under Medicaid, an Associated Press analysis of federal data has found. Tax payers have shelled out at least $200 million since 2004 for such drugs. Yet the Food and Drug Administration says unapproved prescription drugs are a public health problem, and some unapproved medications have been dozens of deaths. Millions of private patients are taking them as well, and their availability may create a false sense of security. The AP analysis found that Medicaid, which serves low-income people, paid nearly $198 million from 2004 to 2007 for more than 100 unapproved drugs. Data for 2008 were not available but unapproved drugs still are being sold. The AP checked the medications against FDA databases, using agency guidelines to determine if they were unapproved. The FDA says there may be thousands of such drugs on the market. The medications are mainly for common conditions like colds ad pain. They date back decades, before the FDA tightened its review of its review of drugs in the early 1960s. The FDA says it is trying to squeeze them from the market, but conflicting federal laws allow the Medicaid health program for low-income people to pay for them.
Tags: Medicaid; unapproved medicine; medical reporting; Food and Drug Administration; prescription drugs; medical review
-
Kids, Antidepressants, and Money
This series uncovered how Texas was medicating foster children with powerful and sometimes dangerous psychotropic drugs. In many cases, these drugs were not necessary and over-prescribed. The children were being systematically medicated due to the mandated use of a program that was designed by "expert consultants" who were also paid consultants for the pharmaceutical industry.
Tags: psychotropic drugs; foster children; Texas Medical Director; antidepressants; Paxil; Texas Child Welfare System; Federal Medicaid Program
-
Prescription for Pain
The stories demonstrated that Eastern Kentucky led the nation in the distribution of prescription narcotics-much of it illegal. Reporters found a series of unlikely accomplices to the illegal trafficing including the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. Local cops were corrupt or compromised and a $30 million federal enforcement effort was rendered ineffective by a lack of cooperation among the police agencies involved. The reports found an elected judge who admitted that he'd had private business dealings with rug dealers and was unilaterally lowering drug offenders' sentences set by plea bargains. The reporters also found that effecive drug treatment was hard to find in rural areas of Kentucky. The newspaper also produced an examination of how OxyContin was marketed through "detailing," the practice of sending sales men directly into doctor's offices. The reporting also took readers inside one local drug ring. Finally, the newspaper examined how public Medicaid payments were providing some rural Kentucy drug dealsers with millions of silent partners-U.S. taxpayers- who were helping to ensure their supply.
Tags: prescription narcotis; illegal trafficking; federal Drug Enforcement Administration; OxyContin; painkillers; FBI; methanphetamine; taxpayers; medicaid; substance abuse; rural Kentucky; Social Security Administrationn; drug traffickers; drug abuse; lortab; tylox; xanax; cocaine; marijuana; Lee County Sheriff's Department; Beattyville; Beattyville Police; Operation Grinch; Appalachia High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program; HIDTA; Kentucky State Police; Office of National Drug Control Policy
-
The Collector Sector
Common Cause Magazine looks at "how private consulting firms are cashing in on goverment programs for the poor."
Tags: Medicaid; private consulting firms; government programs; federal programs; contracts; Medicaid provider; private consultants
-
Second-class Medicine
The magazine investigates the kind of health care "the uninsured get or don't get." The story "illustrates a two-tiered system of care that exists for chronically-ill: the top tier for those who have the means to buy the-state-of-the-art medication and technology and the bottom tier for those who do not." Among the issues analyzed is "the patchwork of programs put in place by federal and state governments, and by private organizations". The author' conclusion is that "more often than not, these programs came up short". The article recommends prospective legislative steps towards providing health care for all.
Tags: insurance; welfare; Medicaid; Medicare; benefits; dental care; medicines; pharmaceutical companies; hospitals; clinics; emergency rooms; cancer; immigrants
-
No title (id: 13090)
Dr. Mabel Chen, the director of Arizona'a health-care program for the poor--hailed recently as a national model, resigned amid a federal investigation into accusations of widespread mismanagement and fraud. This Arizona Republic story looks into her claim that her departure had nothing to do with the investigation. (Feb. 2, 1996)
-
Medicaid Madness
An investigation by The Times-Picayune finds that through technical manipulation of state and federal rules, dozens of politically connected businesspeople had made millions in profits from the Medicaid program. The series reveals that profit margins for Louisiana hospitals are some of the highest in the country, while the quality of care was among the nation's worst.
Tags: Doctors Medicine Hospitals Nursing homes Fraud Mental health
-
Pretend Paupers
Florida Trend Magazine reports that "Florida's Medicaid program is turning into a middle-class and well-to-do inheritance protection scheme. Who pays? The taxpayers and poor, sick children..... Financed jointly by the states and the federal government, Medicaid was established in 1965 to pay for the medical needs of the indigent poor, including long-term nursing-home care. But today, the program is rapidly gentrifying, as middle-class and well-to-do families learn how to rearrange assets to get around Medicaid's strict means test."
Tags: lawyers loopholes gentrification financial planning estate planning spending
-
No title (id: 10687)
The Washington Post details the reasons for the unprecedented growth of the government's health program for the poor; the series attributes the rising costs to the manipulation of the federal cost-sharing mechanism by state governments, lawsuits by nursing home organizations, and a secretive effort by Washington lawmakers to expand Medicaid by exploiting the federal budget process between 1984-1990, January - February 1994.
Tags: DC Morgan health Department of Health and Human Services NCFA John Dingell OMB 39 pages