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 "drugstores" ...
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Health care influence at the Rhode Island General Assembly
This series of stories raised a number of ethical concerns involving state legislators. The stories detailed how the president of the senate made hundreds of thousands of dollars selling Blue Cross Insurance to CVS pharmacy employees, while as a legislator he used his position to kill pharmacy choice legislation. Other stories showed how another senator worked as a "consultant" for health care concerns and how the national drugstore industry entertained state legislators from around the country at luxury resorts. Following the newspaper's reports, the senate president and the head of Blue Cross resigned, while the state police and the FBI began an investigation.
Tags: politics; health care industry; pharmaceutical industry; drugstores; ethics; corporate influence; lobbying; special interests
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Medicine Chess. Pharmacies say rates paid by Rite Aid Unit are doing them in. They claim reimbursements are too low to make dispensing worthwhile. No conflict, chain responds.
According to the article, "Independent pharmacies have been struggling for years, owing to competition from large drugstore chains. But in Philadelphia, even three of the highly efficient chains--CVS, Walgreen's and Eckerd--have quit filling many Medicaid prescriptions because of the reimbursement rates. But not Rite Aid. It has 157 drugstores in the Philadelphia area, and the more rivals give up, the more prescriptions Rite Aid fills and the more over-the-counter items it sells to prescription customers. The low Medicaid reimbursement rates don't bother Rite-Aid."
Tags: Rite-Aid; Walgreen's; Eckerd; Philadelphia; pharmacies; Medicaid; prescriptions; drugs; medicine; over the counter; drugstores; chains
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Who's mixing your drugs? Bad medicine: pharmacy mix-ups a recipe for misery. Some drugstores operate with very little oversight.
Thousands of neighborhood pharmacies across the country make hundreds of compounded products. There is little oversight by either federal or state regulators to ensure that drugs made by compounders are safe or effective. And patients often have no idea that the drugs they have been prescribed are compounded. The case of Doc's Pharmacy illustrates how doctors, as well as their patients, are unaware of the risks inherent in pharmacy compounding.
Tags: pharmacies; drugs; patients; mix-ups
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"The most dangerous drug to hit small-town America since crack cocaine"?
A Spin investigation reveals that OxyContin - supposed to be the strongest and safest painkiller - turned out to cause rush that could rival pure heroin's. The drug caused a new type of frenetic street violence - beatings, fights, and robberies - in the rural areas of the country, the magazine reports. The article depicts the dare problems of the new addicts - including old ladies, teenage drugstore cowboys and young adults. The manufacturer, Purdue Pharma, and the federal regulators failed to anticipate the potential abuse of the 'miracle drug,' the investigation finds.
Tags: prescription drugs; health; heroine; cocaine; Drug Enforcement Administration; business
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Quiet Giant: Independents, Rite Aid gird for battle
Maine Times reports on the aggressive expansion of the national drugstore chain Rite Aid in Maine. The corporation's growth makes some competitors and industry watchdogs uneasy, the reporter points out. The story examines how the takeover of the pharmaceutical business by chains like Rite Aid and its biggest competitors - Shop n' Save and Walmart - has impacted drug prices and consumer rights. Small drugstores are losing business, as insurance companies force them to sell at prices lower than they can afford. Meanwhile, chains like Rite Aid can afford their own managed-care plans, and are still interested in buying independent stores, the Times reports.
Tags: Federal Trade Commission; National Association of Retail Druggists; Eagle Managed Care; health; prescription drugs; market; business; mergers and acquisitions
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Danger at the drugstore
A study by U.S. News in cooperation with Georgetown University School of Medicine reveals that pharmacists are failing to protect patients against dangerous interactions of prescription drugs. One of the major findings is that many pharmacists who participated in the study did not alert consumers to the potentially lethal interaction between a common antihistamine and an antifungal drug. Indianapolis pharmacists proved to be the most cautious, while in Denver more than half failed to alert customers about the risky interaction. The story describes several most common potentially dangerous interactions, or such that can weaken the efficacy of at least one of the drugs taken at the same time. Because of the profit-oriented pricing structures of the managed-care companies, today's pharmacists have little incentive to judge and report the clinical significance of the side effect of prescription drugs, the magazine reports.
Tags: doctors; patients; oral contraceptives; birth control; Hismanal; Nizoral; Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
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Relief for the Rx Blues
This special report seeks to explain the rising costs and partially decreased access to prescription drugs, in the process exposing through an undercover investigation loose standards on the part of pharmacists who sometimes fail to protect consumers against drug interactions. The report also investigates the murky and at-times hazardous world of on-line drug purchases.
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1999 IRE National Conference Show and Tell Tape #1
The 1998 IRE National Conference (Kansas City) Show and Tell Tape #1 is the first in a nine-part series. This tape includes: 1.) Darcy Spears (KVBC-Las Vegas) "Taken for a Ride". Taxi drivers getting kickbacks for taking clients to certain bars/stripclubs. 2.) J.W. August/Valerie Stapes (KGTV-San Diego). A follow-up investigation about university diplomas for sale. Documents passed off as though they're from Columbia University in New York City. Finds prominent city official using one as a reference. 3.) ?... Credit card lenders - Providian Visa 4.) Ken Miguel (KGO-TV - San Francisco) "Herbal Supplements" Investigation into supplements such as "Metabolife" that use ma huang and other harmful ingredients in these supposedly safe, natural pills. 5.) Chris Cantergiani (WSB-Atlanta) Investigation into Dekalb County employee who's getting paid by taxpayers to spend large portions of his day at home or on personal business. 6.) Julie Jacoby (WCCO-Minneapolis). After an accident, a taxi driver files lawsuits against the other party, then pays others to falsify documents that would notify the person of the court date. The driver ends up winning thousands of dollars when his opponent fails to show up in court. They don't even know about the lawsuit. 7.) David Schechter (WDAF-Kansas City) Focuses on Missouri's Methamphetamine problem by showing how easy it can be to buy drugstore ingredients despite recent restrictions.
Tags: TAPE; Kansas City; conference; no transcripts; IRE
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Danger at the Drugstore
U.S. News & World Report tested 245 pharmacies in seven cities, and found that well over half of their pharmacists were willing to fill prescriptions with combinations of drugs that were at best risky, and at worst, could cause death. One reason for this laxity, the story found, was pharmacists operate under much greater stress now that HMOs have slashed their payments to pharmacies. (August 26, 1996)
Tags: Headden Lenzy Kostyu Roebuck et al CAR Danger at the drugstore 10 pgs.
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No title (id: 12924)
ABC filled 100 prescriptions at 100 different pharmacies and recorded the transactions on hidden camera to document chain of command and what the testers were told about the drugs. Findings revealed that five out of 100 dispensed drugs contained serious errors--four that could cause critical health effects. The study also found nearly a third of the pharmacists not providing drug counseling as required by law. (Jan. 4, 1995)
Tags: Sawyer Dorkowitz Reilly Drugstore danger Contest entry Medication FOIA 19 pgs.